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Impact of chemical leaching on permeability and cadmium removal from fine-grained soils

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of chemical leaching on permeability and Cd removal from fine-grained polluted soils. Column leaching experiments were conducted using two types of soils (i.e., artificially Cd-polluted loam and historically polluted silty loam). Chemical agents of CaCl2, FeCl3, citric acid, EDTA, rhamnolipid, and deionized water were used to leach Cd from the soils. Results showed that organic agents reduced permeability of both soils, and FeCl3 reduced permeability of loam soil, compared with inorganic agents and deionized water. Entrapment and deposition of colloids generated from the organic agents and FeCl3 treatments reduced the soil permeability. The peak Cd effluence from the artificially polluted loam columns was retarded. For the artificially polluted soils treated with EDTA and the historically polluted soils with FeCl3, Cd precipitates were observed at the bottom after chemical leaching. When Cd was associated with large colloid particles, the reduction of soil permeability caused Cd accumulation in deeper soil. In addition, the slow process of disintegration of soil clay during chemical leaching might result in the retardation of peak Cd effluence. These results suggest the need for caution when using chemical-leaching agents for Cd removal in fine-grained soils.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 51609176, 51379152, and 41471181) and the National Key Technology Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (no. 2015BAD05B02). We appreciated the anonymous reviewer for the valuable comments on this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Zhongbing Lin, Shuang Huang & Kang Wang

  2. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Remediation Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Renduo Zhang

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  1. Zhongbing Lin
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Correspondence to Kang Wang.

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Responsible editor: Zhihong Xu

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Lin, Z., Zhang, R., Huang, S. et al. Impact of chemical leaching on permeability and cadmium removal from fine-grained soils. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 18229–18239 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-9523-2

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