Effect of electric potentials on the removal of Cu and Zn in soil by electrokinetic remediation

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effect of electric potentials on the removal of Cu and Zn in soil by electrokinetic remediation. As the electric potential of the cathode changed from 0 to 10 V, the Cu and Zn removal efficiencies increased from 28.2% to 42.5% and from 27.2% to 36.7%, the energy consumption decreased from 126 to 103 kWh/m³. This study found that in addition to electroosmosis, electromigration, and electrophoresis effects that have been demonstrated in previous studies, ion migration to maintain electrical neutrality played an additional role in the variations in Cu and Zn removal-efficiencies and energy consumption, with the change in cathode potential.

Key words:

• Electrokinetic remediation
• electric potentials
• heavy metal
• soil remediation
• electrical neutrality

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [2019B18314]; National Key R&D Program of China [2018YFC0406300]; the operation for Central University of Hohai University [No. 2013/B18020148]; and a project funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.