Development and sensitivity analysis of a fullykinetic model of sequential reductive dechlorination in subsurface

Chlorinated hydrocarbons originating from point sources are amongst the most prevalent contaminants of ground water and often represent a serious threat to groundwater-based drinking water resources. Natural attenuation of contaminant plumes can play a major role in contaminated site management and natural degradation of chlorinated solvents frequently occurs in the subsurface through sequential reductive dechlorination.

However, the occurrence and the performance of natural sequential reductive dechlorination strongly depends on environmental factor such as redox conditions, presence of fermenting organic matter / electron donors, presence of specific biomass, etc. Here we develop a new fully-kinetic biogeochemical reactive model able to simulate chlorinated solvents degradation as well as production and consumption of molecular hydrogen.

The model is validated using batch experiment data and global sensitivity analysis is performed.