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Treatment of groundwater contaminated with high levels of explosives using advanced oxidation processes

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Abstract

Current and former military installations around the world have numerous sites with groundwater contaminated with explosive compounds polluted from military related activities. The test influent used in this study was a groundwater collected from an US Army facility that was contaminated with high levels of military derived explosives. The sample had a total explosive concentration in excess of 75 mg/l. Bench-scale evaluations were performed to determine the effectiveness of the candidate advanced oxidation processes for treatment of the groundwater in terms of removing the pollutants to method sub-detection limits with these results formulating the basis for comparison along with generating data that can be used toward increasing the understanding of treatment mechanisms associated with the various processes. Results indicate that the ozonated systems generally resulted in the removal of the explosives to the targeted levels with 1,3,5-trinitrobenzene removal lagging in terms of removal due to its simultaneous formation and degradation. The oxidation system that was irradiated using the medium-pressure UV lamp and dosed with hydrogen peroxide and ozone achieved the best performance with complete removal of all targeted pollutants within 10 min of treatment.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Department of Army for the funding of this project via an interagency funding agreement between the US Army Corps of Engineers and the US Department of Defense Strategic Environmental Research and Development (SERDP) program. Particular thanks are offered to the US Army Corps of Engineers Engineering Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, MS for supporting the performance of this study, including the chemical analyses. This paper was published in the memory of Dr. Donald O. Hill, former department head of the Chemical Engineering Department and colleague at Mississippi State University, who recently passed away. Don truly loved the application of engineering principals to solve real-world problems. And, he was very good at this. He career was extensive and successful in so many ways; however, his biggest gift to his profession was the education of literally thousands of solid engineers that he so lovingly mentored and befriended. His friends and his profession will miss him greatly.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Center for Environmental Protection, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, USA

    M. E. Zappi, R. Hernandez & R. Bajpai

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Center for Environmental Protection, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, USA

    D. Gang

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS, USA

    C. H. Kuo & D. O. Hill

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  1. M. E. Zappi
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  2. R. Hernandez
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  4. R. Bajpai
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  5. C. H. Kuo
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Correspondence to M. E. Zappi.

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Editorial responsibility: M. Abbaspour

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Zappi, M.E., Hernandez, R., Gang, D. et al. Treatment of groundwater contaminated with high levels of explosives using advanced oxidation processes. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 13, 2767–2778 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-016-1109-x

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