One-dimensional Transport Research Articles

A One-Dimensional Reactive Transport Model for Microbially Induced Calcium Carbonate Precipitation (MICP) in Phreeqc

Microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) is a geotechnical solution with a low ecological footprint. Conducting MICP inside a porous medium can be used for biocementation. Despite many models and tools being published for simulating MICP, a computationally light, easy-to-use, and freely-available simulation tool is lacking. In this work, we present a reactive transport model using the native capabilities of the Phreeqc software (a free and open-source geochemical solver). We model MICP inside a column packed with sands and inoculated with bacteria. Our model is a one-dimensional representation of the column that accounts for the kinetics of precipitation and ureolysis as well as porosity change. We verify our model by simulating previously published MICP experiments to show our model gives reasonably well predictions. Sensitivity analysis of our model’s input parameters and discussions around their range are presented. Additionally, we calculate the supersaturation of calcite as a function of space and time—a feature that could be important for precipitation, but it is commonly ignored in MCIP modeling. Our scripts developed for running simulations are accessible publicly. Due to the low computational effort required for the simulations, our Phreeqc scripts can be used to design and test different treatment recipes for conducting MICP.

Assessing field scale spatiotemporal heterogeneity in salinity dynamics using aerial data assimilation

Soil moisture and salinity shifts within the root zone can significantly alter crop yields. Thus, spatiotemporal dynamics of these parameters are essential for precision crop management. Airborne or spaceborne earth observation methods based on vegetation and soil observations have sometimes been used with limited success to indirectly understand parameters like soil salinity. These datasets lack spatiotemporal resolution to discern field-scale heterogeneities, and estimates’ accuracy is poor. A Metropolis-Hasting Markov Chain-Monte Carlo (MCMC) based method was developed to estimate field-scale soil salinity by assimilating estimated evapotranspiration (ET) data obtained from aerial canopy temperature sensing with ET outputs from a one-dimensional soil-water transport model. By aligning the two estimated ET values, we inferred anticipated soil salinity levels in a mature pecan orchard (28,951 m2). Our results aligned closely with in-situ measurements with a spatial cross-correlation more than 0.86 and highlighted the expected heterogeneities and nonlinearities. This research offers an approach to refine the current state-of-the-art crop models by accounting for field scale heterogeneities using remotely sensed data. This assimilation method will pave the way for a more inclusive agricultural system modeling that can infer critical but hard-to-measure soil properties from easier-to-obtain remotely sensed datasets. Though this paper concentrates on aerial observations, we anticipate similar methods can be used for satellite-based imagery, especially those with high spatial, temporal, and spectral resolutions.

Measuring thermal diffusivity and gap conductance in uranium nitride and Zircaloy relevant for microreactor applications

Heat transfer across nuclear fuels and structural interfaces is an important factor for evaluating the performance of nuclear power systems. Specifically, heat generated as nuclear fuel fissions must be transported through the cladding material and through the reactor to reach the steam turbine for power generation. As new microreactor designs emerge, maximizing the efficiency of this heat transfer process becomes crucial to make them commercially viable. This article examines thermal diffusivity and gap conductance in uranium nitride (UN) fuel and Zircaloy-4 (Zry4) cladding using light flash analysis (LFA). Thermal diffusivity measurements were made on monolithic UN pellets and Zry4 exposed to carbon at peak operating temperatures of microreactors and show that carbon ingress has a minimal effect on thermal diffusivity when compared with identical materials not exposed to carbon. Evaluation of gap conductance at the UN-Zry4 interface was done using one-dimensional two-layer thermal transport models as a function of applied pressure. The results show that increasing pressure on the UN-Zry4 interface leads to gains in gap conductance per unit area in fuel-cladding assemblies at microreactor operating temperatures. While many other variables are expected to influence UN-Zry4 interfacial gap conductance (e.g. contact surface roughness, porosity, localized heating, environmental gas pressure), the work offers a demonstration of using a conventional LFA apparatus to determine this parameter at elevated temperatures.

