• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.33-44
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• 2009

The objective of the study was to develop a hybrid technology integrating biological and physicochemical technologies to efficiently remediate arsenic contaminated lands such as abandoned mine area. The tailing soil samples contaminated with As at a high level were obtained from Songchon abandoned mine, and the content of arsenic and heavy metals as well as physicochemical properties and mineral composition were investigated. In addition, two sets of sequential extraction methods were applied to analyze chemical speciations of arsenic and heavy metals to expect their leachability and mobility in geoenvironment. Based on these geochemical data of arsenic and heavy metal contaminants, column-type experiments on the bioleaching of arsenic were undertaken. Subsequently, experiments on the hybrid process incorporating bioleaching and electrokinetics were accomplished and its removal efficiency of arsenic was compared with that of the individual electrokinetic process. With the results, finally, the feasibilty of the hybrid technnology was evaluated. The arsenic removal efficiencies of the individual electrokinetic process (44 days) and the hybrid process incorporating bioleaching (28 days) and electrokinetics (16 dyas) were measured 57.8% and 64.5%, respectively, when both two processes were operated in an identical condition. On the contrary, the arsenic removal efficiency during the bioleaching process (28 days) appeared relatively lower (11.8%), and the result indicates that the bioleaching process enhanced the efficacy of the electrokinetic process as a result of mobilization of arsenic rather than removed arsenic by itself. In particular, the arsenic removal rate of the electrokinetics integrated with bioleaching was observed over than 2 times larger than that obtained by the electrokinetics alone. From the results of the study, if the bioleaching which is considered a relatively economic process is applied sufficiently prior to electrokinetics, the removal efficiency and rate of arsenic can be significantly improved. Consequently, the study proves the feasibility of the hybrid process integrating both technologies.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.895-903
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• 2007

As for the increasing demanding on the development of direct-ecological landfill monitoring methods, it is needed for critically defining the condition of landfills and their influence on the environment, quantifying the amount of enzymes and bacteria mainly concerned with biochemical reaction in the landfills. This study was thus conducted to understand the fates of contaminants in association with groundwater quality parameters. For the study, groundwater was seasonally sampled from four closed unsanitary landfills(i.e. Cheonan(C), Wonju(W), Nonsan(N), Pyeongtaek(P) sites) in which microbial diversity was simultaneously obtained by 16S rDNA methods. Subsequently, a number of primer sets were prepared for quantifying the specific gene of representative bacteria and the gene of encoding enzymes dominantly found in the landfills. The relationship between water quality parameters and gene quantification were compared based on correlation factors. Correlation between DSR(Sulfate reduction bacteria) gene and BOD(Biochemical Oxygen Demand) was greater than 0.8 while NSR(Nitrification bacteria-Nitrospira sp.) gene and nitrate were related more than 0.9. A stabilization indicator(BOD/COD) and MTOT(Methane Oxidation bacteria), MCR(Methyl coenzyme M reductase), Dde(Dechloromonas denitrificans) genes were correlated over 0.8, but ferric iron and Fli(Ferribacterium limineticm) gene were at the lowest of 0.7. For MTOT, it was at the highest related at 100% over BOD/COD. In addition, anaerobic genes(i.e., nirS-Nitrite reductase, MCR. Dde, DSR) and DO were also related more than 0.8, which showing anaerobic reactions generally dependant upon DO. As demonstrated in the study, molecular biological investigation and water quality parameters are highly co-linked, so that quantitative real-time PCR could be cooperatively used for assessing landfill stabilization in association with the conventional monitoring parameters.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.31-39
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• 2002

