Abstract
Bioremediation of groundwater is a widely applied method for remediation of contaminated groundwater. Microbial growth and biogenic gas accumulation are common during anaerobic bioremediation. These two processes can alter groundwater flow patterns and affect the ability to deliver electron donors or acceptors to target zones through changes in subsurface permeability, porosity, and dispersivity. In this study we analyzed three tracer tests conducted in an anaerobic two-dimensional sand-filled cell inoculated with a methanogenic culture. The ability of models to predict changes in porosity, permeability, and dispersivity during microbial growth and methane generation were evaluated. Microbial growth increased spatially averaged dispersivity by a ratio of 1.67. Biomass growth coupled with biogenic gas increased the spatially averaged dispersivity by a ratio of 2.46. In contrast with biomass measurements from confocal laser scanning microscopy, the model of Taylor and Jaffe (1990b) predicted a dispersivity increase by a factor of 10–1300. For water saturations greater than 0.5, the model of Sato et al. (2003) provided estimates of the effect of gas on dispersivity similar to values fit from modelling of the tracer tests.
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