Upscaling transportof adsorbing solutes in porous media

Adsorption of solutes in porous media is commonly modeled as an equilibrium process. Indeed, one may safely assume that within the pore space, the concentration of adsorbed solute at a point on the grain surface is algebraically related to the concentration in the fluid next to the grain. The same, however, cannot be said about average concentrations. In fact, during solute transport, concentration gradients develop within the pore space, and these could potentially give rise to a scale-dependent adsorption process. The main objective of this research is to develop relationship between pore-scale adsorption coefficient and corresponding upscaled adsorption parameters. Two approaches are used: Theoretical averaging and numerical upscaling. In the averaging approach, equilibrium adsorption is assumed at the pore-scale and solute transport equations are averaged over REV. This leads to explicit expressions for macro-scale adsorption rate constants as a function of micro-scale parameters. In the numerical approach, first we simulate solute transport within a single tube undergoing equilibrium adsorption at the pore wall, and then flux averaged concentration breakthrough curves are obtained. These are used to determine the upscaled adsorption rate constants as functions of pore-scale hydraulic and adsorption parameters. Results of the two approaches agree very well.