Treat ammonia contaminated groundwater

[deanandangela]

I am trying to come up with ideas for treating (ideally in-situ) a large urea spill. The groundwater has a concentration of 5000mg/L to 15,000mg/L ammonia. One consideration is using vinegar to oxidize the ammonia. Do any of you have experience with this type of treatment? If so, was it successful? Were there air issues?

What about breakpoint chlorination? I assume that would require pump & treat.

Thanks,

 

[Fackler]

My first thought is keep the oxygen up (i.e. air or bio-sparging), and something for a food source, and natural bacteria should have a heyday. I'll think a little more on it though, and maybe someone that has worked with it will have some more ideas.

What is the depth to the groundwater?
What factors on the surface impact, such as under a building, or in a field?

 

[bimr]

Not sure what you need the vinegar for. Ammonia is easiliy oxidized using an aerobic treatment process.

Ammonia can also be stripped from water. However, ammonia is considered in some areas to be an air toxic.

Breakpoint chlorination will also work, but it is probably not feasible with the high concentrations of ammonaia that you have. Chlorination will probably not work insitu either.

 

[RobLeslie]

If you have any in-situ organics already present in the saturated soil to serve as your electron donor, you can probably grow in-situ nitrifying bacteria (nitrobacter and nitrosomonas) to utilize the urea as an electron acceptor.

I'd stay away from the vinegar as an organic substrate source because biologically-mediated nitrifcation will oxidize the urea nitrogen to nitrites and nitrates, which will acidify the system. You area, after all, generating nitrous and nitric acid.

Nitrifying bacteria are highly sensitive stresses in their environmental (e.g., rapid changes in pH, etc.), so monitor the system like a hawk.