Environmental Projects
Successful Enhanced Anaerobic Dechlorination in a
Highly Contaminated Inhibitory Zone (NJ)
Shown above is the bioenhancement manifold
and the bioaugmentation tank. Below are data for a
representative well in the main source area
INNOVATIVE ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS, INC. is currently remediating a source area contains over 1,400 mg/L of chlorinated VOCs including 1,1,1 TCA, PCE, TCE and the various breakdown products. In addition, the main source area contains thousands of mg/L of glycols, ketones and alcohols. The chemical soup provides a great electron donor supply for the downgradient plume, however the source area itself is generally inhibitory to the dechlorinators.
A full scale recirculation based enhanced anaerobic dechlorination (EAD) system has been installed in 2004 that includes a vapor extraction and dual extraction component to recover vadose zone contamination and detoxify the main source area. Within a few months of source area detoxification, strong signs are emerging that dechlorination is underway and the VOC profile is changing dramatically to include more vinyl chloride, ethene, chloroethane and much less 1,1,1 TCA and PCE within the main source area. We are also utilizing a proprietary combination of alcohol and vegetable oil to flush out and absorb contaminants to more quickly eliminate inhibition.
Extensive work is underway by us and others to enable EAD application under such harsh conditions. Our work has enabled us to successfully degrade up to 550 mg/L of PCE to ethene in the laboratory by acclimating our NJ-14 cultures .
To the best of our knowledge this project represents the only bioremediation efforts under such harsh inhibitory conditions.
|
