New Barrier Fluids for Subsurface Containment of Contaminants

In some situations, containment of contaminants in the subsurface may be preferable to removal or treatment in situ. In these cases, it maybe possible to form barriers by injecting fluids (grouts) that set in place and reduce the formation permeability. This paper reports laboratory work to develop two types of fluids for this application: colloidal silica (CS) and polysiloxane (PSX). Falling-head permeameter tests of grouted Hanford sand, lasting 50 days, showed hydraulic conductivities of order 10{sup -7} cm/sec for these two materials. Low initial viscosity of the grout is necessary to permit injection without causing fracturing or surface uplift. Experiments with crosslinked polysiloxanes showed that they could be diluted to achieve adequately low viscosity without losing their ability to cure. Control of the gel time is important for grout emplacement. Gel time of CS grouts increased with increasing pH (above 6.5) and with decreasing ionic strength. Salt solutions were added to the colloid-to increase the ionic strength and control gel time. When injected into Hanford sand, the CS grout gelled much more quickly than the same formula without sand. This effect results from salinity that is present in pore water and from multi-valent ions that are desorbed from clays andmore » ion-exchanged for mono-valent ions in the grout. Ion-exchange experiments showed that most of the multi-valent ions could be removed-by flushing the sand with 15 PV of 4% NaCl and sand treated in this manner did not accelerate the gelling of the grout. When grout is injected into unsaturated soil it slumps, leaving the soil only partially saturated and achieving less permeability reduction upon gelling. Multiple injections of CS grout in 1-D sand columns demonstrated that by accumulating the residual gelled grout saturations from several injections, low permeability can be achieved.« less