Experimental and modeling investigation of multicomponent reactive transport in porous media

We present an experimental and modeling study of solute transport in porous media in the presence of mixing-induced precipitation of a solid phase. Conservative and reactive transport experiments were performed in a quasi-two-dimensional laboratory flow cell, filled with homogeneous and heterogeneous porous media. Conservative experiments were performed by injecting solutions containing sodium chloride and calcium chloride into the domain. In reactive transport experiments, inlet solutions of calcium chloride and sodium carbonate were injected in parallel, resulting in calcium carbonate precipitation where the solutions mix. Experimental results were used as a benchmark to examine the performance of a reactive transport numerical model. Good agreement between model predictions and experimental results was obtained for the conservative transport experiments. The reactive transport experiments featured the formation of a calcium carbonate mineral phase within the mixing zone between the two solutions, which controlled the spatial evolution of calcium carbonate in the domain. Numerical simulations performed on high resolution grids for both the homogeneous and heterogeneous porous systems underestimated clogging of the system. Although qualitative agreement between model results and experimental observations was obtained, accurate model predictions of the spatial evolution of calcium concentrations at sample points within the flow cell could not be achieved. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.