Methylene blue transport in a sand-illite mixture and its implications for contaminant transport

Understanding contaminant transport in clay-containing soils is critical for accurate prediction of the travel distances of contaminants and for the design and implementation of corresponding remediation plans. This study examined the breakthrough behavior of methylene blue (MB) through sand-illite mixtures using laboratory soil-column experiments at five inlet concentrations, three flow rates, and five illite contents. Kinetic and equilibrium adsorption tests were performed to evaluate the maximum adsorption capacities of the sand and illite used in the soil-column experiments. In addition, the bed efficiency, MB saturation, and adsorption rate were calculated to quantitatively describe the observed breakthrough curves. The observed breakthrough curves, bed efficiencies, MB saturations, and adsorption rates in this study demonstrated the presence of a threshold illite content of ~10% for the adsorption efficiency of contaminants. This implies the need to evaluate the threshold clay content for accurate predictions of contaminant transport through gap-graded clay-containing soils.