Finite difference solution for contaminant transport through a GCL composite cutoff wall-aquifer system considering semipermeable membrane effect

Semipermeable membrane effect is an important factor affecting the contaminant transport behavior through the bentonite-based barriers for waste containment. However, this effect has been ignored in majority of the existing analytical and numerical studies on contaminant transport, although it has been widely demonstrated in laboratory and field tests. Taking into account the semipermeable membrane effect, this study presents a numerical model for one-dimensional contaminant transport through a geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) composite cutoff wall-aquifer system consisting of a bentonite-based wall, a GCL and an aquifer. The finite difference method is used to obtain the solution. The numerical solution is validated against the laboratory experimental data, the existing analytical solution and COMSOL software simulations. A series of parametric analyses are conducted using the proposed numerical solution. The results indicate that the semipermeable membrane effect has a significant impact on the contaminant transport behavior and ignoring this effect can greatly underestimate the contaminant breakthrough time and overestimate contaminant outflow. For the conditions examined in this paper, the inclusion of semipermeable membrane effect results in a 7.1%∼78.6% increase in breakthrough time and a 5.3%∼40.7% decrease in mass flux, and the semipermeable membrane effect in bentonite-based wall, relative to that in the GCL, has greater impact on contaminant transport. The concentration-dependent semipermeable membrane efficiency coefficient ω more significantly slows down the contaminant transport relative to the constant ω, particularly under the conditions of low hydraulic conductivity, low source concentration and low hydraulic gradient. Moreover, it’s important to avoid simultaneous deterioration of both the bentonite-based wall and the GCL, otherwise the breakthrough time of the GCL composite cutoff wall can decrease significantly.

The value of simplified models of radionuclide transport for the safety assessment of nuclear waste repositories: A benchmark study

In order to assess sites for a deep geological repository for storing high-level nuclear waste safely in Germany, various numerical models and tools will be in use. For their interaction within one workflow, their reproducibility, and reliability version-controlled open-source solutions and careful documentation of model setups, results and verifications are of special value. However, spatially fully resolved models including all relevant physical and chemical processes are neither computationally feasible for large domains nor is the data typically available to parameterize such models. Thus, simplified models are crucial for the pre-assessment of possible sites to narrow down the list of suitable candidates for which detailed site investigations and fully resolved models will be done at a later stage. Still, the accuracy of these simplified models is of importance as the pre-assessment of suitable sites will be based on them. In this study, we compare the modelling capabilities of TransPyREnd, a one-dimensional transport code based on finite differences, specifically developed for the fast estimation of radionuclide transport by the German federal company for radioactive waste disposal (BGE), with OpenGeoSys, which is a modelling platform based on finite elements in up to three spatial dimensions. Both codes are used in the site selection procedure for the German nuclear waste repository. The comparison of the model results of TransPyREnd and OpenGeoSys is augmented by comparisons with an analytical solution for a homogeneous material. For the purpose of numerical benchmarking, we consider a geological profile located in southern Germany as an example where the hypothetical repository is located in a clay-stone formation. TransPyREnd and OpenGeoSys yield overall similar results. However, both codes use different discretizations which impact is the highest for strongly sorbing compounds, while the difference gets negligible for less sorbing and more diffusive compounds as higher diffusion tends to blur the initial conditions. Overall, the OpenGeoSys model is more exact whereas the TransPyREnd model has considerable faster run times. We found in our example, that significant substance amounts are only leaving the host rock formation, if apparent diffusion is high, for which case both codes give similar results, while relative differences are considerable for strongly sorbing compounds. However, in the latter case no significant substance amount of radionuclides leaves the host-rock formation, thus deeming the differences in the model results minor for the overall safety assessments of sites.

