Remediation of petroleum-contaminated sites through simulation of a DPVE-aided cleanup process: Part 1. Model development

The remediation system is complicated with dual-phase vacuum extraction (DPVE), residual phase cleanup, and groundwater treatment. Studies for individual system components cannot effectively reflect interactions among various processes of contaminant fate and transport. Thus, an integrated consideration that incorporates transport, DPVE-aided remediation within a general framework is desired. As an extension of previous studies, a hybrid modeling system for simulating DPVE-aided remediation and contaminant transport is proposed for forecasting of both remediation process and contaminant mitigation at a petroleum-hydrocarbon contaminated site. A three-dimension multiphase and multicomponent subsurface model is combined with a numerical simulation of DPVE remediation process. The developed simulation system is applied to a petroleum-contaminated site in western Canada wherein DPVE remediation process has been in progress. The developed system is effective in simulating effects of free-product recovery and groundwater cleanup through processes of DVPE and groundwater remediation.