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Characterization of the migration of organic contaminants in laboratory-scale groundwater polluted by underground coal gasification

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Abstract

Underground coal gasification (UCG) is a promising technology, but the groundwater pollution caused by UCG is a potential risk to the environment. The measured results of the stratum in the combustion cavity resulting from UCG had proven that the combustion cavity would be filled with some UCG residues and caving rocks when UCG was finished. The pollutants in underground water around the combustion cavity include organic pollutants, inorganic pollutants, and ammonia nitrogen, and one of the primary organic pollutants is phenol. The migration and diffusion characteristics of organic pollutants (taking phenol as a representative) in the groundwater of the combustion cavity were investigated by breakthrough experiments and numerical simulations. The results show that the hydraulic conductivity of the coarse UCG residues is much higher than that of fine residues, and the hydraulic conductivity of the UCG residues with the size of − 0.15 mm and 0.15–0.3 mm are 4.68 × 10−6 m/s and 1.91 × 10−4 m/s respectively. The dispersivity λ for the migration of organic pollutants will be influenced significantly by the size of UCG residues in fractures of the combustion cavity, while the distribution coefficient Kd will not. The dispersivity of organic pollutants in the fine UCG residues is more significant than that in the coarse residues, and the λ for the two kinds of residues are 3.868 cm and 1.765 cm, respectively. The shape of the migration path slightly affects the pollutant concentration distribution along the path, but the width of a path has a more pronounced influence on the concentration distribution. In this research, the influence was formulated by a new technical term, MPWIT, which is related to transverse dispersion. Specifically, while the transverse dispersion values account for 20% and 10% of the longitudinal dispersion, respectively, the corresponding MPWIT values are 39.48 mm and 33.96 mm.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this manuscript.

Abbreviations

UCG:

Underground coal gasification

MPD:

Migration primary domain

MSD:

Migration secondary domain

ADE:

Advective and diffusion equation

BTC:

Breakthrough curve

MPWIT:

Migration path width independent threshold

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Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1803114), the Key Scientific and Technological Project of Henan Province (212102311069), and the Henan Province Key Scientific Research Project Plan for Colleges and Universities (20A530003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo, 454003, Henan, China

    Fan Wang, Lunjian Chen, Bing Xu, Jiao Ma, Baolin Xing & Changliang Shi

  2. Collaborative Innovation Center of Coal Work Safety and Clean High Efficiency Utilization, Jiaozuo, 454003, Henan, China

    Lunjian Chen, Bing Xu & Baolin Xing

  3. School of Energy Science and Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo, 454003, Henan, China

    Faqiang Su

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  1. Fan Wang
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Contributions

Fan Wang: experiments performing and data collating and the first draft of the manuscript with analysis and conceptualization.

Lunjian Chen and Bing Xu: conceptualization, supervision, and funding acquisition.

Baolin Xing and Faqiang Su: supervision and validation of the manuscript.

Jiao Ma and Changliang Shi: manuscript proofreading and polishing.

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Correspondence to Bing Xu.

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Wang, F., Chen, L., Xu, B. et al. Characterization of the migration of organic contaminants in laboratory-scale groundwater polluted by underground coal gasification. Environ Sci Pollut Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-33467-8

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