Remediation of contaminated groundwater from a former industrial site by a fixed film reactor

Contaminated groundwater from industrial sites may contain a complex mixture of compounds, including many organic chemicals. On-site remediation of the groundwater is often carried out by physical-chemical methods because their function may be more predictable. However, the cost of treatment can be high for example when the organic compounds adsorb poorly to activated carbon, which is the case for vinyl chloride. The idea behind this project is to remove general biodegradable organic matter, including those that adsorb poorly to activated carbon ahead of a subsequent sorption process. This is done with a fixed biofilm reactor where the oxygen input is done with a membrane system in order to avoid stripping of the volatile compounds to the atmosphere.