Model-Based Analysis of the Oxygen Budget in the Black Sea Water Column

Climate change and anthropogenic impacts drastically affect the biogeochemical regime of the Black Sea, which contains the largest volume of sulphidic water in the world. The Sea’s oxygen inventory depends on vertical mixing that transports dissolved oxygen (DO) from the upper euphotic layer to deeper layers and on dissolved oxygen consumption for the oxidation of organic matter (OM) and reduced species of S, Fe, and Mn. Here we use a vertical one-dimensional transport model, 2DBP, forced by Copernicus data, that was coupled with the FABM-family N-P-Si-C-O-S-Mn-Fe Bottom RedOx Model BROM. The research objective of this study was to analyze the oxygen budget in the upper 350 m of the Sea and demonstrate the role of the parameterization of the acceleration of the sinking of particles covered by precipitated Mn(IV). The analysis of the oxygen budget revealed distinct patterns in oxygen consumption within different depths. In the oxic zone, the primary sink for DO is the mineralization of organic matter, whereas in the suboxic zone, dissolved Mn(II) oxidation becomes the predominant sink. The produced Mn(IV) sinks down and reacts with hydrogen sulphide several meters below, making possible the existence of the suboxic layer without detectable concentrations of DO and H2S.

A Detailed Survey of the Parallel Mean Free Path of Solar Energetic Particle Protons and Electrons

In this work, more than a dozen solar energetic particle (SEP) events are identified where the source region is magnetically well connected to at least one spacecraft at 1 au. The observed intensity–time profiles, for all available proton and electron energy channels, are compared to results computed using a numerical one-dimensional SEP transport model in order to derive the parallel mean free paths (pMFPs) as a function of energy (or rigidity) at 1 au. These inversion results are then compared to theoretical estimates of the pMFP, using observed turbulence quantities with observationally motivated variations as input. For protons, a very good comparison between inversion and theoretical results is obtained. It is shown that the observed inter-event variations in the inversion pMFP values can be explained by natural variations in the background turbulence values. For electrons, there is relatively good agreement with pMFPs derived assuming the damping model of dynamical turbulence, although the theoretical values are extremely sensitive to the details of the turbulence dissipation range, which themselves display a high level of variation.

Parallelly Sliced Optimal Transport on Spheres and on the Rotation Group

AbstractSliced optimal transport, which is basically a Radon transform followed by one-dimensional optimal transport, became popular in various applications due to its efficient computation. In this paper, we deal with sliced optimal transport on the sphere $$\mathbb {S}^{d-1}$$ S d - 1 and on the rotation group $$\textrm{SO}(3)$$ SO ( 3 ) . We propose a parallel slicing procedure of the sphere which requires again only optimal transforms on the line. We analyze the properties of the corresponding parallelly sliced optimal transport, which provides in particular a rotationally invariant metric on the spherical probability measures. For $$\textrm{SO}(3)$$ SO ( 3 ) , we introduce a new two-dimensional Radon transform and develop its singular value decomposition. Based on this, we propose a sliced optimal transport on $$\textrm{SO}(3)$$ SO ( 3 ) . As Wasserstein distances were extensively used in barycenter computations, we derive algorithms to compute the barycenters with respect to our new sliced Wasserstein distances and provide synthetic numerical examples on the 2-sphere that demonstrate their behavior for both the free- and fixed-support setting of discrete spherical measures. In terms of computational speed, they outperform the existing methods for semicircular slicing as well as the regularized Wasserstein barycenters.

