Breakthrough Curve Separation Using Applied Solute Tracers

The separation of advection and dispersion from the breakthrough curve of a potentially reactive solute can help determine if reactive transport mechanisms occurred. This is typically done by solving the advection-dispersion equation and fitting the breakthrough curve of an applied non-reactive solute tracer by adjusting groundwater velocity and the dispersion coefficient; the values of velocity and dispersion are then applied to the breakthrough curve of the potentially reactive solute, and any residuals can be fitted with the appropriate reactive transport mechanisms. A simpler approach is to plot the dimensionless relative concentrations of the non-reactive and reactive solutes on the same breakthrough curves; thus, any differences between the two curves can be attributed to reactive transport. The method proposed here can allow for separating advection and dispersion from the breakthrough curve of a potentially reactive solute based on data only, as opposed to model-derived fitting of groundwater velocity and dispersion, all while preserving the true concentration, as opposed to the dimensionless relative concentration, of the potentially reactive solute. A new measure of overall solute reactivity is also introduced that summates relative temporal moments to quantify and rank the reactivity of a suite of solutes. The method is described and applied to numerical model simulations and field tracer data to demonstrate its utility for combined visual-quantitative breakthrough curve separation to better characterize reactive solute transport in applied tracer studies.