• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.32 no.1
• /
• pp.101-111
• /
• 1999

Sedimentary organic matter, exposed to continental surficial environment, reacts with oxygen supplied from the atmosphee and forms carbon-containing oxidation products. Knowledge of the rate and mechanisms of sedimentary organic matter weathering is important because it is one of the major controls on atmospheric oxygen level through geologic time. Under the abiological conditions, the oxidation rate of coal organic matter by molecular oxygen is enhanced by the increase of oxygen concentration and temperature. At ambient temperature and pressure, aqueous coal oxidation results in the formation of dissolved $CO_2$ dissolved organic carbon and solid oxidation products which are all quantitatively significant reaction products. The effects of pH, ultraviolet light, and microbial activity on the weathering of sedimentary organic matter are poorly contrained. Based on the results of geochmical and environmental studies, it is believed that the photochemical reaction should play an important role in the decomposition and oxidation of sedimentary organic matter removed from the weathering profile. At higher pH conditions, the production rate of DOC can be accelerated due to base catalysis. These high molecular weight oranic matter can react with man-made pollutants such as heavy metal ions via adsorption/desorption or ion exchange reactions. The effect of microbial activity on the oxidative weathering of sedimentary organic matter is poorly understood and remains to be studied.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
• /
• 2018.11a
• /
• pp.120-121
• /
• 2018

Radon is one of the substances that pollute the indoor air and is classified as a first-level carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer(IARC) together with asbestos, and it is reported that it can cause lung cancer. The World Health Organization(WHO) reports that lung cancer is the second leading cause of lung cancer, and 6-15% of lung cancer patients report lung cancer caused by radon. Radon occurs in cracks in concrete and aged buildings, and is detected in soil, rocks, groundwater, and so on. It is a colorless, odorless and tasteless gas which is adsorbed to dust in the air and enters through human respiratory system. This study used vermiculite (expanded vermiculite), which has excellent ion exchange ability and a large number of pores, and industrial by - product red mud which has heavy metal adsorption ability, in order to adsorb radon. A matrix capable of adsorbing radon was prepared, and the characteristics of each material were compared and analyzed.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
• /
• v.20 no.6
• /
• pp.127-132
• /
• 2015

In this study, biochar-bead, prepared from biochar powder derived from woody biomass, was used for removal cadmium ion in aqueous solution. Various mixing ratios of alginate solution and biochar powder were used for the production of round shape biochar-bead. An optimum mixing ratio was selected as 1.5% alginate solution and 20 wt% biochar. The produced biochar-bead was characterized by SEM, FT-IR, and XRD analyses. The adsorption capacity of Cd(II) by biochar-bead was found to be 9.72 mg/g which was higher than that by GAC and PAC. According to this study, round shape biochar-bead is expected to be used as a media for reactive barrier or water filtration.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.19-26
• /
• 2010

The batch experiments and response surface methodology (RSM) have been applied to the investigation of the cadmium (Cd) adsorption by coal fly ash (CFA). CFA having maximum Cd removal mass of 8.51 mg/g were calculated from Langmuir model. Cd removal reaction with different initial pH ranged from 4 to 9. When the initial pH was higher, Cd was removed more by adsorption and precipitation. These results suggest that the lower pH cause an increase of $H^+$ ion concentration which competed with Cd ions for exchange sites in CFA. Also, The Cd adsorption was mathematically described as a function of parameters initial Cd concentration ($X_1$), initial pH ($X_2$), and initial CFA mass ($X_3$) being modeled by use of the Box-Behnken methods. Empirical models were developed to describe relationship between the experimental variables and response. Statistical analysis indicates that tree factors ($X_1$, $X_2$, and $X_3$) on the linear term (main effects), and tree factors ($X_1X_2$, $X_1X_3$, and $X_2X_3$) on the non-linear term (Interaction effect; cross-product) had significant effects, respectively. In this case, the value of the adjusted determination coefficient (adjusted $R^2=0.9280$) was closed to 1, showing a high significance of the model. Statistical results showed the order of Cd removal at experimental factors to be initial initial pH > initial Cd concentration > initial CFA mass.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
• /
• v.15 no.12
• /
• pp.25-34
• /
• 2014

