REMOVAL OF CU(II) AND CR(III) FROM NATURALLY CONTAMINATED LOAM BY ELECTROMIGRATION

A new technique for electrokinetic soil remediation was proposed and d eveloped in our previous studies. In the proposed technique, a conduct ive solution was inserted between the cathode and the soil being treat ed. By this arrangement, the heavy metals no longer precipitated in th e soil, instead they were transported out of the soil and precipitated in the conductive solution; furthermore the decrease in conductivity, due to metals precipitated in the soil, has been avoided. Experimenta l results showed that heavy metals such as zinc, copper, chromium, cad mium and lead can be removed from artificially contaminated sand; and the removal efficiencies higher than 90% have been achieved. In this s tudy, three laboratory experiments have been carried out to remove cop per(II) and chromium(III) from naturally contaminated loam. The experi mental results show that the removal efficiencies depend on the durati on of tile treatment. In seven days remediation, metal removal efficie ncies around 90% were reached for both copper(II) and chromium(III).