Contaminant Residence Time Research Articles

Reactive contaminant infiltration under dynamic preferential flow

Biodegradation is an important mechanism of contaminant removal from soils. We use numerical simulations to study the contaminant transport in heterogeneous soils subject to transient flow conditions and anaerobic multicomponent biodegradation. These processes and their interactions affect contaminant travel times, the extent of reactant mixing, solute and microbial biomass distributions in the soil, and biodegradation outcomes. Especially when flux variations are large, the combination of soil heterogeneity and transient flow gives rise to dynamic preferential flow zones, which affects reactant mixing and biodegradation outcomes. Results show that soil heterogeneity may reduce contaminant leaching due to enhanced reactant mixing, especially when biodegradation is more limited by reactant mixing. Furthermore, unlike under steady-state flow, under transient flow soil heterogeneity does not substantially reduce contaminant residence times. As preferential flow zones change dynamically, the spatio-temporally averaged transport, mixing, and biodegradation experienced by various parts of contaminant plumes become homogenized. Therefore, knowing the initial biodegradation rate of a contaminant upon infiltration, and its mean residence time in the soil, enables a relative sensitivity analysis. This allows biodegradation outcomes of various scenarios to be approximately ranked, even under soil heterogeneity and transient flow, using information that is straightforward to measure or estimate in the field.

Topological and hydrodynamic analyses of solar thermochemical reactors for aerodynamic-aided window protection

ABSTRACT Particles and condensing vapors contribute to the contamination of optical components of solar thermochemical reactors including windows and secondary concentrators and result in severe reactor performance deterioration. We propose an impinging-jet solar reactor in a distinctive topology to enhance aerodynamic-aided window protection. The vector fields on the two-dimensional inner surfaces of the impinging-jet reactor and four conventional reactors are analyzed for the first time using differential topology. The topological analysis demonstrates that the application of an impinging jet in the reactor leads to the prevention of the stagnation point in the vicinity of the window, which is inevitable in any axisymmetric flow field of the conventional reactors. The transient two-dimensional flow fields of all reactors are numerically investigated using the finite volume method to understand the effects of the reactor geometry, aspect ratio, and sweep gas mass flow rate on the window protection performance characterized by the contaminant residence time and peak volumetric concentration near the window. The impinging-jet reactors with aspect ratios of one and two are found to be the most effective designs in aerodynamic-aided window protection among all investigated configurations.

Disturbance of a laminar air flow caused by differently shaped surgical lights

In operating rooms with unidirectional air flow a wake is formed below the light. The influence of the geometry on the dimension of the wake and the age of air were investigated by means of validated numerical simulations as well as experimental measurements. The vertical dimension of the wake caused by the circular surgical light was 1.08 m in height. With an air-permeable shape, it could be reduced to 0.38 m (brim) to 0.28 m (centre). A more open design increased the dilution within the recirculating area and resulted in a shorter residence time of contaminants.

Study of pollution transport through the river confluences by derivation of an analytical model.

Due to the entrance of pollutants in different branches of the river network, it is essential to study contaminant transport at the river confluences. In the present study, it was attempted to investigate the conservative pollution transport at channel confluence by operating a series of experiments in the laboratory flume. In the designed laboratory model, two branches, with different widths of 45, 25 cm, were intersected and a channel confluence was created. Five entrance discharges and three initial contaminant concentrations, introduced using a linear feeder, were chosen as experimental variables. Conservative tracer of sodium chloride solution was used, and the electrical conductivities were measured at eight locations of the main channel and upstream branches with 2 seconds interval. Junction zone was assumed as a control volume, and by applying mass equilibrium to it, a new mathematical model was extracted. It was observed that there is concentration fluctuation in the falling limbs of the experimental breakthrough curves of the junction zone; however, it was diminished by downstream motion. Moreover, the observed pollution graphs had double peak points which changed to a single point with an increase of distance from the confluence position. Operation of the presented model was investigated by variation of its parameters. It was found that the contaminant residence time parameters of the confluence zone have the most significant influence in the simulation of the analytical model. Additionally, it was observed that the values of Gaussian distribution of the upstream branches could displace the position of pulses of resultant breakthrough curves or can overlap them. Moreover, the model performance was examined using statistical goodness of fit parameters like Nash-Sutcliffe, R2, and mean absolute error (MAE). Their values were calculated as 0.88, 0.91, 66.88 (ppm), respectively.

