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Enhanced soil washing process for the remediation of PBDEs/Pb/Cd-contaminated electronic waste site with carboxymethyl chitosan in a sunflower oil–water solvent system and microbial augmentation

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Abstract

An innovative ex situ soil washing technology was developed to remediate polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and heavy metals in an electronic waste site. Elevated temperature (50 °C) in combination with ultrasonication (40 kHz, 20 min) at 5.0 mL L−1 sunflower oil and 2.5 g L−1 carboxymethyl chitosan were found to be effective in extracting mixed pollutants from soil. After two successive washing cycles, the removal efficiency rates for total PBDEs, BDE28, BDE47, BDE209, Pb, and Cd were approximately 94.1, 93.4, 94.3, 99.1, 89.3, and 92.7 %, respectively. Treating the second washed soil with PBDE-degrading bacteria (Rhodococcus sp. strain RHA1) inoculation and nutrient addition for 3 months led to maximum biodegradation rates of 37.3, 52.6, 23.9, and 1.3 % of the remaining total PBDEs, BDE28, BDE47, BDE209, respectively. After the combined treatment, the microbiological functions of washed soil was partially restored, as indicated by a significant increase in the counts, biomass C, N, and functioning diversity of soil microorganisms (p < 0.05), and the residual PBDEs and heavy metals mainly existed as very slow desorbing fractions and residual fractions, as evaluated by Tenax extraction combined with a first-three-compartment model and sequential extraction with metal stability indices (I R and U ts). Additionally, the secondary environmental risk of mixed contaminants in the remediated soil was limited. Therefore, the proposed combined cleanup strategy is an environment-friendly technology that is important for risk assessment and management in mixed-contaminated sites.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41401254, 41401347, 2014CB441105), and Jiangsu Municipal Natural Science Foundation (BK20141050, BK20140723). Thanks to Dr. Lindsay D. Eltis at the University of British Columbia, Canada, for providing us the PBDE-degradinralg strain, Rhodococcus jostii RHA1. 

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, People’s Republic of China

    Mao Ye & Xin Jiang

  2. Soil Ecology Lab, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, People’s Republic of China

    Mingming Sun, Huixin Li & Feng Hu

  3. Nanjing Institute of Environmental Science, Ministry of Environmental Protection of China, Nanjing, 210042, People’s Republic of China

    Jinzhong Wan

  4. Key Laboratory of Soil Environmental and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, People’s Republic of China

    Guodong Fang

  5. Department of Chemistry, Maseno University, Private Bag, Maseno, 40105, Kenya

    Fredrick Orori Kengara

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  1. Mao Ye
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  2. Mingming Sun
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  3. Jinzhong Wan
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  4. Guodong Fang
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  5. Huixin Li
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  6. Feng Hu
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  7. Xin Jiang
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  8. Fredrick Orori Kengara
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Correspondence to Mao Ye.

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Responsible editor: Gerald Thouand

Mao Ye and Mingming Sun contributed equally to this work.

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Ye, M., Sun, M., Wan, J. et al. Enhanced soil washing process for the remediation of PBDEs/Pb/Cd-contaminated electronic waste site with carboxymethyl chitosan in a sunflower oil–water solvent system and microbial augmentation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 2687–2698 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3518-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3518-z

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