Initial situation

The long periods during which various upgrading technologies were used to produce town gas, high temperature coke, and lignite briquettes at the Schwarze Pumpe site of approximately 100 hectares led to the ground water becoming significantly contaminated over a wide area. The objective here was to prevent the contaminants from spreading further.

Approach

The basic approach of the rehabilitation concept is to circulate the ground water; first raising it, then cleaning it, and finally reinfiltrating it at the site. Taking the composition of the contaminants into account (phenols, BTEX (benzene, toluol, ethyl benzene, and xylene) and PACs (polycyclic aromatic carbons) five MPPE (macroporous polymer extraction) facilities went into service as cleaning modules. Together, the modules can clean 76 m³ per hour.

Result

Based on results so far, the assumption is that the cleaning facilities will have to be operated for about another 20 years. The operation of the MPPE facilities is steadily reducing the contamination level towards the target values.