Benchmarking a Visual-Basic based multi-component one-dimensional reactive transport modeling tool

We present the details of a comprehensive numerical modeling tool, RT1D, which can be used for simulating biochemical and geochemical reactive transport problems. The code can be run within the standard Microsoft EXCEL Visual Basic platform, and it does not require any additional software tools. The code can be easily adapted by others for simulating different types of laboratory-scale reactive transport experiments. We illustrate the capabilities of the tool by solving five benchmark problems with varying levels of reaction complexity. These literature-derived benchmarks are used to highlight the versatility of the code for solving a variety of practical reactive transport problems. The benchmarks are described in detail to provide a comprehensive database, which can be used by model developers to test other numerical codes. The VBA code presented in the study is a practical tool that can be used by laboratory researchers for analyzing both batch and column datasets within an EXCEL platform.

► We present the details of a new EXCEL-VB based reactive transport model RT1D.
► The new code can simulate kinetic- and equilibrium-controlled reactive transport.
► Results of five benchmark tests are provided to demonstrate the use of RT1D.
► The code is a practical tool for solving both biological and geochemical transport systems.