Nanotechnology-Based Remediation of Groundwater

Groundwater resources in need of cleanup are a worldwide problem. In many cases, industrialization and human activities have introduced contamination to groundwater, rendering it unsuitable for human use. The contaminants are both of organic (e.g., chlorinated solvents) and inorganic (e.g., chromium and arsenic) nature. Conventionally, intrusive methods were used to clean up the contamination source/plume. These include the pump-and-treat method that extracts the contaminated water for surface treatment. Such ex situ methods are less practicable when there is limited access to the contaminated subsurface layer. A more efficient approach will be to plan for in situ remediation of the contaminants which would minimize the need to extract the contamination. This chapter looks into a new technology that uses metal nanoparticles to deliver in situ remediation of chlorinated solvents. We explore this technology from technical, economical, and operational point of view.