The influence of redox processes on trace element mobility in a sandy aquifer—an experimental approach

Abstract

This study is concerned with the geochemical behavior of Cu, Zn, As, Mo, Ba, La and Ce under the reducing conditions of a bank infiltration system. To identify and interpret individual processes laboratory experiments were performed on columns containing sandy sediments of an anoxic pleistocene aquifer from the Ruhr valley (western Germany). The flow rate being the key variable was varied from 0.21 to 0.46 and 0.82 m/d (meters per day), whereas the concentration of the reducing agent (acetate) remained constant. A second experiment lasting 80 weeks was carried out at a flow rate of 0.80 m/d, in order to characterize interactions between the pore water and solid phase. The results of these experiments show that the geochemistry of the trace elements involved can be explained to a large extent by the major redox processes of manganese, iron and sulfate turnover. The trace elements As, Mo, Ce and La were released into the pore water as a result of the reduction of Mn- and Fe-(hydr)oxides within the zone of major redox processes. Cu and Zn were removed from the infiltrating water within the first centimeters of the column by sulfide (co)precipitation, whereas the mobility of Mo was controlled by sulfidic fixation further down the flow path. As a result of the decreasing S 2−-concentrations along the flow path, dissolved As(III) was re-oxidized ( E H>− 250 mV) and precipitated as As(V) in a barium–arsenate-phase.