Dimensional effects in analysis of laser-induced-desorption diagnostics data

The accurate assessment of the local tritium concentration in the tokamak first wall by means of the laser-induced desorption (LID) diagnostics is sought as one the key solutions to monitoring the local radioactive tritium content in the first wall of the fusion reactor ITER. Numerical models of gas desorption from solids used for LID simulation are usually closed with the one-dimensional transport models. In this study, the temperature and particle dynamics in the target irradiated by a short laser pulse during LID are analyzed by means of the two-dimensional model to assess the validity of using one-dimensional approximation for recovering the diagnostics signal. The quantitative estimates for the parameters governing the heat and particle transfer are presented. The analytical expressions for the sample spatiotemporal temperature profiles driven by the target irradiation with a Gaussian laser beam with the trapezoid temporal shape are derived. The obtained relations are used to simulate tritium desorption from a tungsten sample driven by pulsed heating. It is shown that depending on the ratio between the laser spot radius and the heat diffusion length, the one-dimensional approach can noticeably overestimate the sample temperature in the limit of small laser spot radius (estimated for tungsten as ∼0.5–1.0 mm), resulting in more than 100% larger amounts of tritium desorbed from the target, compared to the two-dimensional approximation. In the limit of large laser spot radius (≥1.5 mm), both approaches yield comparable amounts of tritium desorbed from the sample.

Ethylenedioxythiophene-Based Small Molecular Donor with Multiple Conformation Locks for Organic Solar Cells with Efficiency of 19.3 .

Ternary organic solar cells (T-OSCs) represent an efficient strategy for enhancing the performance of OSCs. Presently, the majority of high-performance T-OSCs incorporates well-established Y-acceptors or donor polymers as the third component. In this study, a novel class of conjugated small molecules has been introduced as the third component, demonstrating exceptional photovoltaic performance in T-OSCs. This innovative molecule comprises ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) bridge and 3-ethylrhodanine as the end group, with the EDOT unit facilitating the creation of multiple conformation locks. Consequently, the EDOT-based molecule exhibits two-dimensional charge transport, distinguishing it from the thiophene-bridged small molecule, which displays fewer conformation locks and provides one-dimensional charge transport. Furthermore, the robust electron-donating nature of EDOT imparts the small molecule with cascade energy levels relative to the electron donor and acceptor. As a result, OSCs incorporating the EDOT-based small molecule as the third component demonstrate enhanced mobilities, yielding a remarkable efficiency of 19.3 %, surpassing the efficiency of 18.7 % observed for OSCs incorporating thiophene-based small molecule as the third component. The investigations in this study underscore the excellence of EDOT as a building block for constructing conjugated materials with multiple conformation locks and high charge carrier mobilities, thereby contributing to elevated photovoltaic performance in OSCs.

Flexible Janus Black Silicon Photothermal Conversion Membranes for Highly Efficient Solar-Driven Interfacial Water Purification.

Photothermal conversion materials are critical in the development of solar-driven interfacial evaporation techniques; however, achieving a high energy conversion efficiency remains challenging owing to the high cost and instability of light-absorbing materials, in addition to the difficulties of simultaneously improving light absorption while suppressing heat loss. A black silicon (Si) powder with a porous structure was prepared by chemical etching of a low-cost commercial micron-sized Al-Si alloy, and a flexible Janus black Si photothermal conversion membrane was constructed. The partially broken spherical particles and porous structure obtained after etching enhanced the refraction of light from the Si powder, imparting the prepared membrane with an average light absorption rate of 95.95% over the solar spectrum. Evaporation from the membrane increased the intermediate water content and reduced the equivalent evaporation enthalpy. The thermal conduction loss was inhibited through a one-dimensional water transport structure, and the membrane achieved a water evaporation rate of 2.17 kg m-2 h-1 and a photothermal efficiency of 94.95% under 1 sun illumination. Benefiting from the broadband absorption and high photothermal efficiency of black Si powder, surface modification of hydrophobic polydimethylsiloxane, and directional salt-out structure design, the evaporation rate of the Janus black Si membrane-based system in a 10% NaCl solution was maintained >2.10 kg m-2 h-1 after 7 days of continuous evaporation cycles. The removal rate of metal ions from simulated seawater and from practical wastewater containing complex heavy metals reached >99.9%, indicating the promising potential of black Si membrane for application in solar-driven interfacial water purification.