The removal of lead, copper, zinc and cadmium from aqueous solution by biochar and amended biochars.

The exponential growth in the use of motor vehicles is a key contributor to freshwater degradation. Current remediation techniques require prohibitively expensive contaminant treatment and extraction. Biochar represents an inexpensive option to ameliorate contaminants from motorway runoff. Biochar from Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) was produced under fast pyrolysis-gasification (450-500°C for 90s) and amended with wood ash and basaltic rock dust to evaluate sorption of Pb, Cu, Zn and Cd. The column study, designed to mimic field conditions, confirmed that unamended biochar can bind contaminants for short periods, but that the addition of amendments, particularly wood ash, significantly improves contaminant removal. Wood ash-amended biochar removed 98-100% of all contaminants during the study, driven by pH (r = 0.73-0.74; p < 0.01 dependent on metal species) and phosphorus levels causing precipitation (r = 0.47-0.59; p < 0.01, dependent on metal species). The contaminants' progression through the biochar subsections in the column indicated that increasing the thickness of the biochar layer increased contaminant residence time and removal.

Increased organic contaminant residence times in the urban riverbed due to the presence of highly sorbing sediments of the Anthropocene

This study evaluates the hypothesis that increased organic-contaminant sorption and hence residence time in urban riverbed deposits may occur due to the presence of highly sorbing sediment components of anthropogenic origin that contain thermally altered carbonaceous materials (TACM). The hypothesis was confirmed through laboratory-batch studies examining tetrachloroethene (PCE) sorption on riverbed sediment samples from the highly urbanised River Tame headwaters catchment (Birmingham, UK) and the River Tern (Shropshire) providing a nearby rural benchmark. Urban-riverbed sorption was elevated with observed organic-carbon partition coefficient (Koc) values over an order of magnitude greater than rural values. The latter compare to the widely used US EPA geometric-mean Koc and attributed to absorption-dominated partitioning into (recent) natural organic matter. Use of that mean is inappropriate for the urban riverbed, potentially underestimating retardation by an order of magnitude. Organic petrography confirmed the urban riverbed contained a high proportion of TACM-rich organic-matter particles to which significant adsorption might be expected; furthermore, elevated urban Koc values were consistent with TACM-rich sediment literature estimates. The TACM source appears to be riverine transport of particulate matter from historical industrial/urban or coal-mining/processing activities prevalent upstream since the Industrial Revolution. Consequences of the increased urban riverbed residence time on attenuation and bioavailability assumption sensitivities were modelled. Under the standard assumption of sorbed contaminant being non-bioavailable, rapid rates of aqueous-phase biodegradation are necessary for complete attenuation within a riverbed. Conversely, if adsorbed contaminant is bioavailable, then complete attenuation is probable where highly adsorbing (Anthropocene urban) riverbed sediments are present, even for long half-lives. Therefore, Anthropocene-sediment occurrence may significantly influence modern-day contaminant fate within the urban riverbed; the principal implication being greatly increased sorption and residence times may occur in urban riverbeds than conventionally assumed. Further research should focus upon whether adsorbed contaminants have any bioavailability causing increased contaminant flux attenuation and surface-water quality protection.

WITHDRAWN: Increased organic contaminant residence times in the urban riverbed due to the presence of highly sorbing sediments of the Anthropocene

WITHDRAWN: Increased organic contaminant residence times in the urban riverbed due to the presence of highly sorbing sediments of the Anthropocene

Gravity-driven catalytic nanofibrous membrane with microsphere and nanofiber coordinated structure for ultrafast continuous reduction of 4-nitrophenol

