Restoration of Saline Soil in Cultivated Land Using Electrokinetic Process

Abstract

Many agricultural areas have suffered from salinization due to the use of fertilizer and inadequate water management. This study utilized an electrokinetic (EK) process to investigate the movement and removal of salts in greenhouse soil. Each experiment was operated with a constant voltage gradient of 1 V/cm between 6 to 48 h and used tap water as an electrolyte. A significant amount of anions was removed through electroosmotic flow and electromigration. Nitrates showed the highest removal efficiency (81.86%) after 48 h. However, the removal of cations by EK process was negligible; in fact, the exchangeable concentration of potassium after EK treatment actually increased compared to the initial value. In this experiment, the electrical conductivity of the soil was lowered to 60% of the initial value, signifying that salts were removed by EK. Based on the results of this study, EK can be a very effective technique to control the concentration of salts in saline soil.

Keywords:

• Electrical conductivity
• electrokinetic remediation
• ionic mobility
• saline soil

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This work was supported by the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute.