Abstract
ABSTRACT
To assess fate and transport of subsurface pollutants released from hydrocarbon spills, verified models are needed to emulate solute behavior in hydrocarbon contaminated porous media. This paper proposes two models. The first is an equilibrium model, which assumes instantaneous solute partitioning between water and NAPL, and the second is a nonequilibrium model, which treats solute partitioning as a fully rate-limited process. Using independently estimated model parameters, predictions from both models are compared to measured break-through curves (BTC's) from miscible displacement experiments. These experiments were conducted with of pentafluorobenzoic acid (PFBA), p-xylene, tetrachloroethene (PCE), and 1-methylnaphthalene (MN) on sand columns containing a fixed decane residual. Comparisons of predicted and measured BTC's show the equilibrium model unable to emulate hydrophobic solute transport; whereas, the nonequilibrium model is found to produce excellent BTC predictions.
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