Experimental and modeling study of pure terephthalic acid (PTA) wastewater transport in the vadose zone

Abstract

PTA wastewater discharged from a factory was selected as the research object in this project and COD_cr was selected as the characteristic pollution factor. Static adsorption and soil column leaching experiments of silty clay and clayey soil were carried out to study the adsorption, bio-degradation and dispersion coefficient of COD_cr in PTA wastewater. Hydrus-1D was used to build the convection–diffusion model to demonstrate the migration of PTA wastewater in the vadose zone. The results indicate that silty clay and clayey soil in the vadose zone can adsorb, degrade and impede the contaminants in PTA wastewater; however, the coefficient of adsorption and degradation were very low, they were down to 0.0002 L g⁻¹, 0.0003 L g⁻¹ and 0.0097 d⁻¹, 0.0077 d⁻¹ for silty clay and clayey soil, respectively. Under the virtual condition that, wastewater in the sewage pool is 5 m deep, COD_cr concentration is 4000 mg L⁻¹, vadose zone is 21 m, PTA wastewater will reach the phreatic surface after 20.87 years. When wastewater in the sewage pool is 7 m with other conditions unchanged, after 17.18 years PTA wastewater will reach groundwater. The results show that there is a higher pollution risk for groundwater if we do not take any anti-seepage measures.