Feasibility of amending slurry walls with zero-valent iron

Rapid degradation of aqueous trichloroethylene (TCE) was observed in batch experiments conducted with soil/bentonite slurry wall materials amended with the addition of zero-valent iron. The first-order TCE decay constants for soil/bentonite/iron mixtures, when normalized to the available iron surface area, were approximately 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than observed in batch experiments with pure iron systems. Permeability tests indicated an increase in SB hydraulic conductivity roughly proportional to the amount of iron added. Based on the observed reaction rates and the assumption of sustained long-term performance, significantly less than one percent added iron would be required to reduce the diffusive flux of TCE across an installed slurry wall by over 10 orders of magnitude. However, the release of hydrogen gas was noted as a potential problem for low permeability systems containing zero-valent iron.