Kinetics of the chemical reduction of nitrate by zero-valent iron

The use of reactive barriers is one of the preferred remediation technologies for the remediation of groundwater contamination. An adequate design of these barriers requires the understanding of the kinetics of the reaction between the target contaminant and the solid phase in the barrier. A study of the kinetics between metallic iron and aqueous nitrate is presented in this paper. Published literature regarding this reaction indicates that researchers are far from a consensus about the mechanism of this reaction. This paper presents the results obtained from experiments performed at different constant pH values and iron dosages, together with a mathematical analysis of the kinetic results. We have found that an Eley–Rideal kinetic model yields a good explanation of the relatively complicated dependence between rate of nitrate reduction and the pH value of the solution.