Silver loaded nanofibrous membrane with high catalytic performance for 4-nitrophenol under continuous gravity-driven filtration was developed in this study. A polydopamine (PDA) microsphere and nanofiber coordinated composite structure was fabricated through an in situ PDA synthesis to achieve a high catalyst loading and controllable residence time of 4-nitrophenol. The incorporated PDA microspheres played an important role for the enhancement of catalytic performance due to the increased surface area (23% increase compared with PAN and PAN-PDAs-Ag) and reduced membrane porosity. Silver loading amount and the residence time of 4-nitrophenol was increased by more than 108% (from 1.2 wt% to 2.5 wt%) and 45% (from 0.79 s to 1.15 s) when comparing with PAN-PDAc-Ag and PAN-PDAs-Ag nanofibrous membrane. The conversion rate of 4-nitrophenol in a gravity-driven filtration process was as high as 97% when PAN-PDAs-Ag nanofibrous membrane was used, which was much higher than the PAN-PDAc-Ag membrane (80%). In addition, the PAN-PDAs-Ag nanofibrous membrane exhibited excellent recycle performance, the conversion rate was maintained as high as 93% after five times of reuse. The microsphere and nanofiber coordinated structure with enhanced surface area and controllable residence time of contaminants proposed in this study might advance the real applications of electrospun nanofibrous membrane for catalytic removal of contaminants.

Chemostatic behaviour of major ions and contaminants in a semiarid spring and stream system near Los Alamos, NM, USA

AbstractRecent studies have focused on the relationship between solute concentrations and discharge in streams, demonstrating that concentrations can vary little relative to changes in discharge (chemostatic behaviour). Chemostatic behaviour is dependent on catchment characteristics (e.g., lithology, geomorphology, and vegetation) and chemical characteristics of the solute (e.g., availability, reactivity, and mobility). An investigation of 3 springs and a stream near Los Alamos, NM, reveals that springs can behave in a chemostatic fashion as stream systems tend to do. Another unique finding of this study is that the anthropogenic contaminants barium and the high explosive RDX (hexahydro‐1,3,5‐trinitro‐1,3,5‐triazine) can also behave chemostatically. The chemostatic behaviour of a contaminant has important implications for the residence time of contaminants in a system as well as having a major control on contaminant flux and mass transport. Redox (reduction–oxidation) and biogeochemically sensitive analytes (e.g., Fe, SO4, and NO3) display a combination of chemostatic and chemodynamic behaviour, showing the influence of temporally variable conditions on stream and spring chemistries.

Application of Fe-Cu/Biochar System for Chlorobenzene Remediation of Groundwater in Inhomogeneous Aquifers

Chlorobenzene (CB), as a typical Volatile Organic Contaminants (VOC), is toxic, highly persistent and easily migrates in water, posing a significant risk to human health and subsurface ecosystems. Therefore, exploring effective approaches to remediate groundwater contaminated by CB is essential. As an enhanced micro-electrolysis system for CB-contaminated groundwater remediation, this study attempted to couple the iron-copper bimetal with biochar. Two series of columns using sands with different grain diameters were used, consisting of iron, copper and biochar fillings as the permeable reactive barriers (PRBs), to simulate the remediation of CB-contaminated groundwater in homogeneous and heterogeneous aquifers. Regardless of the presence of homogeneous or heterogeneous porous media, the CB concentrations in the effluent from the PRB columns were significantly lower than the natural sandy columns, suggesting that the iron and copper powders coupled with biochar particles could have a significant removal effect compared to the natural sand porous media in the first columns. CB was transported relatively quickly in the heterogeneous porous media, likely due to the fact that the contaminant residence time is proportional to the infiltration velocities in the different types of porous media. The average effluent CB concentrations from the heterogeneous porous media were lower than those from homogeneous porous media. The heterogeneity retarded the vertical infiltration of CB, leading to its extended lateral distribution. During the treatment process, benzene and phenol were observed as the products of CB degradation. The ultimate CB removal efficiency was 61.4% and 68.1%, demonstrating that the simulated PRB system with the mixture of iron, copper and biochar was effective at removing CB from homogeneous and heterogeneous aquifers.

Air pollution retention within a complex of urban street canyons: A two-city comparison

