Application of computational fluid dynamics to the biopile treatment of hydrocarbon contaminated soil
dc.contributor.advisor
Crapper, Martin
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dc.contributor.author
Wu, Tong
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dc.contributor.sponsor
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
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dc.date.accessioned
2011-11-25T15:49:44Z
dc.date.available
2011-11-25T15:49:44Z
dc.date.issued
2009-06-30
dc.description.abstract
Biopiles are a common treatment for the ex-situ remediation of contaminated soil. Much research has
been carried out on understanding and modelling of bioremediation techniques related to biopiles, but
hitherto no study has attempted to model the effect on a biopile by its ambient surroundings. A
hydraulics-based approach to simulating a biopile in the context of its ambient surroundings is
presented in this study, taking into account physical, chemical and biological processes within the pile,
external conditions of wind and temperature, the location of aeration pipes and venting pressure, and
considering the spatial distribution of treatment as well as contaminant within the pile.
The simulation approach was based upon a fluid flow model which couples Eulerian multiphase flow
model and Darcy’s Law for immiscible fluid flow through porous media, a species transport model
integrating advection, diffusion/dispersion and biodegradation, and a heat transfer model considering
the interphase temperature equilibrium.
A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) system has been developed to solve this set of mathematical
models by applying the commercial CFD package FLUENT, and various trial simulations have been
carried out to examine the potential of the hydraulics approach for practical applications.
The simulation produces reasonable results: the biodegradation process relates to the temperature
within the pile, and the temperature in turn relates to wind speed and aeration details; due to the
various fluid flow patterns, the contribution of each remediation mechanism (contaminant loss to
atmosphere via pile surface, contaminant loss to aeration pipe and biodegradation) varies according to
the aeration method; contaminant interphase transfer between different pairs of phases have greatly
different impacts on contaminant removal. A number of counter-intuitive results are presented,
indicating that simulations of this type will give valuable insight into the practical design of biopiling
systems. The simulation system also allows the total environmental footprint of biopiling to be
considered, examining not just degradation of contaminant but also its removal via volatilization and
the energy used in heating air for venting. Further, the application of the approach formulated in this study is not limited to biopiles, but can also be expanded to related in situ bioremediation techniques.
en
dc.identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/1842/5713
dc.language.iso
en
dc.publisher
The University of Edinburgh
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dc.relation.hasversion
Crapper, M.; Wu, T. In The significance of ambient atmosphere and temperature on ex-situ remediation of hydrocarbon contaminated soil: a computational fluid dynamics modelling approach, Water and Sanitation in International Development and Disaster Relief, Edinburgh, UK, 2008; pp 296-307.
en
dc.relation.hasversion
Crapper, M.; Wu, T. In A computational approach to modelling ex-situ bioremediation, The 4th European Bioremediation Conference, Chania, Greece, 2008; ISBN 978-960-8475-12-0.
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dc.subject
biopiles
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dc.subject
contaminated soil
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dc.subject
biodegradation
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dc.subject
hydraulics-based model
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dc.title
Application of computational fluid dynamics to the biopile treatment of hydrocarbon contaminated soil
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dc.type
Thesis or Dissertation
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dc.type.qualificationlevel
Doctoral
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dc.type.qualificationname
PhD Doctor of Philosophy
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