Sorption/desorption kinetics of contaminants on mobile particles: Modeling and experimental evidence

[1] In this study the impact of sorption/desorption kinetics between organic contaminants and mobile particles suspended in subsurface water is analyzed. TCE migration through a granular activated carbon column is investigated at different transport velocities with lignite and activated carbon particles as mobile carriers. The measured breakthrough characteristics of TCE can be reproduced by a reactive transport model simulating sorption/desorption kinetics applying an intraparticle diffusion approach for mobile particles and the packed bed of granular activated carbon. Model predictions are based on independently measured physicochemical parameters, i.e., no calibration of TCE sorption/desorption is required. The close matches of experimental data to predicted data validate the exclusively process-based model assumptions and indicate that this approach has large predictive capabilities. Extending these findings, a sensitivity study is presented in order to specify under which conditions sorption/desorption of contaminants in mobile particles has to be modeled as a kinetic process. It is found that sorption/desorption kinetics are of major importance for Damkohler numbers between 0.01 and 100.