Sascha E. Oswald

Time-Dependent Measurement of Strongly Density-Dependent Flow in a Porous Medium via Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Solute transport in saturated artificial porous media was observed in a series of laboratory experiments using magnetic resonance imaging. The objective was to study a situation of density-dependent flow in three dimensions both qualitatively and quantitatively. The time-dependent measurements visualised inflow from below of dense salt water into a freshwater reservoir, internal density-driven flow and the behaviour of a salt water layer below freshwater flow including plume development by dispersion. The main feature of the flow experiment was the strong tendency for the salt water to remain stagnant and to resist being swept out by the freshwater. Additional measurements were performed to gain information about reproducibility, flow field and breakthrough curves.

Interplay between oxygen demand reactions and kinetic gas-water transfer in porous media

Gas-water phase transfer associated with the dissolution of trapped gas in porous media is a key process that occurs during pulsed gas sparging operations in contaminated aquifers. Recently, we applied a numerical model that was experimentally validated for abiotic situations, where multi-species kinetic inter-phase mass transfer and dissolved gas transport occurred during pulsed gas penetration-dissolution events [Balcke, G.U., Meenken, S., Hoefer, C. and Oswald, S.E., 2007. Kinetic gas-water transfer and gas accumulation in porous media during pulsed oxygen sparging. Environmental Science & Technology 41(12), 4428-4434]. Here we extend the model by using a reactive term to describe dissolved oxygen demand reactions via the formation of a reaction product, and to study the effects of such an aerobic degradation process on gas-water mass transfer and dissolution of trapped gas in porous media. As a surrogate for microbial oxygen reduction, first-order oxygen demand reactions were based on the measured oxidation of alkaline pyrogallol in column experiments. This reaction allows for adjusting the rate to values close to expected biodegradation rates and detection of the reaction product. The experiments and model consistently demonstrated accelerated oxygen gas-water mass transfer with increasing oxygen demand rates associated with an influence on the partitioning of other gases. Thus, as the oxygen demand accelerates, less gas phase residues, consisting mainly of nitrogen, are observed, which is in general beneficial to the performance of field biosparging operations. Model results additionally predict how oxygen demand influences oxygen mass transfer for a range of biodegradation rates. A typical field case scenario was simulated to illustrate the observed coupling of oxygen consumption and gas bubble dissolution. The model provides a tool to improve understanding of trapped gas behavior in porous media and contributes to a model-assisted biosparging.