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Water Leaching of Chelated Pb Complexes from Post-Phytoremediation Biomass

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Abstract

There is a pollution risk when disposing of post-remediation biomass from chelate-assisted metal phytoremediation. To assess this risk, we measured water extractable lead (Pb) in Brassica rapa tissues with ICP-MS, determined if chelated Pb was present with HPLC-MS, and identified Pb storage locations using electron microscopy with x-ray microanalysis. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and ethylenediaminedisuccinic acid (EDDS) were used to enhance Pb movement from contaminated soil to above ground B. rapa tissues. With Pb-EDTA, 92 % (+/−5) of Pb was water extractable from dried tissues and complexed as Pb-EDTA. Electron microscopy and x-ray microanalysis showed Pb stored in xylem vessels. After composting of plant tissues, 79 % (+/−2) of Pb was water extractable and complexed as Pb-EDTA. Total plant Pb accumulation was lower from soils amended with EDDS, but only 6.7 % (+/−0.3) of Pb was water extractable from dried tissues and 55 % (+/−25) from wet tissues of plants grown in EDDS-amended soils. Pb-EDDS was detected in tissues but not at quantifiable levels. This work emphasizes the need for proper treatment and disposal of contaminated post-remediation plant tissues, especially when using EDTA. Composting of plant tissues containing Pb-EDTA was shown to significantly reduce waste material volume and slightly reduce the water extractable fraction, but further immobilization of Pb would be necessary to minimize transport risk. Amending Pb-contaminated soils with EDDS can result in plant biomass with a lower potential to leach Pb into groundwater, but the lower Pb accumulation with EDDS would require longer phytoremediation time compared with EDTA.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the National Science Foundation for support of this work under Grant no. 0116170 and the Saginaw Bay Watershed Initiative Network for project support. We acknowledge SVSU student Heather Claxton and ACS Project SEED student Robert Woys for their contributions to the experimental work. We also thank Xudong Fan of the Michigan State University Center for Advanced Electron Microscopy and Bruce Hart of the SVSU Independent Testing Laboratory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Saginaw Valley State University, 7400 Bay Road, University Center, MI, 48710, USA

    Erik Krueger, Joseph Darland, Stanislaw Goldyn, Rebecca Swanson, Robert Lehmann & David Karpovich

  2. Department of Biology, Saginaw Valley State University, 7400 Bay Road, University Center, MI, 48710, USA

    Sally Shepardson

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  1. Erik Krueger
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  2. Joseph Darland
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  3. Stanislaw Goldyn
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  4. Rebecca Swanson
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  6. Sally Shepardson
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  7. David Karpovich
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Correspondence to David Karpovich.

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Krueger, E., Darland, J., Goldyn, S. et al. Water Leaching of Chelated Pb Complexes from Post-Phytoremediation Biomass. Water Air Soil Pollut 224, 1615 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-013-1615-0

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