An innovative permeable reactive bio-barrier to remediate trichloroethene-contaminated groundwater: A field study

Permeable reactive bio-barrier (PRBB), an innovative technology, could treat many contaminants via the natural gradient flow of groundwater based on immobilization or transformation of pollutants into less toxic and harmful forms. In this field study, we developed an innovative PRBB system comprising immobilized Dehalococcoides mccartyi (Dhc) and Clostridium butyricum embedded into the silica gel for long-term treatment of trichloroethene (TCE) polluted groundwater. Four injection wells and two monitoring wells were installed at the downstream of the TCE plume. Without PRBB, results showed that the TCE (6.23 ± 0.43 μmole/L) was converted to cis-dichloroethene (0.52 ± 0.63 μmole/L), and ethene was not detected, whereas TCE was completely converted to ethene (3.31 μmole/L) with PRBB treatment, indicating that PRBB could promote complete dechlorination of TCE. Noticeably, PRBB showed the long-term capability to maintain a high dechlorinating efficiency for TCE removal during the 300-day operational period. Furthermore, with qPCR analysis, the PRBB application could stably maintain the populations of Dhc and functional genes (bvcA, tceA, and vcrA) at >10⁸ copies/L within the remediation course and change the bacterial communities in the contaminated groundwater. We concluded that our PRBB was first set up for cleaning up TCE-contaminated groundwater in a field trial.