Use of vegetable oil in a pilot-scale denitrifying barrier

Nitrate in drinking water is a hazard to both humans and animals. Contaminated water can cause methemoglobinemia and may pose a cancer risk. Permeable barriers containing innocuous oils, which stimulate denitrification, can remove nitrate from flowing groundwater. For this study, a sand tank (1.1×2.0×0.085 m in size) containing sand was used as a one-dimensional open-top scale model of an aquifer. A meter-long area near the center of the tank contained sand coated with soybean oil. This region served as a permeable denitrifying barrier. Water containing 20 mg l−1 nitrate-N was pumped through the barrier at a high flow rate, 1112 l week−1, for 30 weeks. During the 30-week study, the barrier removed 39% of the total nitrate-N present in the water. The barrier was most efficient during the first 10 weeks of the study when almost all of the nitrate and nitrogen was removed. Efficiency declined with time so that by week 30 almost no nitrate was removed by the system. Nitrite levels in the effluent water remained low throughout the study. Barriers could be used to protect groundwater from nitrate contamination or for the in situ treatment of contaminated water. At the low flow rates that exist in most aquifers, such barriers should be effective at removing nitrate from groundwater for a much longer period of time.