Vadose Zone Soil Moisture Wicking Using Super Absorbent Polymers

Super-absorbent polymers (SAPs) have the potential to remove water and associated contaminants from unsaturated sediments in the field. Column and flow cell experiment were conducted to test the ability of four types of SAPs to remove water from unsaturated porous media. Column experiments, with emplacement of a layer of polymer on top of unsaturated porous media, showed the ability of the SAPs to extract up to 80% of the initially emplaced water against gravity into the sorbent over periods up to four weeks. In column experiments where the sorbent was emplaced between layers of unsaturated porous media, gel formation was observed at both the sorbent-porous medium interfaces. The extraction percentages over four weeks of contact time were similar for both column configurations and no obvious differences were observed for the four tested SAPs. Two different flow cells were used to test the wicking behavior of SAPs in two dimensions using three configurations. The largest removal percentages occurred for the horizontal sorbent layer configuration which has the largest sorbent-porous medium interfacial area. In a larger flow cell, a woven nylon “sock” was packed with sorbent and subsequently placed between perforated metal plates, mimicking a well configuration. After one week of contactmore » time the sock was removed and replaced by a fresh sock. The results of this experiment showed that the sorbent was able to continuously extract water from the porous media, although the rate decreased over time. The declining yield during both periods is associated with the sharp reduction in water saturation and relative permeability near the sorbent. It was also observed that the capillary pressure continued to increase over the total contact time of 14 days, indicating that the sorbent remained active over that period. This work has demonstrated the potential of soil moisture wicking using SAPs at the proof-of-principle level.« less