Trace Metal Bioremediation: Assessment of Model Components from Laboratory and Field Studies to Identify Critical Variables

Abstract

The objective of this project was to gain an insight into the modeling support needed for the understanding, design, and operation of trace metal/radionuclide bioremediation. To achieve this objective, a workshop was convened to discuss the elements such a model should contain. A ''protomodel'' was developed, based on the recommendations of the workshop, and was used to perform sensitivity analysis as well as some preliminary simulations in support for bioremediation test experiments at UMTRA sites. To simulate the numerous biogeochemical processes that will occur during the bioremediation of uranium contaminated aquifers, a time-dependent one-dimensional reactive transport model has been developed. The model consists of a set of coupled, steady state mass balance equations, accounting for advection, diffusion, dispersion, and a kinetic formulation of the transformations affecting an organic substrate, electron acceptors, corresponding reduced species, and uranium. This set of equations is solved numerically, using a finite element scheme. The redox conditions of the domain are characterized by estimating the pE, based on the concentrations of the dominant terminal electron acceptor and its corresponding reduced specie. This pE and the concentrations of relevant species are passed to a modified version of MINTEQA2, which calculates the speciation and solubilities of the species of interest. Kinetics of abiotic reactions are described as being proportional to the difference between the actual and equilibrium concentration. A global uncertainty assessment, determined by Random Sampling High Dimensional Model Representation (RS-HDMR), was performed to attain a phenomenological understanding of the origins of output variability and to suggest input parameter refinements as well as to provide guidance for field experiments to improve the quality of the model predictions. Results indicated that for the usually high nitrate contents found ate many DOE sites, overall bioremediation of trace metals was highly sensitive to the formulation of the denitrification process. Simulations were performed to illustrate the effect of biostimulation on the transport and precipitation of uranium in the subsurface, at conditions equivalent to UMTRA sites. These simulations predicted that uranium would precipitate in bands that are located relatively close to the acetate injection well. The simulations also showed the importance of properly determining U(IV) oxidative dissolution rates, in order to assess the stability of precipitates once oxygenated water reenters the aquifer after bioremediation is discontinued. The objective of this project was to provide guidance to NABIR's Systems Integration Element, on the development of models to simulate the bioremediation of trace metals and radionuclides. Such models necessarily need to integrate hydrological, geochemical, and microbiological processes. In order to gain a better understanding of the key processes that such a model should contain, it was deemed desirable to convene a workshop with experts from these different fields. The goal was to obtain a preliminary consensus on the required level of detail for the formulations of these different chemical, physical, and microbiological processes. The workshop was held on December 18, 1998.