A one-dimensional diffusive transport model to evaluate H2S generation in salt caverns hydrogen storage sites

Salt caverns are considered a potential hydrogen storage site given the ductility, tightness, and chemical inertness of halite. In addition, unlike porous media, salt caverns require less cushion gas and allow more cycles of injection and production within a year. However, hydrogen is an electron donor for many hydrogenotrophic microorganisms including halophilic sulfate-reducing microbes (SRM) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) can be generated in a cavern once sulfate and hydrogen become available in the aqueous phase. As salt deposits are often associated with large amounts of impurities such as anhydrite and gypsum, their dissolution during the leaching phase can release the required sulfate ions for SRMs to produce H2S once hydrogen diffuses and dissolves in the brine at the bottom of the cavern. In this study, a one-dimensional diffusive transport model was developed using PHREEQC to simulate sulfate reduction and H2S generation in a cavern at the gas-brine interface. The solution of Fick's diffusion equation was used to calculate the hydrogen concentration at each level of the 1D model while the kinetic rates of reactions were derived from reported experimental and field site observations of brine samples taken from salt caverns. The results obtained indicated that hydrogen consumption at the gas-brine interface can trigger H2S and methane formations. This is followed by a reduction in sulfate and carbonate concentration and a slight increase in pH due to the reduction of protons in the solution. It was also observed that the presence of Fe2+ ions can reduce the amount of the hydrogen sulfide production while Ca2+ ions slightly favour sulfate reduction due to the production of methane. Although the kinetic reaction rate of the reactions in the model is subject to a certain degree of uncertainty, the workflow and results this study can serve as a guide for the future storage of hydrogen in salt caverns.

Analytical model for electrokinetic remediation of contaminated soil

Electrokinetic remediation (EKR) is an effective approach to eliminate heavy metal contaminants from soil and pore water. However, only a few studies have been conducted on related analytical theory because of the complexity of transport processes and the lack of effective calculation methods. In this study, a novel analytical model is proposed to investigate the one-dimensional transport of heavy metal ions (HMIs), encompassing electro-osmosis, electro-migration, hydraulic osmosis, diffusion, adsorption, and thermal diffusion. A comprehensive analysis is conducted to study the effects of key parameters on the transport process. Several important insights are gained, e.g., an increase in the Soret coefficient accelerates the migration of HMIs. Meanwhile, an increase in both the electric potential gradient and the hydraulic gradient is beneficial for the remediation of contaminated soil, although the effect of the electric potential gradient is more significant.

Evidence of deviations between experimental and empirical mixing lengths: Multi-discharge field tests in an arid river system

Despite advances in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) efficiencies, multiple contaminants of concern, such as microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) remain largely untreated near discharge points and can be highly concentrated before they are fully mixed within the receiving river. Environmental agencies enforce mixing zone permits for the temporary exceedance of water quality parameters beyond targeted control levels under the assumption that contaminants are well-mixed and diluted downstream of mixing lengths, which are typically quantified using empirical equations derived from one-dimensional transport models. Most of these equations were developed in the 1970s and have been assumed to be standard practice since then. However, their development and validation lacked the technological advances required to test them in the field and under changing flow conditions. While new monitoring techniques such as remote sensing and infrared imaging have been employed to visualize mixing lengths and test the validity of empirical equations, those methods cannot be easily repeated due to high costs or flight restrictions. We investigated the application of Lagrangian and Eulerian monitoring approaches to experimentally quantify mixing lengths downstream of a WWTP discharging into the Rio Grande near Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA). Our data spans river to WWTP discharges ranging between 2-22x, thus providing a unique dataset to test long-standing empirical equations in the field. Our results consistently show empirical equations could not describe our experimental mixing lengths. Specifically, while our experimental data revealed “bell-shaped” mixing lengths as a function of increasing river discharges, all empirical equations predicted monotonically increasing mixing lengths. Those mismatches between experimental and empirical mixing lengths are likely due to the existence of threshold processes defining mixing at different flow regimes, i.e., jet diffusion at low flows, the Coanda effect at intermediate flows, and turbulent mixing at higher flows, which are unaccounted for by the one-dimensional empirical formulas. Our results call for a review of the use of empirical mixing lengths in streams and rivers to avoid widespread exposures to emerging contaminants.

