Bench-scale injection of magnesium hydroxide encapsulated iron nanoparticles (nFe
@Mg(OH)
) into porous media for Cr(VI) removal from groundwater
Maamoun, I.; Falyouna, O.*; Eljamal, R.*; Idham, M. F.*; Tanaka, Kazuya
; Eljamal, O.*
Chromium (VI) contamination in groundwater represents a significant threat to the current and future groundwater resources. Thus, in this work detailed investigation was conducted on the injection of magnesium hydroxide encapsulated iron nanoparticles (nFe
@Mg(OH)
) into a 3-D bench-scale groundwater treatment system for Cr(VI) removal. Cr(VI) and total iron concentration profiles were determined for the injection of both nFe
and nFe
@Mg(OH)
into porous media. The results indicated the expected poor mobility of nFe
, which caused the accumulation of the injected mass within the injection zone and the low spreading range along the length of the aquifer. The injection of nFe
@Mg(OH)
into the groundwater treatment system for 80 consecutive cycles resulted in a clear enhancement in preventing the rapid corrosion of the iron core and around twenty percent improvement in the final Cr(VI) removal efficiency compared with that of nFe
. The injected nFe
@Mg(OH)
maintained the full Cr(VI) removal efficiency for 30 post-injection cycles. Such a promising potential of the nFe
@Mg(OH)
, proposed it as one of the perfect candidates for in-situ water treatment applications, as a reactive nanomaterial with enhanced features, in terms of the prolonged reactive performance and the widespread of the injection zone to cover a larger contaminated area within the porous media.