Laboratory Column Study for Evaluating a Bio-chemical Permeable Reactive Barrier to Remove Ammonium from Groundwater

A column study experiment was carried out to evaluate the performance of a fixed bed column made of river sand,Shenyang zeolite and the composite medium(O2 releasing material and Shenyang zeolite)which was to remove ammonium from the polluted groundwater.The result showed that removal of ammonium of the column was more than 99% and zeolite could play a role of the carrier onto which microorganisms were growing.Thus zeolite as the adsorbent could be biologically regenerated while O2 releasing material acted as a supplier of oxygen enough for microbial nitrification.Actually,the amount ammonium removed by nitrification accounted for 74% of the total.Consequently,composite medium of the column facilitated a joint action-zeolite adsorption and microbial nitrification-to remove ammonium,which could be run in a long-term and high efficient way.