Remediation of Heavy Metal

Contaminated Soil

:Presented by
Jamal suliman elgosni
Under supervision of Dr Maher George Nassem
 Introduction
(Heavy metal (HM contamination of soils has
become a serious problem in areas of intense
industry and agri- culture. HMs are deposited in soils
by atmospheric input and the use of mineral
fertilizers or compost, and sewage sludge disposal.
Soils polluted with HMs pose a health hazard to
humans as well as plants and animals, often
requiring soil remediation practices. Conventional
remediation methods usually involve excavation and
removal of contaminated soil layer, physical
stabiliza-tion (mixing of soil with cement, lime,
apatite etc.), or washing of contaminated soils with
strong acids or HM chelators (Berti et al., 1998,
Steele and Pichtel, 1998)
Sources of Soil Contamination
soils in both industrial parks and near small factories
outside the parks are affected by a wide variety of
contaminants. The most serious sources of soil
contamination are (EPA/ROC 1994):

1. Heavy metals in hazardous waste,

including materials from chemical
production, dyeing, electroplating and heat
treatment, the production of batteries,
metal treatment, mining and extractive
industries,
2. Hazardousscrap yards,
organic service
waste stations and
materials,
tanning
including those from medical centers, oil
production and storage, and paint and
pesticide
3. production
Corrosive metal waste materials,
including those from acid/alkali plants and
Sources of heavy metals in soils and
their expected ionic species in soil
.solution
 METALS AT CONTAMINATED SITES

• Approximately 75% of Superfund sites for which

Records of Decision (RODs) have been signed
contain metals as a form of contamination.
Some of these sites contain mixed metal-organic
wastes for which metals might not be the
primary contaminant of concern.

• The most common metals found at

contaminated sites are (U.S. EPA, 1996b),
in order: lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), arsenic
(As), zinc (Zn), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu),
and mercury (Hg). Figure 1 summarizes the
frequency with which these metals occur at
Superfund sites.
 Figure 1. Metals Most Commonly Present in all
Matrices at Superfund Sites (from U.S.
(EPA, 1996

The range of contaminant concentrations and the

physical
and chemical forms of contaminants will depend
on activities and disposal patterns for
The contamination level of trace elements
in rural soils of the world
 Remediation can be achieved in
several ways: physical, chemical
and biological
• Physical methods of remediation include
verification, encapsulation, soil washing,
artificial ground freezing, and electro kinetics
• The chemical methods use chemical treatment
to remove or decrease the availability of metals
to living things and groundwater, and they
include neutralization, solidification
• Biological methods make use of plants and
microorganisms to remedy metal contaminated
soil
 Soil amendments for remediation
helating compounds
• Recent research has shown that chemical amendments, such as
synthetic organic chelates, can enhance phytoextraction by increasing
HMs bioavailability in soil thus enhancing plant uptake, and
translocation of HMs from the roots to the green parts of tested plants
(Epstein et al., 1999; Huang et al., 1997). Of the chelates tested,
ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) was often found to be the
most effective (Blaylock et al., 1997).

• The addition of EDTA enhanced accumulation of HMs in

green parts of the test plant. However, EDTA addition
also caused leaching of Pb, Zn and Cd through the soil
profile and had toxic effects on test plants and soil
microorganism
 Phosphate
•
compounds
Phosphate compounds enhance the immobilization of
metals in soils through various processes including:
direct metal adsorption by P compounds, phosphate
anion-induced metal adsorption, and precipitation of
metals with solution P as metal phosphates
Depending on the source, soil application of P
compounds
can cause direct adsorption of metals onto these
compounds
through increased surface charge and enhanced anion-
induced
metal adsorption. Metal adsorption onto apatite is
facilitated
through the exchange of Ca2+ from the apatite particle
with the
metal cations in soil solution
 •Liming materials
• These include calcite (CaCO3), burnt lime (CaO), slaked lime
(Ca(OH)2), dolomit(CaMg(CO3)2)and slag (CaSiO3). The acid-
neutralizing value of liming materials is expressed in terms of
calcium carbonate equivalent (CCE), expressed as a weight
percentage of pure CaCO3.Liming, as part of normal cultural
practices, has often been shown to reduce the concentration of
Cd, Pb and other metals in edible parts of crops. Similarly,
liming serpentine soils containing toxic levels of Ni has been
shown to alleviate the phytotoxic effects of Ni. In these cases,
the effect of liming materials in decreasing metal uptake by
plants has been attributed both to decreased mobility in soils
(through adsorption/precipitation) and to the competition
between Ca2+ and metals ions on the root surface.
 Organic composts
• The major sources of organic composts include biosolid
and animal manures livestock manure and other
organic wastes, especially when they are composted in
the presence of sewage sludge Most manure products
contain low levels of heavy metals (except Cu and Zn
in swine manure and As in poultry manure).

 Manure byproducts that are low in metal

content can be
used to immobilize metal contaminants in
soils
CONCLUSION OF SOME
RESEARCHES
POLLUTION OF SOIL BY AGRICULTURAL
AND INDUSTRIAL WASTE
• After 30 - 40 years of intensive use of fertilizer in
lowland areas of West Java, including rock phosphate, the
concentration in the soil of heavy metals such as lead and
cadmium still remains below toxic levels. However, these
elements are sometimes present naturally in rock
phosphate, so that continuous monitoring is needed.
• The results showed that vetiver grass could grow well
on soils contaminated with high concentrations of lead
and cadmium. By concentrating the contaminants in its
roots, the vetiver grass reduced the concentration of lead
in soil by as much as 38 - 60%, and cadmium by 35 - 42%.
 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HEAVY
METAL CONCENTRATION IN SOILS
OFTIAWAN AND UPTAKE BY CROPS

There is no clear relationship between the concentration

of cadmium in brown rice, and the amount of cadmium
extracted from the soil by 0.1 M HCl. This means that the
0.1 M HCl extraction method is not suitable for predicting
the uptake of soil cadmium and its presence in rice grain.
Exchangeable (or available) forms of cadmium and lead
can be transformed into unavailable forms if the soil is
amended with manganese oxide, calcium carbonate or
zeolite. The concentration of cadmium in the soil solution,
and levels of cadmium extracted by DTPA and EDTA,
decreased significantly when the soil was treated with
calcium carbonate. Treatments of zinc oxide, however,
had no significant effect.
 REFERENCES
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Thank you for your
attention