MODELLING AND DESIGN IN BIOVENTING

Bioventing is a cleanup technology commonly used for remediation of polluted unsaturated subsoil by biodegradation. The pollutant is considered as a nutrient, natural bacteria destroy contaminants in an aerobic situation and the needed oxygen is provided by air injection and extraction wells. The mathematical models for a bioventing system are based on the theory of multi-phase and multi- component fluid transport in porous media; reactive terms describe the biological decay phenomenon and the bacteria concentration obeys population dynamic laws. The problems involved in designing a bioventing system consist of determining the number, the positioning and the pumping rates of the air injection/extraction wells considering the pollutant distribution and the subsoil characteristics.