Steam injection into saturated porous media- process analysis including experimental and numerical investigations

Zeit:	12. Dezember 2006, 16:00 – 17:30 Uhr
Referent*in:	Steffen Ochs Lehrstuhl für Hydromechanik undHydrosystemmodellierung
Veranstaltungsort:	Pfaffenwaldring 61, Raum U1.003 (MML), Universität Stuttgart
Download als iCal:

The extensive use of artificial chemicals in industry and the lack ofunderstanding their potential threat to the environment andto human health resulted in substantial soil and groundwatercontaminations during the 20th century in many industrializedareas. Sites contaminated by dense non-aqueous phase liquids(DNAPL's) turned out to be problematic. The fact that DNAPL's have ahigher density than water enables them to migrate below theground water table causing extensive contaminations in the saturatedzone. Conventional remediation techniques show major difficultiesin the remediation of DNAPL and induced the development of innovativeremediation techniques for such sites. One of the most promising isthe injection of steam into the subsurface. This technique has beensuccessfully applied to the remediation of DNAPL contaminations in theunsaturated zone. Today, the application of steam injection for thetreatment of contaminations in the saturated zone is in the focus ofresearch interest. Although the physical processes elapsing duringsteam injection are basically the same either in the saturated andunsaturated zone, there are distinct differences in theirrelevancy.In the talk the results from experimental and numerical investigationson the spreading behavior of steam fronts in saturated porous mediawill be presented and discussed.