Study of the Uranium Heterogeneous Diffusion through Crystalline Rocks and Effects of the “Clay-Mediated” Transport

2003 ◽  
Vol 807 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. Alonso ◽  
T. Missana ◽  
M. García-Gutiérrez ◽  
A. Patelli ◽  
J. Ravagnan ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTRock matrix diffusion is one of the possible mechanisms for radionuclide retardation in a deep geological high-level radioactive waste repository, and it is usually considered that radionuclides diffuse as solutes through the rock. Nonetheless, the potential effects that clay, from the bentonite barrier, may induce on the radionuclides migration should be taken into account. Furthermore, transport models generally assume that the whole mineral surface is accessible to transport, whereas transport is highly conditioned by the heterogeneous mineral distribution, since different minerals may act as preferential pathways, while others may present higher sorption capability. It is therefore necessary to determine the actual surface area accessible to transport.The aim of the present work is the identification of the uranium preferential pathways to the granite, both in presence or absence of bentonite clay. Results showed that uranium as solute diffused in specific mineral areas, indicating that the actual surface area accessible to matrix diffusion, and/or sorption on the surface, is significantly lower than the whole mineral surface. By the other hand, the uranium in presence of the clay was randomly distributed on the surface, and penetrated into the granite mainly through “defects” (as fractures or grain boundaries); its migration being enhanced on specially fractured or disturbed areas.

1981 ◽  
Vol 46 (11) ◽  
pp. 2640-2649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Otakar Söhnel

Porosity of the filtration cake, formed at filtration of model suspensions of CaCO3, BaCrO4 and ZnO is not a function of suspension concentration as long as the solid phase forming the suspension is of the same granulometric composition. The calculated surface area of the solid phase, effective as concerns filtration at ΔP = 30 kPa, is smaller than the actual surface area determined by absorption of nitrogen. Porosity of the filtration cake formed at filtration of suspensions of Mg(OH)2, CaCO3, SrCO3 and BaCO3 prepared by precipitation is a linear function of the initial concentration of precipitated solutions since it is affected by the size and polydispersity of originating particles in dependence on concentration of precipitated solutions. The cakes formed at filtration of precipitated suspensions of CaCO3, SrCO3 and BaCO3 aged for up to 2 hours from the instant of their preparation have a constant porosity which is independent of the time of suspension aging.


2021 ◽  
Vol 129 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Serge Kräutle ◽  
Jan Hodai ◽  
Peter Knabner

AbstractWe consider a macroscale model of transport and reaction of chemical species in a porous medium with a special focus on mineral precipitation–dissolution processes. In the literature, it is frequently proposed that the reaction rate should depend on the reactive mineral surface area, and so on the amount of mineral. We point out that a frequently used model is ill posed in the sense that it admits non-unique solutions. We investigate what consequences this non-uniqueness has on the numerical solution of the model. The main novelty in this article is our proposal of a certain substitution which removes the ill-posedness from the system and which leads to better numerical results than some “ad hoc methods.” We think that the proposed substitution is a rather elegant way to get rid of the non-uniqueness and the numerical difficulties and is much less technical than other ideas. As a proof of concept, we present some numerical tests and simulations for the new model.


2022 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-34
Author(s):  
Susan Alkurdi ◽  
Raed Al-Juboori ◽  
Jochen Bundschuh ◽  
Alla Marchuk