The objective of this study was to investigate the removal characteristics and the elimination mechanism of heavy metals in Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) using spherical-type porous Zeolite-StarFish ceramics (porous ZSF ceramics) packed in a continuous column reactor system. The average removal efficiencies of heavy metals in AMD were Al 98.7, As 98.7, Cd 96.0, Cu 89.1, Fe 99.5, Mn 94.4, Pb 96.3 and Zn 80.8 % during 110 days of operation time. The average removal capacity of porous ZSF ceramics for heavy metals were measured to be Al 21.76, As 1.52, Cd 1.27, Cu 3.41, Fe 44.83, Mn 3.48, Pb 2.36 and Zn $3.76mg/kg{\cdot}day$. The analysis results of mechanism using SEM, EDS and XRD exhibited that the porous ZSF ceramics could act as a multi-functional ceramics for the removal of heavy metals in AMD through the reactions of precipitation, adsorption and ion-exchange. The experimental results of column reactor system displayed that the porous ZSF ceramics would be a consistently efficient agent for the removal of heavy metals in AMD for a long term.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.341-347
• /
• 2008

The feasibility of commercializing the hydrothermal synthesis of Na-A type zeolite from siliceous mudstone has been conducted using a 50-liter bench-scale autoclave and the application of the zeolite as an environmental remediation agent. Siliceous mudstone, which is widely distributed around the Pohang area, was adopted as a precursor. The siliceous mudstone is favorable for the synthesis of zeolite because it contains 70.7% $SiO_2$ and 10.0% $Al_2O_3$, which are major ingredient of zeolite formation. The synthesis of zeolite was carried out under the following conditions that had been obtained from the previous laboratory-scale tests: 10hr reaction time, $80^{\circ}C$ reaction temperature, $Na_2O/SiO_2$ ratio = 0.6, $SiO_2/Al_2O_3$ ratio = 2.0 and $H_2O/Na_2O$ ratio= 98.6. The crystallinity and morphology of the zeolite formed were similar to those obtained from the laboratory-scale tests. The recovery and cation exchange ion capacity were 95% and 215 cmol/kg, respectively, which are slightly higher than those obtained in laboratory scale tests. To examine the feasibility of the zeolite as an environmental remediation agent, experiments for heavy metal adsorption to zeolite were conducted. Its removal efficiencies of heavy metals in simulated waste solutions decreased in the following sequences: Pb > Cd > Cu = Zn > Mn. In a solution of 1500 mg/L total impurity metals, the removal efficiencies for these impurity metals were near completion (> 99%) except for Mn whose efficiency was 98%. Therefore, the synthetic Na-A type zeolite was proven to be a strong absorbent effective for removing heavy metals.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
• /
• v.10 no.6
• /
• pp.61-68
• /
• 2009

The main objective of this study was to examine the removal of heavy metals from water by inflated vermiculites. The component of vermiculites was analyzed by XRF, and the concentration of metal ion was measured by ICP-AES. Serial batch kinetic tests and batch sorption tests were conducted to determine the removal characteristics for heavy metals in aqueous solutions. As a result, solution pH values of tests with the inflated vermiculites generally increased and then stabilized. Equilibrium pHs were generally established within 5 hrs. In addition, removal rates of inflated vermiculites were tested at the initial concentration of 3 mg/L. As a result, at equilibrium concentration, except for chromium (36.23%), Most of the heavy metals were effectively removed (96.08~98.54%). Finally, sorption data were correlated with both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. The Qmax obtained from Langmuir isotherm were determined to Pb $725.4mg\;kg^{-1}$, Cd $568.8mg\;kg^{-1}$, Zn $540.2mg\;kg^{-1}$, Cu $457.2mg\;kg^{-1}$ Cr $0.9mg\;kg^{-1}$ respectively. The results of the study indicate that inflated vermiculites can be properly used as an adsorbent for various heavy metals because of its outstanding removal rate.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.85-94
• /
• 2012

