ABSTRACT
Remediation of residual organic contaminants in groundwater is often limited by low aqueous solubilities and slow dissolution kinetics. Recent attempts to increase remediation efficiency have focussed on the use of organic carriers, which can increase the solubility of the organic components, and thereby increase their effective biodegradation rates. To help assess these processes, a numerical model has been developed to simulate enhanced NAPL dissolution and biodegradation with organic carriers. The model was applied to simulate a pilot scale experiment in which humic acid was flushed through a residual diesel fuel source (Van Stempvoort et al., in prep.). Simulations confirmed the observed 10-fold increase in effective solubility of the trimethylnapthalenes, and increases on the order of 2–5 for the methyl- and dimethylnapthalenes.