The reuse of waste materials for water treatment purposes is an important approach for promoting the circular economy and achieving effective environmental remediation. This study examined the use of bone char/titanium dioxide nanoparticles (BC/nTiO2) composite and UV for As(III) and As(V) removal from water. The composite was produced via two ways: addition of nTiO2 to bone char during and after pyrolysis. In comparison to the uncoated bone char pyrolyzed at 900 °C (BC900), nTiO2 deposition onto bone char led to a decrease in the specific surface area and pore volume from 69 to 38 m2/g and 0.23 to 0.16 cm3/g, respectively. However, the pore size slightly increased from 14 to 17 nm upon the addition of nTiO2. The composite prepared during pyrolysis (BC/nTiO2)P had better As removal than that prepared after pyrolysis with the aid of ultrasound (BC/nTiO2)US (57.3% vs. 24.8%). The composite (BC/nTiO2)P had higher arsenate oxidation than (BC/nTiO2)US by about 3.5 times. Arsenite oxidation and consequent adsorption with UV power of 4, 8 and 12 W was examined and benchmarked against the composite with visible light and BC alone. The highest UV power was found to be the most effective treatment with adsorption capacity of 281 µg/g followed by BC alone (196 µg/g). This suggests that the effect of surface area and pore volume loss due to nTiO2 deposition can only be compensated by applying a high level of UV power.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steffen A. Schweizer ◽  
Carsten W. Mueller ◽  
Carmen Höschen ◽  
Pavel Ivanov ◽  
Ingrid Kögel-Knabner

AbstractCorrelations between organic carbon (OC) and fine mineral particles corroborate the important role of the abundance of soil minerals with reactive surfaces to bind and increase the persistence of organic matter (OM). The storage of OM broadly consists of particulate and mineral-associated forms. Correlative studies on the impact of fine mineral soil particles on OM storage mostly combined data from differing sites potentially confounded by other environmental factors. Here, we analyzed OM storage in a soil clay content gradient of 5–37% with similar farm management and mineral composition. Throughout the clay gradient, soils contained 14 mg OC g−1 on average in the bulk soil without showing any systematic increase. Density fractionation revealed that a greater proportion of OC was stored as occluded particulate OM in the high clay soils (18–37% clay). In low clay soils (5–18% clay), the fine mineral-associated fractions had up to two times higher OC contents than high clay soils. Specific surface area measurements revealed that more mineral-associated OM was related to higher OC loading. This suggests that there is a potentially thicker accrual of more OM at the same mineral surface area within fine fractions of the low clay soils. With increasing clay content, OM storage forms contained more particulate OC and mineral-associated OC with a lower surface loading. This implies that fine mineral-associated OC storage in the studied agricultural soils was driven by thicker accrual of OM and decoupled from clay content limitations.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 6815-6844
Author(s):  
S. C. Löhr ◽  
M. J. Kennedy

Abstract. Organic carbon (OC) enrichment in sediments deposited during Oceanic Anoxic Events (OAEs) is commonly attributed to elevated productivity and marine anoxia. We find that OC enrichment in the late Cenomanian aged OAE2 at Demerara Rise was controlled by co-occurrence of anoxic bottom-water, sufficient productivity to saturate available mineral surfaces and variable deposition of high surface area detrital smectite clay. Redox indicators show consistently oxygen-depleted conditions, while a strong correlation between OC concentration and sediment mineral surface area (R2=0.92) occurs across a range of TOC values from 9–33%. X-ray diffraction data indicates intercalation of OC in smectite interlayers while electron, synchrotron infrared and X-ray microscopy show an intimate association between clay minerals and OC, consistent with preservation of OC as organomineral nanocomposites and aggregates rather than discrete, μm-scale pelagic detritus. Since the consistent ratio between TOC and mineral surface area suggests that excess OC relative to surface area is lost, we propose that it is the varying supply of smectite that best explains variable organic enrichment against a backdrop of continuous anoxia, which is conducive to generally high TOC during OAE2 at Demerara Rise. Smectitic clays are unique in their ability to form stable organomineral nanocomposites and aggregates that preserve organic matter, and are common weathering products of continental volcanic deposits. An increased flux of smectite coinciding with high carbon burial is consistent with evidence for widespread volcanism during OAE2, so that organomineral carbon burial may represent a potential feedback to volcanic degassing of CO2.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 3147-3171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scarlet Stadtler ◽  
David Simpson ◽  
Sabine Schröder ◽  
Domenico Taraborrelli ◽  
Andreas Bott ◽  
...  