The $AsO_4$ ion in acid mine drainage has been known to substitute for $SO_4$ in schwertmannite and prevent schwertmannite from being converted to goethite. There have been studies on the heavy metal sorption on schwertmannite, but no experimental results have been reported on the characteristics of heavy metal sorption on $AsO_4$-substituted schwertmannite. In this study, we conducted sorption experiments of Cu, Pb, and Zn on the $AsO_4$-substituted schwertmannite at pH 4 and 6 in the solution of 3, 10, 30, and 100 mg/L concentrations. For all heavy metals, the sorbed heavy metals significantly increase at pH 6 compared with at pH 4. At both pH 4 and 6, Pb shows the highest sorption capacity and those of Cu and Zn are similar. With increasing time, the sorbed heavy meal contents increase too. However, in the case of Zn, the most sorptions occur at the initial stage and no significant increase is observed with time. Among the concentration ranges in which we conducted the experiment, the increasing trend is clear in high concentrated solutions such as 100 mg/L. We applied several sorption kinetic model and it shows that the diffusion process may be the most important factor controlling the sorption kinetics of Cu, Pb, and Zn on $AsO_4$-substituted schwertmannite. Considering the previous results that pure schwertmannite has similar sorption capacity for all three heavy metals at pH 6 and has higher sorption capacity for Cu and Pb than Zn at pH 4, our experiments indicates that substitution of $AsO_4$ for $SO_4$ on schwertmannite changes surface and sorption characteristics of schwertmannite. It also shows that $AsO_4$ contributes not only to the stability of schwertmannite, but also to the mobility of heavy metals in acid mine drainage.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Groundwater Environment
• /
• v.5 no.3
• /
• pp.155-161
• /
• 1998

Retardation effect of heavy metals in soils caused by adsorption onto the surfaces of solids particles is well known phenomenon. In this study, we investigated the retardation effect on the mobility of a Zn in a sandy soil by conducting batch and column tests. The column test consisted of monitoring the concentrations of effluent versus time known as a breakthrough curve (BTC). We used NaCl and ZnCl$_2$ solutions with the concentration of 10 g/L as a tracer, and injected them respectively into the inlet boundary of the soil sample as a square pulse type, and monitored the effluent concentrations at the exit boundary under a steady state condition using an EC-meter and ICP-AES. The batch test was conducted based on the standard procedure of equilibrating fine fractions collected from the soil with various initial ZnCl$_2$ concentrations, and analysis of Zn ions in the equilibrated solutions using ICP-AES. The results of column test showed that i) the peak concentration of ZnCl$_2$analyzed by ICP was far less than that of either NaCl or bulk electrical conductivity and ⅱ) travel times of peak concentrations for two tracers were more less identical. The relatively low concentration of Zn can be explained by ion exchange between Zn and other cations, and possible precipitation of Zn in the form of Zn(OH)$_2$due to high pH range (7.0∼7.9) of the effluent. The identical result of travel times of peak concentrations indicates that the retardation effect is not present in the soil. The only way to describe the prominent decrease of Zn ion was to introduce decay or sink coefficient in the CDE model to account for irreversible decrease of Zn ions in the aqueous phase.

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.28-39
• /
• 2011

This review investigated theoretical principals and practical application examples on recirculation system of soil washing-wastewater treatment-treated water recycling. As for technologies which have attempted to remediating metals-contaminated soil in and around country, there are reactive barriers, encapsulation, solidification/stabilization, soil washing, and phytoremediation. Among those, in particular, this review covers soil washing technology which physicochemically removes contaminants from soils. The major drawbacks of this technology are to generate a large amount of wastewater which contains contaminants complexed with ligands of washing solution and needs additional treatment process. To solve these problems, many chemical treatment methods have been developed as follows: precipitation/coprecipitation, membrane filtration, adsorption treatment, ion exchange, and electrokinetic treatment. In the last part of the review, recent research and field application cases on soil washing wastewater treatment and recycling were introduced. Based on these integrated technologies, it could be achieved to solve the problem of soil washing wastewater and to enhance cost effective process by reducing total water resources use in soil washing process.