In situ groundwater clean-up of MTBE by photocatalysis

An attractive route for removing organics from groundwater is to use a process which is capable of mineralising contaminants, that is decomposing them, for example, to carbon dioxide, hydrogen ions and water. Photocatalysis is a process which involves illumination of a catalyst surface with UV light, and which is capable of mineralising organic contaminants. In this study, which is a collaboration between Engineering and Chemistry Departments at Cambridge, this clean-up process was tested on water contaminated with MTBE. Results are also presented of a laboratory study of an in situ reactor, buried in soil, simulating clean-up of a moving plume of MTBE-contaminated water. The process was shown to decompose MTBE effectively, and for the in situ reactor, the radius of influence was evaluated under various conditions. It was also found that the rate of clean-up can be increased using a novel gold-modified titanium dioxide catalyst.