MULTIBARDEM - Demonstration of a MULTIBARRIER as a sustainable approach for the prevention of groundwater contamination by leaking landfills and multipollutant contaminated sites

The objective of the project was to demonstrate the technical feasibility of a multifunctional permeable barrier, “Multibarrier”, which combines different principles of barrier technology, namely the removal of pollutants based on both physico-chemical and biological activities in order to treat plumes with mixed pollutants.

The project successfully demonstrated three types of “Multibarriers” in different circumstances and set ups. Although for some substances improvements are possible, it can be concluded that Multibarriers can form an effective and efficient way of treating contaminated groundwater. Several technical difficulties needed to be solved in the course of the project (e.g. fast breakthrough of the zeolite) and part of the process (biological removal of ammonia) could not initially be measured due to low temperatures in the first monitoring period (winter 2008). By the end of the project, however, a removal rate up to 70% of ammonia was achieved.

The Multibarriers have a high demonstration value. They are a tailor-made technological solution for groundwater contaminated with a mixture of pollutants. The performance of some aspects of the multibarriers have been evaluated on a laboratory scale. Such evaluation in the field are rare, and thus the onsite demonstrations of multibarriers represents a great innovative step forward.