Abstract
Nitrate is a promising heat transfer fluid in solar thermal power and nuclear power systems, but its leakage can cause serious environmental problems. The present paper investigates the deep and prolonged migration of high concentrations of nitrate into the soil system, and the associated diffusion range is studied to estimate and reduce the environmental pollution caused by nitrate leaks. The vertical nitrate contaminated range is mainly impacted by annual precipitation, soil properties and groundwater depth, while the horizontal contaminated range is mainly affected by the initial leakage area. During the process, the vertical contaminated range first continuously enlarges, and then decreases after a long time. The nitrate contaminant can exist and affect the environment for as long as 115–625 years, and the nitrate contamination time can be even longer in dry regions. Since nitrate diffuses more quickly in unsaturated regions rather than in saturated regions, the migration region and contaminated range both decrease as the groundwater depth is increased.
Highlights
Nitrate is widely used in many fields, including industry [1,2] and agriculture [3]
Liu et al [8] investigated the effects of nitrogen fertilizers on the growth and nitrate content of lettuce, and the results showed that the total nitrogen concentration in soil and nitrate concentration in lettuce increased as the amount of nitrogen fertilizer increased
Discussion initial salt solution layer exists as: In order to validate the numerical model for high concentration nitrate migration, a small scale experimental system has been as0illustrated in 3Figure
Summary
Low concentration nitrate migration has been considered in the research fields of agriculture and drinking water health [4]. Pang et al [20] proposed HYDRUS-2D to simulate water movement and solute transport in soil and groundwater with depth of 10 m and length of 68 m, and the model simulated the general trend of field observations for soil water content and potential well. High concentrations of nitrate leakage probably occur when huge containers containing nitrogen solution or nitrate molten salt are involved in accidents. These occurrences remarkably affect the soil environment and water quality. High concentration nitrate migration caused by molten salt leakage and its pollution impact in the soil system are rarely investigated. The nitrate contaminated range and time can be estimated, meaning that nitrate pollution can be better prevented and controlled
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