Laboratory evaluation of PAHs removal by multi-functional green pervious concrete (MGPC) pavement

Abstract

Stormwater runoff-induced polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) contaminants increasingly endanger the groundwater reserve and ecosystems due to the extensive coverage of impervious pavements in urban surroundings. The multi-functional green pervious concrete (MGPC) pavement, a type of organoclay modified pervious concrete pavement, is proved to be an innovative and effective stormwater management method as well as an environmental technology for controlling the runoff both in quantity and quality. To further study the field applicability of the MGPC pavement, extensive experiments should be conducted by considering multiple variables that represent different scenarios, such as rainfall intensity, traffic flow, and traffic loads, stability, and reusability. This study conducts a laboratory-scale investigation of MGPC pavement performance on PAHs removal by varying a series of PAH initial concentrations, flow rate, and contamination cycles. The results indicated that lower initial PAHs concentration and slower flow rate promoted the PAHs removal efficiency, and the MGPC pavement still kept considerable PAHs adsorption capacity after 50 contamination cycles. The results provide important references in evaluating and designing the MGPC pavement as a stormwater management method with attenuating the runoff-induced PAHs contamination.