Characteristics of Vanadium Leaching from Basaltic Soils of Jeju Island, Korea

To understand the characteristics of vanadium leaching from soils formed by the weathering of basalts, paleo soil at Gosan, Jeju Island, Korea, and several present-day soils from neighboring areas were collected. Leaching experiments were carried out by two approaches: 1) batch experiments under various geochemical conditions (redox potential (Eh) and pH) and 2) continuous leaching experiments under conditions similar to those of natural environments. From the batch experiments, leached vanadium concentrations were highest under alkaline (NaOH) conditions, with a maximum value of $2,870{\mu}g/L$, and were meaningful (maximum value, $114{\mu}g/L$) under oxidizing ($H_2O_2$) conditions, whereas concentrations under other conditions (acidic-HCl, $neutral-NaHCO_3$, and $reducing-Na_2S_2O_3$) were negligible. This indicated that the geochemical conditions, in which soil-water reactions occurred to form groundwater with high vanadium concentrations, were under alkaline-oxidizing conditions. From the continuous leaching experiments, the pH and leached vanadium concentrations of the solution were in the ranges of 5.45~5.58 and $6{\sim}9{\mu}g/L$, respectively, under $CO_2$ supersaturation conditions for the first 15 days, whereas values under $O_2$ aeration conditions after the next 15 days increased to 8.48~8.62 and $9.7{\sim}12.2{\mu}g/L$, respectively. Vanadium concentrations from the latter continuous leaching experiments were similar to the average concentration of groundwater in Jeju Island ($11.2{\mu}g/L$). Furthermore leached vanadium concentrations in continuous leaching experiments were highly correlated with pH and Al, Cr, Fe, Mn and Zn concentrations. The results of this study showed that 1) alkaline-oxidizing conditions of water-rock (soil) interactions were essential to form vanadium-rich groundwater and 2) volcanic soils can be a potential source of vanadium in Jeju Island groundwater.

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