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In situ remediation of cadmium-polluted soil reusing four by-products individually and in combination

  • SOILS, SEC 1 • SOIL ORGANIC MATTER DYNAMICS AND NUTRIENT CYCLING • RESEARCH ARTICLE
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Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of mining, industrial and agricultural solid by-products in the in situ immobilisation of soil cadmium (Cd) based on soybean plant Cd content, soil pH, Cd extractability, bioavailability, leachability and Cd distribution in soils.

Materials and methods

The experiment was conducted as a field experiment in Cd-polluted-soil, wherein four by-products, including fly ash, spent mushroom substrate, silkworm excrement and limestone, were tested individually and in combination. The total Cd in soybean and the soil/by-products samples were determined. The Cd contents in the contaminated soil were analysed by the diffusive gradients in thin-film technique, the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure and four chemical methods. Changes in the fractions of Cd were determined following the Tessier method.

Results and discussion

The results showed that all the additions of the by-products increased the soil pH significantly and simultaneously decreased Cd mobility, bioavailability and leachability, particularly weakened the rate of Cd2+ ion transport from soil to solution. The by-products caused 23.5–76.4% of the exchangeable (EX) fraction of Cd to immobilised Cd fractions which include carbonates bound (CA), Fe-Mn oxides bound (OX), organic matter bound and residual fractions. The mobile faction of Cd was reduced from 33.7 to 16.8–27.8% for the amendments addition, respectively. Limestone was the most effective in immobilising the soil Cd among all the treatments, followed by fly ash. Soil pH observed significantly negative correlations with the Cd concentration in extractability, bioavailability and leachability. Soil pH had positive correlations with the percentages of CA-Cd and OX-Cd, but negatively correlated with the percentages of EX-Cd and the sum of EX-Cd and CA-Cd.

Conclusions

By-products addition increased the soil pH and decreased Cd mobility, bioavailability and leachability. The addition of limestone and fly ash exhibited higher efficiency than the other five additions. The combined additions had better performance on Cd extractability and soil pH than the corresponding single treatment, which decreased more concentrations of mobile, bioavailable and leachable Cd. This study offered four potentially cost-effective amendments singly or jointly for Cd immobilisation, reducing the potential hazards associated with excess Cd and the waste-disposal pressure and promoting a resource-saving development strategy.

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Acknowledgments

This research benefited from a financial support from the “Twelfth Five-year Plan” for Sci & Tech Research of China (2012BAD15B05), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 41271463) and the National Science Foundation for Innovative Research Group (no. 51121003). We are grateful for assistance with Cd analysis requirements of Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, in Tianjin, People's Republic of China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, People’s Republic of China

    Fangli Wang, Wei Ouyang, Fanghua Hao & Chunye Lin

  2. Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Tianjin, 300191, People’s Republic of China

    Ningning Song

Authors
  1. Fangli Wang
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  2. Wei Ouyang
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  3. Fanghua Hao
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Correspondence to Wei Ouyang.

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Responsible editor: Caixian Tang

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Fig. S1

Changes inCd fractionation in soils with the addition of amendments FA, 5% fly ash; SM, 0.2% spent mushroom substrate; SE, 0.5% silkworm excrement; FAM, 5% FA + 0.2% SM; FAS, 5% FA + 0.5% SE; AL, 5% agricultural limestone; EX, CA, OX, OR, and RE represents exchangeable, carbonate bound, Fe-Mn oxides associated, organic matter bounded, and residual fraction respectively (PDF 191 kb)

Table S1

Correlation coefficients for relationships among tested parameters (PDF 52 kb)

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Wang, F., Ouyang, W., Hao, F. et al. In situ remediation of cadmium-polluted soil reusing four by-products individually and in combination. J Soils Sediments 14, 451–461 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-013-0827-7

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