Influence of the in-stream structures and parameters variation on transient storage

In-stream structures are designed to mimic natural topographic features in rivers and have emerged as an effective method for ecological restoration in recent years. However, there is a lack of studies exploring the impact of these structural designs on transient storage characteristics. We implemented a series of weirs and groynes in a stream and conducted conservative tracer experiments to quantify the influence of these structures on solute transport within the stream. Additionally, we utilized the one-dimensional transport with inflow and storage (OTIS) solute diffusive transport model to assess variations in solute transport parameters and characterize transient storage. Our analysis of the OTIS parameters and transient storage index revealed that in-stream structures can enhance the interaction between flowing water in the mainstem area and the transient storage area, consequently improve the stream's transient storage capacity. Notably, weirs had a greater effect on the transient storage characteristics of streams parameters than groynes. Furthermore, the effect of this impact intensified with an increase in the number, spacing, and height of the in-stream structures. However, it was observed that the coupling between the structures decreased simultaneously, resulting in a gradual weakening of the enhancement in transient storage capacity. This study deepens our understanding of how the design factors of in-stream structures influence transient storage characteristics, and provides a theoretical basis for optimizing in-stream structures in ecological restoration projects.

Coupling of sediment transport phenomena with turbulent surface flows: mathematical modeling, finite volume approximation and test simulations

Several sediment transport models coupled with shallow water equations have been developed in the literature over the past few decades. The water flow in the presence of abrupt bottom slopes distorts and cause turbulence. This phenomenon is well-known in the sediment transport theory. Sediment transport models based on shallow water equations do not include turbulence effects or the phase-lag between water velocity and bottom velocity. In this study, we consider a one-dimensional free surface turbulent water flow with sediment and morphodynamic. We propose a new one-dimensional acceleration-dissipation mathematical sediment transport model that considers the distortion of horizontal profile velocity in transport. The model is an improved version of existing averaged sediment transport models. In the new model, there is a distinction between fluid velocity and bottom velocity through a new bedload equation. The mathematical model is a system of nonlinear hyperbolic partial differential equations that are approximated by a stable and robust finite volume scheme presented in the path-conservative framework. Numerical tests are performed to demonstrate the efficiency of the developed theory.

Exploring Numba and CuPy for GPU-Accelerated Monte Carlo Radiation Transport

This paper examines the performance of two popular GPU programming platforms, Numba and CuPy, for Monte Carlo radiation transport calculations. We conducted tests involving random number generation and one-dimensional Monte Carlo radiation transport in plane-parallel geometry on three GPU cards: NVIDIA Tesla A100, Tesla V100, and GeForce RTX3080. We compared Numba and CuPy to each other and our CUDA C implementation. The results show that CUDA C, as expected, has the fastest performance and highest energy efficiency, while Numba offers comparable performance when data movement is minimal. While CuPy offers ease of implementation, it performs slower for compute-heavy tasks.

Modeling water transport in polymer electrolyte membrane electrolyzers using a one-dimensional transport model

In this paper, we present a one-dimensional transport model for water transport across Nafion® membranes in a proton exchange membrane electrolyzer. This physics-based model is based on the three main water transport mechanisms: diffusion, electro-osmotic drag, and pressure-driven flow. A good agreement is obtained between the model predictions using the measured values of the physical parameters as inputs and the previously reported experimental data. Further, with the help of this simple transport model, the numerical analysis is performed to delineate the effect of electrolyzer operating conditions on the net water transport across the membrane, water condensation at the cathode, individual contribution of the transport fluxes, and electrolyzer design. Finally, the model is exercised to simulate the dependence of water transport as a function of membrane thickness. This confirms the validity of the current approach of using thin reinforced membranes by electrolyzer fabricators.

