Anomalous reactive transport in porous media: Experiments and modeling

We analyze dynamic behavior of chemically reactive species in a porous medium, subject to anomalous transport. In this context, we present transport experiments in a refraction-index-matched, three-dimensional, water-saturated porous medium. A pH indicator (Congo red) was used as either a conservative or a reactive tracer, depending on the tracer solution pH relative to that of the background solution. The porous medium consisted of an acrylic polymer material formed as spherical beads that have pH-buffering capacity. The magnitude of reaction during transport through the porous medium was related to the color change of the Congo red, via image analysis. Here, we focused on point injection of the tracer into a macroscopically uniform flow field containing water at a pH different from that of the injected tracer. The setup yielded measurements of the temporally evolving spatial (local-in-space) concentration field. Parallel experiments with the same tracer, but without reactions (no changes in pH), enabled identification of the transport itself to be anomalous (non-Fickian); this was quantified by a continuous time random walk (CTRW) formulation. A CTRW particle tracking model was then used to quantify the spatial and temporal migration of both the conservative and reactive tracer plumes. Model parameters related to the anomalous transport were determined from the conservative tracer experiments. An additional term accounting for chemical reaction was established solely from analysis of the reactant concentrations, and significantly, no other fitting parameters were required. The measurements and analysis emphasized the localized nature of reaction, caused by small-scale concentration fluctuations and preferential pathways. In addition, a threshold radius for pH-controlled reactive transport processes was defined under buffering conditions, which delineated the region in which reactions occurred rapidly.