Abstract Uncharacterized microscale spatial and temporal variability in urban air pollutant concentration dynamics may contribute uncertainty or bias to epidemiological model results. In this study, a method for quantifying this variability is presented. Urban buildings were treated as a matrix of bluff bodies to estimate the retention of air pollution in the street canyons downstream of the buildings. This method was based primarily on bluff body theoretical work that derived functional relationships between nondimensional contaminant residence time ( H ) within a wake and the following fluid properties of the air: 1) Reynolds Number (Re), 2) street canyon height ( D ) to width ( W ) aspect ratio ( D / W ), and 3) turbulence intensity, defined as the square root of turbulence kinetic energy ( k ) divided by the freestream wind speed ( U ). Empirical relationships between these variables were built from sulfur hexafluoride (SF 6 ) concentration and meteorological data collected during the Midtown Manhattan 2005 (MID05) Study held in August, 2005 in Manhattan, NY, along with geographical information system (GIS) data describing the building topography. Results were then compared with results from a similar previous analysis using data collected during the Joint Urban 2003 (JU2003) study in Oklahoma City, OK. For the MID05 data, Re ranged from 1.65 × 10 6 to 7.74 × 10 7 , with a median of 1.13 × 10 7 . The range of Re was consistent with earlier observations from the JU2003 study, although the measured winds tended to be more turbulent (median k = 2.2 m 2 s −2 ) compared with JU2003 (median k = 0.45 m 2 s −2 ). Values for H ranged from 7.2 to 1186, with a median H of 80.9. The distribution of H was substantially wider for MID05 than for JU2003, with model estimates exceeding observations of H by an order of magnitude for single obstacle wind tunnel studies with Re ∼ 10 4 . Inverse relationships were validated between H and Re and between H and D / W for the MID05 data and for a pooled data analysis from the MID05 and JU2003 studies. The model of H vs. Re for pooled MID05 and JU2003 data provided a good fit overall but produced a positively biased estimate of the Oklahoma City model results. The model of H vs. D / W for pooled MID05 and JU2003 data did not provide a good fit, suggesting that the building topographies of the two cities are too different to produce a reasonable comparison. These inter-study comparisons suggest that the topographic relationships may contain underlying site-specific features that would require elucidation prior to generalizing to other urban sites. Overall, results from this work present a foundational method for generating estimates of H based on readily available sources of data such as building coordinates and dimensions and meteorological parameters.

Photoacoustic infrared spectroscopy for conducting gas tracer tests and measuring water saturations in landfills

Gas tracer tests can be used to determine gas flow patterns within landfills, quantify volatile contaminant residence time, and measure water within refuse. While gas chromatography (GC) has been traditionally used to analyze gas tracers in refuse, photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) might allow real-time measurements with reduced personnel costs and greater mobility and ease of use. Laboratory and field experiments were conducted to evaluate the efficacy of PAS for conducting gas tracer tests in landfills. Two tracer gases, difluoromethane (DFM) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF 6), were measured with a commercial PAS instrument. Relative measurement errors were invariant with tracer concentration but influenced by background gas: errors were 1–3% in landfill gas but 4–5% in air. Two partitioning gas tracer tests were conducted in an aerobic landfill, and limits of detection (LODs) were 3–4 times larger for DFM with PAS versus GC due to temporal changes in background signals. While higher LODs can be compensated by injecting larger tracer mass, changes in background signals increased the uncertainty in measured water saturations by up to 25% over comparable GC methods. PAS has distinct advantages over GC with respect to personnel costs and ease of use, although for field applications GC analyses of select samples are recommended to quantify instrument interferences.

Air pollutant retention within a complex of urban street canyons

Epidemiological studies of health effects associated with ambient air pollution are subject to uncertainty in the effects estimates related to the spatial and temporal variability of ambient air pollution. This study examines meteorological and concentration decay data for an urban canopy in Oklahoma City, OK to develop a modeling approach that can be used to estimate spatiotemporal variability in contaminant retention that could add bias or uncertainty to epidemiological results. Concentration and microscale turbulent wind data from the Joint Urban 2003 study were reanalyzed to examine scaling relationships between contaminant residence time in urban street canyons, urban boundary layer winds, and urban topography. Street-level sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) concentration time series were reviewed to find time periods that included a peak and decay. Exponential decay curves were fitted to each period, and a characteristic residence time was derived from each model slope. That residence time was nondimensionalized by the ratio of mean urban boundary layer wind speed to height of the building just upwind of the street canyon in which the concentration was measured. Sonic detection and ranging (SODAR) data were used to assess atmospheric turbulence conditions at times concurrent with the concentration decay measurements. Reynolds number (Re) was calculated from the 15-min average wind velocity and ranged from 2.1 × 106 to 7.6 × 107. Nondimensional residence time (H) ranged from 3.7 to 996 with a median of 13.3. Inverse relationships were validated between H and Re and between H and the street canyon aspect ratio. These relationships provided a mechanism to understand time-varying ventilation within a street canyon. The results shown here were intended to demonstrate how scaling relationships derived from the transport equation can be used to provide rapid estimates of characteristic decay times for the purpose of estimating variability in the concentrations encountered in an urban environment. This could be a useful tool to reduce uncertainty in air pollution epidemiological study results related to spatial and temporal variability in urban concentrations.