Carbon dioxide removal via weathering of sugarcane mill ash under different soil conditions

Sugarcane mill ash has been suggested as having high potential for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) via enhanced weathering (EW), but this had not been quantitatively assessed. The aims of this study were to 1) assess the CDR potential of various sugarcane mill ashes via EW, and 2) investigate the impact of soil conditions and mill ash properties on the CDR. This was done by characterising physical and chemical properties of five mill ashes from Australia and simulating weathering using a one-dimensional reactive transport model. The model was parameterised to simulate weathering of 100 t/ha of wet ash (47–65% water) or crushed basalt for 15 years under various combinations of soil pH and carbon dioxide partial pressure (pCO2). A sensitivity analysis was undertaken in a two-level factorial design to test the effect of pH, pH buffering, material surface area, infiltration rate, plant uptake of nutrients, organic matter cation exchange surfaces, and pCO2 on modelled CDR. The simulated CDR of the mill ashes was significantly less than the basalt (p < 0.001) but mostly did not differ significantly between ashes (p > 0.05). Weathering of mill ash removed 0.0–4.0 t CO2/ha (0.00–0.040 t CO2/t wet ash) cumulatively, similar to some basalts and olivine modelled in the literature. The theoretical maximum CDR of the mill ashes (based on amount of weatherable material applied) was achieved in around 5 years. The estimate of CDR varied by orders of magnitude depending on conditions. It was least when initial soil solution pH was lowest (4.5, unbuffered), pH was at 6.5 or less with constant buffering, and pCO2 was low (600 ppm). CDR was also significantly lower when calculated directly from accumulation of carbon in dissolved and solid phases rather than stoichiometrically from cation release. The effects of pH and pH buffering quantified here may explain low measured CDR from EW in field trials on acidic soils and highlight the need for more realistic modelling of pH buffering capacity. Overall, mill ash shows high potential for CDR via EW, especially if lifecycle benefits are considered, although this must be validated in the field.

Comparing the Fate and Transport of MS2 Bacteriophage and Sodium Fluorescein in a Karstic Chalk Aquifer.

Groundwater flow and contaminant migration tracing is a vital method of identifying and characterising pollutant source-pathway-receptor linkages in karst aquifers. Bacteriophages are an attractive alternative tracer to non-reactive fluorescent dye tracers, as high titres (>1012 pfu mL-1) can be safely released into the aquifer, offering improved tracer detectability. However, the interpretation of bacteriophage tracer breakthrough curves is complicated as their fate and transport are impacted by aquifer physicochemical conditions. A comparative tracer migration experiment was conducted in a peri-urban catchment in southeast England to characterise the behaviour of MS2 bacteriophage relative to sodium fluorescein dye in a karstic chalk aquifer. Tracers were released into a stream sink and detected at two abstraction boreholes located 3 km and 10 km away. At both sites, the loss of MS2 phage greatly exceeded that of the solute tracer. In contrast, the qualitative shape of the dye and phage breakthrough curves were visually very similar, suggesting that the bacteriophage arriving at each site was governed by comparable transport parameters to the non-reactive dye tracer. The colloid filtration theory was applied to explain the apparent contradiction of comparable tracer breakthrough patterns despite massive phage losses in the subsurface. One-dimensional transport models were also fitted to each breakthrough curve to facilitate a quantitative comparison of the transport parameter values. The model results suggest that the bacteriophage migrates through the conduit system slightly faster than the fluorescent dye, but that the former is significantly less dispersed. These results suggest that whilst the bacteriophage tracer cannot be used to predict receptor concentrations from transport via karstic flow paths, it can provide estimates for groundwater flow and solute contaminant transit times. This study also provides insight into the attenuation and transport of pathogenic viruses in karstic chalk aquifers.