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Monitoring the remediation of groundwater polluted by MSW landfill leachates by activated carbon and zeolite with spectral induced polarization technique

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Abstract

The municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill in Hangzhou, China utilized zeolite and activated carbon (AC) as permeable reactive barrier (PRB) fill materials to remediate groundwater contaminated with MSW leachates containing ammonium, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and heavy metals. The spectral induced polarization (SIP) technique was chosen for monitoring the PRB because of its sensitivity to pore fluid chemistry and mineral-fluid interface composition. During the experiment, authentic groundwater collected from the landfill site was used to permeate two columns filled with zeolite and AC, and the SIP responses were measured at the inlet and outlet over a frequency range of 0.01–1000 Hz. The results showed that zeolite had a higher adsorption capacity for COD (7.08 mg/g) and ammonium (9.15 mg/g) compared to AC (COD: 2.75 mg/g, ammonium: 1.68 mg/g). Cation exchange was found to be the mechanism of ammonium adsorption for both zeolite and AC, while FTIR results indicated that π-complexation, ππ interaction, and electrostatic attraction were the main mechanisms of COD adsorption. The Cole–Cole model was used to fit the SIP responses and determine the relaxation time (τ) and normalized chargeability (mn). The calculated characteristic diameters of zeolite and AC based on the Schwarz equation and relaxation time (τ) matched the pore sizes observed from SEM and MIP, providing valuable information on contaminant distribution. The mn of zeolite was positively linear with adsorbed ammonium (R2 = 0.9074) and COD (R2 = 0.8877), while the mn of AC was negatively linear with adsorbed ammonium (R2 = 0.8192) and COD (R2 = 0.7916), suggesting that mn could serve as a surrogate for contaminant saturation. The laboratory-based real-time non-invasive SIP results showed good performance in monitoring saturation and provide a strong foundation for future field PRB monitoring.

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Award No.: 2019YFC1805002, 2018YFC1802300), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Award No.: 42177118, 51779219), and the Basic Science Center Program for Multiphase Evolution in Hypergravity of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Award No.: 51988101). Financial support from the Overseas Expertise Introduction Center for Discipline Innovation (B18047) is also acknowledged. The authors would also like to acknowledge the MOE Key Laboratory of Soft Soils and Geoenvironmental Engineering.

Funding

This research was financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Award No.: 2019YFC1805002, 2018YFC1802300), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Award No.: 42177118, 51779219) and the Basic Science Center Program for Multiphase Evolution in Hypergravity of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Award No.: 51988101). Financial support from the Overseas Expertise Introduction Center for Discipline Innovation (B18047) is also acknowledged

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Yang, Yi-Xin: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Software, Writing–original draft Zhou, Sheng: Investigation Luo, Yuan-Yuan: Investigation Chen, Jia-Kai: Investigation Chen, Ze-Jian: Investigation Cao, Jun-Nan: Investigation Zhang, Shuang: Resources Zhan, Liang-Tong: Funding acquisition Chen, Yun-Min: Funding acquisition Bate, Bate: Supervision, Writing–review & editing, Funding acquisition

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Correspondence to Bate Bate.

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Yang, YX., Zhou, S., Luo, YY. et al. Monitoring the remediation of groundwater polluted by MSW landfill leachates by activated carbon and zeolite with spectral induced polarization technique. Environ Geochem Health 46, 1 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-023-01796-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-023-01796-1

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