PEMFC Contamination Model: Competitive Adsorption Followed by an Electrochemical Reaction

A transient, generic contamination model addressing kinetic losses in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) with closed-form solutions is presented. The model is applicable to both the cathode (oxygen reduction reaction) and anode (hydrogen oxidation reaction), because the reactant rate-determining step (rds) in each case is similar and involves an intermediate adsorbate species. The contaminant rds is either a reaction or desorption of an adsorbed product. The model is validated using both fuel cell and sensor operation data for a range of designs (catalysts including Pt and WC) and operating conditions (CO, , , and introduced in the cathode or anode compartment). Model validation indicates the need for defined experimental procedures, including use of a controlled potential, design of setups avoiding contaminant residence time delays in pipes, data recording with sufficient resolution and over long periods to capture steady states, and duplicate experiments to evaluate reproducibility. Model validation also indicates that the contaminant reaction appears to be the prevalent rds. An approach to unambiguously obtain rate constants is proposed requiring sequential tests performed with a reactant, a contaminant, and a reactant/contaminant mixture.

Storm Water Detention Ponds: Modeling Heavy Metal Removal by Plant Species and Sediments

Laboratory and field studies were conducted to elucidate heavy metal removal by three wetland grasses and sediments in storm water detention pond. The removal of heavy metals including Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn was mediated by fluid-flow intensity in the reactors. The growth of plants and the removal rates of contaminants were plant species dependent. All three wetland grasses removed contaminants from the spiked nutrient solutions. A first-order kinetic model adequately represented the removal of contaminants by plants. The analyses of undisturbed sediment cores in detention pond revealed strong stratification of heavy metal concentrations at the sediment–water interface. A simple model that integrates heavy metal removal by aquatic plants and sediments in storm water detention ponds is proposed. The model provides an estimate of contaminant residence time which can be related to hydraulic residence time in storm water detention ponds.

Transport of airborne particles within a room

The objective of this study is to test a technique used to analyze contaminant transport in the wake of a bluff body under controlled experimental conditions for application to aerosol transport in a complex furnished room. Specifically, the hypothesis tested by our work is that the dispersion of contaminants in a room is related to the turbulence kinetic energy and length scale. This turbulence is, in turn, determined by the size and shape of furnishings within the room and by the ventilation characteristics. This approach was tested for indoor dispersion through computational fluid dynamics simulations and laboratory experiments. In each, 3 mum aerosols were released in a furnished room with varied contaminant release locations (at the inlet vent or under a desk). The realizable k approximately epsilon model was employed in the simulations, followed by a Lagrangian particle trajectory simulation used as input for an in-house FORTRAN code to compute aerosol concentration. For the experiments, concentrations were measured simultaneously at seven locations by laser photometry, and air velocity was measured using laser Doppler velocimetry. The results suggest that turbulent diffusion is a significant factor in contaminant residence time in a furnished room. This procedure was then expanded to develop a simplified correlation between contaminant residence time and the number of enclosing surfaces around a point containing the contaminant. Practical Implications The work presented here provides a methodology for relating local aerosol residence time to properties of room ventilation and furniture arrangement. This technique may be used to assess probable locations of high concentration by knowing only the particle release location, furniture configuration, inlet and outlet locations, and air speeds, which are all observable features. Applications of this method include development of 'rules of thumb' for first responders entering a room where an agent has been released and selection of sampler locations to monitor conditions in sensitive areas.

Plasmochemical degradation of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in a capillary discharge plasma Reactor

We report the results of parametric and kinetic studies of the plasmochemical degradation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in respirable atmospheres using a nonthermal ambient-pressure plasma generated in a pin-to-plate capillary plasma electrode (CPE) discharge reactor. Parameters studied included the reactor volume, contaminant residence time, energy density, and influent contaminant concentration. A kinetic model was developed based on a plug-flow regime and a second-order kinetic expression with respect to the reactive plasma species and contaminant concentration. Experimental data were fitted to the proposed model using nonlinear regression techniques, and plasmochemical degradation rate constants were determined for toluene, ethylbenzene, and m-xylene as model compounds.

