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Coupling Bioleaching and Electrokinetics to Remediate Heavy Metal Contaminated Soils

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Abstract

In this study, bioleaching was coupled with electrokinetics (BE) to remove heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Cr and Pb) from contaminated soil. For comparison, bioleaching (BL), electrokinetics (EK), and the chemical extraction method were also applied alone to remove the metals. The results showed that the BE method removed more heavy metals from the contaminated soil than the BL method or the EK method alone. The BE method was able to achieve metal solubilization rates of more than 70 % for Cu, Zn and Cr and of more than 40 % for Pb. Within the range of low current densities (<1 mA cm−2), higher current density led to more metal removal. However, the metal solubilization rates did not increase with increasing current density when the current density was higher than 1 mA cm−2. Therefore, it is suggested that bioleaching coupled with electrokinetics can effectively remediate heavy metal-contaminated soils and that preliminary tests should be conducted before field operation to detect the lowest current density for the greatest metal removal.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the Foundation for Excellent Young Scientist in Guangdong Academy of Sciences (qnjj201401), the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangzhou City, China (2014Y2-00194) and the Scientific Research Fund of Hunan Provincial Education Department (13C1082).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Bioscience and Biotechonology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410128, People’s Republic of China

    Qingyun Huang

  2. Guangdong Institute of Eco-Environmental and Soil Sciences, Guangzhou, 510650, People’s Republic of China

    Zhen Yu & Yueqiang Wang

  3. Department of Bioengineering and Environmental Science, Changsha University, Changsha, 410002, People’s Republic of China

    Ya Pang

  4. Dongguan Environmental Protection Monitoring Station, Dongguan, 523009, People’s Republic of China

    Zhihong Cai

Authors
  1. Qingyun Huang
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  2. Zhen Yu
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  3. Ya Pang
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  4. Yueqiang Wang
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  5. Zhihong Cai
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhen Yu.

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Huang, Q., Yu, Z., Pang, Y. et al. Coupling Bioleaching and Electrokinetics to Remediate Heavy Metal Contaminated Soils. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 94, 519–524 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-015-1500-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-015-1500-1

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