Pollutants from industry, mining, agriculture, and other sources have contaminated sediments in many surface water bodies. Sediment contamination poses a severe threat to human health and environment because many toxic contaminants that are barely detectable in the water column can accumulate in sediments at much higher levels. The purpose of this study was to make optimal treatment and disposal plan o( sediment for water quality improvement in small-scale resevoir based on an evaluation of degree of contamination. The degree of contamination were investigated for 23 samples of 9 site at different depth of sediment in small-scale J river. Results for analysis of contaminated sediments were observed that copper concentration of 4 samples were higher than the regulation of hazardous waste (3 mg/L) and that of all samples were exceeded soil pollution warning levels for agricultural areas. Lead and mercury concentration of all samples were detected below both regulations. Necessary of sediment dredge was evaluated for organic matter and nutrient through standard levels of Paldang lake and the lower Han river in Korea and Tokyo bay and Yokohama bay in Japan. The degree of contamination for organic matter and nutrient was not serious. Compared standard levels of Japan, America, and Canada for heavy metal, contaminated sediment was concluded as lowest effect level or limit of tolerance level because standard levels of America and Canada was established worst effect of benthic organisms. The optimal treatment method of sediment contained heavy metal was cement-based solidification/stabilization to prevent heavy metal leaching.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.87-96
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• 2007

Risk assessment was carried out in order to improve the remediation and management strategy on a contaminated gunnery site, where a flood control reservoir is under construction nearby. Six chemicals, including explosive chemicals and heavy metals, which were suspected to possess risk to humans by leaching events from the site were the target pollutants for the assessment. A site-specific conceptual site model was constructed based on effective, reasonable exposure pathways to avoid any overestimation of the risk. Also, conservative default values were adapted to prevent underestimation of the risk when site-specific values were not available. The risks of the six contaminants were calculated by API's Decision Support System for Exposure and Risk Assessment with several assumptions. In the crater-formed-area(Ac), the non-carcinogenic risks(i.e., HI values) of TNT(Tri-Nitro-Toluene) and Cd were slightly larger than 1, and for RDX(Royal Demolition Explosives), over 50. The total non-carcinogenic risk of the whole gunnery range calculated to a significantly high value of 62.5. Carcinogenicity of Cd was estimated to be about $10^{-3}$, while that of Pb was about $5\;{\times}\;10^{-4}$, which greatly exceeded the generally acceptable carcinogenic risk level of $10^{-4}{\sim}10^{-6}$. The risk assessment results suggest that an immediate remediation practice for both carcinogens and non-carcinogens are required before the reservoir construction. However, for more accurate risk assessment, more specific estimations on condition shifts due to the construction of the reservoir are required, and more over, the effects of the pollutants to the ecosystem is also necessary to be evaluated.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.101-110
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• 2013

Due to the large specific surface area and great reactivity toward environmental contaminants, nanocrystalline mackinawite (FeS) has been widely applied for the remediation of contaminated groundwater and soil. Furthermore, nanocrystalline FeS is rather thermodynamically stable against anoxic corrosion, and its reactivity can be regenerated continuously by the activity of sulfate-reducing bacteria. However, nanocrystalline mackinawite is prone to either spread out along the groundwater flow or cause pore clogging in aquifers by particle aggregation. Accordingly, this mineral should be modified for the application of permeable reactive barriers (PRBs). In this study, coating methods were investigated by which mackinawite nanoparticles were deposited on the surface of alumina or activated alumina. The amount of FeS coating was found to significantly vary with pH, with the highest amount occurring at pH ~6.9 for both minerals. At this pH, the surfaces of mackinawite and alumina (or activated alumina) were oppositely charged, with the resultant electrostatic attraction making the coating highly effective. At this pH, the coating amounts by alumina and activated alumina were 0.038 and 0.114 $mmol{\cdot}FeS/g$, respectively. Under anoxic conditions, arsenite sorption experiments were conducted with uncoated alumina, uncoated activated alumina, and both minerals coated with FeS at the optimal pH for comparison of their reactivity. Uncoated activated alumina showed the higher arsenite removal compared to uncoated alumina. Notably, the arsenite sorption capacity of activated alumina was little changed by the coating with FeS. This might be attributed to the abundance of highly reactive hydroxyl functional groups (${\equiv}$AlOH) on the surface of activated alumina, making the arsenite sorption by the coated FeS unnoticeable. In contrast, the arsenite sorption capacity of alumina was found to increase substantially by the FeS coating. This was due to the consumption of the surface hydroxyl functional groups on the alumina surface and the subsequent occurrence of As(III) sorption by the coated FeS. Alumina, on the surface area basis, has about 8 times higher FeS coating amount and higher As(III) sorption capacity than silica. This study indicates that alumina is a better candidate than silica for the coating of nanocrystalline mackinawite.