Simulating unsaturated flow fields based on saturation measurements

Large amounts of de-icing chemicals are applied at the airport of Oslo, Norway. These chemicals pose a potential hazard to the groundwater because the airport is located on a delta deposit over an unconfined aquifer. Under normal flow conditions, most of the chemicals degrade in the vadose 7.one, but during periods of intensive infiltration, the residence time of contaminants in the unsaturated zone may be too short for sufficient degradation. To assess the potential for groundwater contamination and to design remedial actions, it is essential to quantify flow velocities in the vadose zone. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate theoretical possibilities of using measurements of liquid saturation in combination with inverse modeling for the estimation of unsaturated flow velocities. The main stratigraphic units and their geometry were identified from ground penetrating radar (GPR) measurements and borehole logs. These observations are included as a priori information in the inverse modeling. The liquid saturation measurements reveal the smaller-scale heterogeneities within each stratigraphic unit. The relatively low sensitivity of flow velocities to the observable saturation limits the direct inference of hydraulic parameters. However, even an approximate estimate of flow velocities is valuable as long as the estimate is qualified by an uncertainty measure. A method referred to as simulation by Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOF) was adapted for uncertainty propagation analyses. The EOF method is conditional in the sense that statistical moments are reproduced independent of second-order stationarity. This implies that unlikely parameter combinations are discarded from the uncertainty propagation analysis. Simple forward simulations performed with the most likely parameter set are qualitatively consistent with the apparent fast flow of contaminants from an accidental spill. A field tracer test performed close to the airport will be used as an independent dataset to confirm the inverse modeling results.

Lake contamination models for evolution towards steady state

Most lakes are in an average steady state for water but contaminants may not yet have reached steady state or are gradually being flushed out in a clean-up program. The evolution towards steady state for fully mixed or stratified lakes can be described by basic equations of mass flow. The time-concentration paths for fully mixed lakes are asymptotic toward a steady state concentration, which is reached in about 6 contaminant residence times (and clean-up also takes about 6 residence times). Stratified lakes also evolve towards a whole-lake steady state concentration but show oscillating patterns of concentration versus time, with the amplitude and dampening period depending on the volume ratio of epilimnion to total lake volume. In most natural lakes, the compositional contrast between epilimnion and hypolimnion will become almost erased in 2-4 residence times. An acid lake in North-Patagonia is used as an example of contamination of a thermally stratified lake by volcanic effluents.

Influence of Ferrous Iron and pH on Carbon Tetrachloride Degradation by Methanosarcina thermophila

The influence of environmental conditions on the biological transformation of a contaminant must be well understood to optimize remediation processes. One factor that impacts the biological transformation of carbon tetrachloride (CT) is elemental iron (Fe 0). Previous research has shown that Fe 0 increases the methanogenic CT degradation rate by providing H 2 for cell growth and dechlorination. As Fe 0 oxidizes it also increases the pH and Fe 2+ levels, which may also impact the biological transformation of CT. Experiments were performed with Methanosarcina thermophila to investigate the influence of these factors on CT degradation. The transformation of CT and CF was greatly influenced by pH, with the rate of CT and CF degradation increasing with increasing pH. After 6 h, >90% of the CT had been degraded in the treatments containing cells at a pH of 8.5, whereas only about 51% of the CT had been degraded in similar treatments at a pH of 5.5. Fe 2+ did not significantly influence the degradation of CT; however, 60% less CF was formed in systems containing cells+Fe 2+ than in systems containing cells only. In addition, Fe 2+ promoted rapid transformation of CF when added to treatments containing cells. The product distribution after 9 days in all systems containing cells was very similar, with 98.04±5.46% (two-sided 95% confidence interval) of the originally fed CT present as soluble products. These results show that pH and Fe 2+ influence the degradation of CT and CF, although transiently. Because the residence time of contaminants in Fe 0 barriers varies with the thickness of the barrier, it is likely that this influence will be important for some flow-through systems. This implies that a combined Fe 0/organism remediation system may have previously unrealized advantages (due to pH and Fe 2+ changes).