Abstract. The impact of six heterogeneous gas–aerosol uptake reactions on tropospheric ozone and nitrogen species was studied using two chemical transport models, the Meteorological Synthesizing Centre-West of the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP MSC-W) and the European Centre Hamburg general circulation model combined with versions of the Hamburg Aerosol Model and Model for Ozone and Related chemical Tracers (ECHAM-HAMMOZ). Species undergoing heterogeneous reactions in both models include N2O5, NO3, NO2, O3, HNO3, and HO2. Since heterogeneous reactions take place at the aerosol surface area, the modelled surface area density (Sa) of both models was compared to a satellite product retrieving the surface area. This comparison shows a good agreement in global pattern and especially the capability of both models to capture the extreme aerosol loadings in east Asia. The impact of the heterogeneous reactions was evaluated by the simulation of a reference run containing all heterogeneous reactions and several sensitivity runs. One reaction was turned off in each sensitivity run to compare it with the reference run. The analysis of the sensitivity runs confirms that the globally most important heterogeneous reaction is the one of N2O5. Nevertheless, NO2, HNO3, and HO2 heterogeneous reactions gain relevance particularly in east Asia due to the presence of high NOx concentrations and high Sa in the same region. The heterogeneous reaction of O3 itself on dust is of minor relevance compared to the other heterogeneous reactions. The impacts of the N2O5 reactions show strong seasonal variations, with the biggest impacts on O3 in springtime when photochemical reactions are active and N2O5 levels still high. Evaluation of the models with northern hemispheric ozone surface observations yields a better agreement of the models with observations in terms of concentration levels, variability, and temporal correlations at most sites when the heterogeneous reactions are incorporated. Our results are loosely consistent with results from earlier studies, although the magnitude of changes induced by N2O5 reaction is at the low end of estimates, which seems to fit a trend, whereby the more recent the study the lower the impacts of these reactions.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scarlet Stadtler ◽  
David Simpson ◽  
Sabine Schröder ◽  
Domenico Taraborrelli ◽  
Andreas Bott ◽  
...  

Abstract. The impact of six heterogeneous gas-aerosol uptake reactions on tropospheric ozone and nitrogen species was studied using two chemical transport models, EMEP MSC-W and ECHAM-HAMMOZ. Species undergoing heterogeneous reactions in both models include N2O5, NO3, NO2, O3, HNO3 and HO2. Since heterogeneous reactions take place at the aerosol surface area, the modeled surface area density Sa of both models was compared to a satellite product retrieving the surface area. This comparison shows a good agreement in global pattern and especially the capability of both models to capture the extreme aerosol loadings in East Asia. The impact of the heterogeneous reactions was evaluated by the simulation of a reference run containing all heterogeneous reactions and several sensitivity runs. One reaction was turned off in each sensitivity run to compare it with the reference run. The analysis of the sensitivity runs confirms that the globally most important heterogeneous reaction is the one of N2O5. Nevertheless, NO2, HNO3 and HO2 heterogeneous reaction gain relevance particularly in East Asia due to the presence of high NOx concentrations and high Sa in the same region, although ECHAM-HAMMOZ showed much stronger responses than EMEP in this respect. The heterogeneous reaction of O3 itself on dust is of minor relevance compared to the other heterogeneous reactions. The impacts of the N2O5 reactions show strong seasonal variations, with biggest impacts on O3 in spring time when photochemical reactions are active and N2O5 levels still high. Evaluation of the models with northern hemispheric ozone surface observations yields a better agreement of the models with observations in terms of concentration levels, variability, and temporal correlations at most sites when the heterogeneous reactions are incorporated.


2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 128
Author(s):  
Alex Arnold ◽  
Andrea Kodym ◽  
Nancy M. Endersby-Harshman ◽  
John Delpratt ◽  
Ary A. Hoffmann

Genetic studies can help guide effective ecological restoration by identifying potential source populations that contain the genetic variation necessary for adaptive potential, based on past landscape processes. Here we investigate genetic patterns in Gahnia radula (R.Br.) Benth., a sedge from south-eastern Australia that has potential for revegetation of disturbed areas. We developed microsatellite markers for this species and used them to show that it propagates mostly in a clonal manner. Levels of genetic variability differed between populations and the spatial scale of this variability within these populations is identified. A population used in recent restoration efforts and which sets seed has a particularly high level of variability. Recommendations are developed for sourcing material when using this sedge for revegetation.


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