Javeed Mohammed Abdul (PhD Student)
University of Technology, Sydney 

Project Title
Gradient permeable reactive barrier for groundwater remediation

Biography
Javeed's previous studies include a Master of Science (analytical chemistry, India), a Master of Chemical Engineering and Industrial Chemistry (by research) from UNSW Sydney, and a Postgraduate Diploma in e-Business Management from Macquarie University, Sydney. Javeed has 18 years of diverse industrial experience in water and wastewater treatment, contamination remediation, brackish and seawater desalination, material characterisation and analytical method development. He worked for seven years in research and development of seawater desalination for a saline water conversion corporation in Saudi Arabia. Javeed undertook research at the UNESCO Centre, UNSW, Sydney, involving membrane fouling and development of a fouling index for reverse osmosis systems. Javeed's interests in research areas include water and wastewater treatment and recycling, desalination and contamination remediation.

Start Date
October 2006

Project Details
Contaminated groundwater is pumped out from underground, and treated in a pump and treat system. However, the pump and treat system is an expensive technique and requires huge infrastructure and manpower. Recently, contaminated groundwater has been treated in-situ (underground) by placing a reactive barrier known as a 'permeable reactive barrier' (PRB) in the path of the contaminated plume (water). The contaminated water, when passed through the PRB, is decontaminated due to removal of contaminants by the barrier. The water coming out of the reactive wall is relatively clean and devoid of contaminants. The reactive materials used in the PRB are cheap. Zerovalent iron is one of the most common reactive materials used in the barrier. This technology is relatively new with an age of only 10 -15 years, and has tremendous potential for development. PRBs are being extensively used in the United States and Europe. In Australia, PRBs were tried at the Botany site in Sydney, NSW. This project deals with the development of advance oxidation technologies for the breakdown of larger compounds (contaminants) into smaller compounds, which can be then easily removed by the PRB. The project outcome will help in understanding and integrating different oxidation and reduction technologies with PRBS towards in-situ (underground) decontamination of contaminated groundwater.

PhD Thesis Abstract - Summary
Water scarcity due to persistent drought is forcing countries around the world to explore alternative freshwater resources. Groundwater is one of the natural freshwater resources that can be used for human and agricultural use. But, contamination due to improper disposal of untreated human and industrial wastes affects the groundwater quality, and renders it unsuitable for human and agricultural purpose unless the water is treated for the contamination removal. Some of the common contaminants that contaminate groundwater are landfill leachate from domestic landfills, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as pesticides (metsulfuron methyl), pharmaceutically active substances (PhAcS), trimethoprim (TMP) and pentachlorophenol (PCP). These contaminants cannot be removed effectively by conventional treatment processes such as coagulation and adsorption, and are not easily biodegradable. Therefore, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are preferably being used to remove these contaminants of concern because of their effectiveness against bio-refractory contaminants, faster degradation kinetics and economic viability. Common AOPs include photocatalysis, Fenton's oxidation, ozonation and their combinations. Our study used adsorption/biosorption (a conventional treatment process), photocatalysis and Fenton's oxidation (AOPs) for the degradation of the above-mentioned contaminants.