In-situ treatment of groundwater contaminated with underground coal gasification products

In the paper the contaminants that may be generated in Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) process were listed and include mainly mono- and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, phenols, heavy metals, cyanides, ammonium, chloride and sulphate. As a method of UCG contaminated groundwater treatment a Permeable Reactive Barrier technology was proposed. To assess the effectiveness of this technology two tests were carried out. Granulated activated carbon (GAC) and zeolite, and granulated activated carbon and scrap iron were applied in the first and second test respectively. For these materials the hydro geological parameters called reactive material parameters were determined and discussed. The results of the experiments showed that GAC seems to be the most effective material for phenols, BTX, PAH, cyanides and slightly lowers ammonia removal, while zeolites and scrap iron removed free cyanide, ammonia and heavy metals respectively.