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Remediation of the lead–zinc composite-contaminated soil using stabilization reagent in an industrial region of Nanjing, China

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Abstract

Heavy metal pollution in soils has posed severe environmental threats to humans through various pathways due to their persistent and toxic nature. In the present study, a new cost-effective type of soil heavy metal solidification and stabilization reagent was synthesized and ratio-optimized, and applied in the remediation of the lead–zinc composite-contaminated soil, collected from the industrial region of Nanjing, China. The solidification/stabilization mechanism as well as the optimized conditions for the remediation of Pb and Zn from soil were also explored. In results, the stability analysis of single metal solidification after the solidifying reaction showed that the addition of a solidification stabilizer can greatly enhance the Pb/Zn precipitation efficiency. In the XRD analysis of the precipitation after a series of adsorption, precipitation, and co-precipitation processes, the precipitation contained an array of substances of quite low solubility and high stability. The orthogonal test analysis indicated that the optimal amount of the clay mineral material, industrial waste, and phosphate-based material was 3.2, 0.8, and 0.6 g, respectively, in the solution of 100 mL Pb and Zn ions, and the most suitable pH condition was alkaline.

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The raw/processed data required to reproduce these findings cannot be shared at this time as the data also form part of an ongoing study.

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks are given to Prof. Shi Anna for her guiding advice on the paper. And we would also like to thank the Nanjing Chemical Industrial Park for helping provide samples and materials for the experiment. We are also grateful to all anonymous referees.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hohai University, Nanjing, China

    Z. Zhong

  2. Jiangxi Provincial Construction Office of Poyang Lake Water Control Project, Nanchang, China

    J. Sun

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  1. Z. Zhong
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  2. J. Sun
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Conceptualization, writing—original draft preparation, methodology and editing were contributed by ZZ; Investigation, data, writing—review and curation, were contributed by JWS.

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Correspondence to Z. Zhong.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Editorial responsibility: Samareh Mirkia.

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Zhong, Z., Sun, J. Remediation of the lead–zinc composite-contaminated soil using stabilization reagent in an industrial region of Nanjing, China. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 20, 13307–13318 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-023-04877-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-023-04877-x

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