• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.70-75
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• 2008

This study was carried out to evaluate the applicability of the full scale soil washing processes for reducing heavy metal contamination level of soil around an abandoned mine. In the results of soil washing of the target soil with $H_2SO_4$ and NaOH, the As concentrations of treated soil continuously increased compared with contaminated raw soil. Also, removal efficiencies of Zn and Ni were low. This problems might be caused by chemical partitioning of As in soil and its geologic origination, soil particle size, and scale up of washing plant.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2019

Batch experiments for the soil washing coupled with the magnetic separation process were performed to remediate the soil contaminated with metal and oil wastes. The soil was seriously contaminated by Zn and TPH (total petroleum hydrocarbon), of which concentrations were 1743.3 mg/kg and 3558.9 mg/kg, respectively, and initial concentrations of Zn, Pb, Cu, and TPH were higher than the 2nd SPWL (soil pollution warning limit: remediation goal). The soil washing with acidic solution was performed to remove heavy metals from the soil, but Pb and Zn concentration of the soil maintained higher than the 2nd SWPL even after the soil washing with acidic solution. The 2nd soil washing was repeated to increase the Pb and Zn removal efficiency and the Zn and Pb removal efficiencies additionally increased by only 8 % and 5 %, respectively, by the 2nd soil washing (> 2nd SPWL). The small particle separation from the soil was conducted to decrease the initial concentration of heavy metals and to increase the washing effectiveness before the soil washing and 4.1 % of the soil were separated as small particles (< 0.075 mm in diameter). The small particle separation lowered down Zn and Pb concentrations of soil to 1256.3 mg/kg (27.9 % decrease) and 325.8 mg/kg (56.3 % decrease). However, the Zn concentration of soil without small particles still was higher than the 2nd SPWL even after the soil washing, suggesting that the additional process is necessary to lower Zn concentration to below the 2nd SPWL after the treatment process. As an alternative process, the magnetic separation process was performed for the soil and 16.4 % of soil mass were removed, because the soil contamination was originated from unreasonable dumping of metal wastes. The Zn and Pb concentrations of soil were lowered down to 637.2 mg/kg (63.4 % decrease) and 139.6 mg/kg (81.5 % decrease) by the magnetic separation, which were much higher than the removal efficiency of the soil washing and the particle separation. The 1st soil washing after the magnetic separation lowered concentration of both TPH and heavy metals to below 2nd SPWL, suggesting that the soil washing conjugated with the magnetic separation can be applied for the heavy metal and TPH contaminated soil including high content of metal wastes.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.55-62
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• 1996

The purpose of this study is the evaluation of adsorption capacity of casts for heavy metals comparing with the activated carbon. The casts was obtained from vermicomposting of the mixed organic sludges which were generated from the treatment facilities for leather wastewater and cattle wastewater. The physico-chemical characteristics of cast was investigated. Also, the batch adsorption experiments of cast and activated carbon for heavy metals were carried out, and the results were analyzed by Freundlich isotherm. The buffering capacity to the acidic wastewater was founded in the cast, and the cation exchange capacity of cast impling adsorption capacity for soluble substances was evaluated as about 55me/100g. Those were implied that the cast have a large potential as a good adsorbent for soluble pollutants in wastewater. From the results of batch experiments, the removal efficiencies of tested various heavy metals including Pb, Cu, Cd, and Cr were very high value as 89-98% for the activated car-bon, and 80~95% for the casts except for Zn. The adsorption equilibriums for the two materials were achieved within 90 minutes. The order of preferable metals in the adsorption was found to be Pb>Cu>Cd>Cr>Zn on the cast and to be Pb>Cd>Cu>Cr>Zn on the activated carbon, respectively. From the above results, it might be con-cluded that cast is effectively available as a good adsorbent to treating the heavy metal bearing wastewater.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.38 no.5 s.174
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• pp.563-570
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• 2005

The purposes of this study are to examine a field test on heavy metal removal efficiency for AMD(Acid Mine Drainage) using fish bone and apatite, and to compare those results of the laboratory & the field tests. The duration of the field test was about one month and flow rates of AMD varied from 2.53 l/min to 12.8 l/min. From the result of the field test, removal efficiencies of apatite and those of fish bone are high for As, Fe, and Pb while those of fish born is higher than those of apatite far Al, Cd, Cu and Zn which are similar to the result of the previous laboratory test. In particular, average arsenic removal efficiency of apatite is higher$(84\%)$ than that of fish bone$(75\%)$ like the result of the previous laboratory test. In case of precipitates of phosphate compounds which are generated from chemical reaction between apatite/fish bone and AMD, those generated from apatite/AMD reactionform powder-shape while those created from fish bone/AMD reaction seem to be sludge. Therefore, apatite will be used as a precipitant for mine drainages having wide range of pH based on previous studies while fish bone will be applied as a precipitantfor AMD having lower PH and high concentration of heavy metals.

• Clean Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.263-269
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• 2020

Zeolite was synthesized hydrothermally using the water-treatment sludge, and the effects of various synthesis parameters like reaction temperature, reaction time, and Na2O/SiO2 molar ratio on the crystallization of zeolite were investigated. Crystal structure, physical property, and thermal stability of zeolite crystals were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, FTIR spectroscopy, BET nitrogen adsorption, and TGA measurements. The removal efficiencies of nitrogen in ammonia, heavy metal ions, and TOC were calculated to evaluate zeolite's adsorption capacity. The primary chemical composition of water-treatment sludge was 28.79% Al2O3 and 27.06% SiO2. The zeolites were synthesized by merely employing the water-treatment sludge as silica and alumina sources without additional chemicals. Zeolite crystals synthesized through the water-treatment sludge were confirmed as an A-type zeolite structure. Zeolite A had the highest crystallinity obtained from a gel with the molar composition 2.1Na2O-Al2O3-1.6SiO2-65H2O after 5 h at a temperature of 90 ℃. The specific surface area of zeolite obtained was 55 ㎡ g-1, which was higher than commercial zeolite A. The removal efficiency of nitrogen in ammonia was 68% after 3 h of reaction time, while the removal efficiencies of Pb2+ and Cd2+ ions were 99.1% and 99.3%, respectively. These results indicate active ion exchange between Pb2+ or Cd2+ ion and Na+ ion in the zeolite framework. The adsorption experiments on the different zeolite addition conditions were performed for 3 h with 300 ppm humic acid. Based on the results, TOC's highest efficiency was 83% when 5 g of zeolite was added.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Groundwater Environment
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.30-36
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• 1998

For successful soil flushing process selection of appropriate flushing reagents is essential. Futhermore, obtaining operating parameters for site remediation application through various bench-scale tests is also important. In this research a series of organic acids (acetic, citric, oxalic, and succinic acids) were tested for flushing capability. Copper-contaminated natural soil was used as a test medium, and flushing experiments were performed with batch system. All the organic acids used did not provide effective flushing conditions at concentration of 1 mM. At the acid concentration of 50 and 100 mM copper was removed efficiently although 50 and 100 mM did not show any significant differences in removal efficiencies. Citric acid and oxalic acid removed copper more efficiently than the others, and especially, citric acid showed over 87% of removal efficiency of copper at near neutral pH of 5 to 7. Speciation of extracted copper using GEOCHEM simulation showed majority of extracted copper existed as complexed with organic acids and only small portion of organic acids were complexed with copper indicating promising application of soil flushing with organic acid to heavy metal-contaminated site remediation.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.38 no.3 s.172
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• pp.273-284
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• 2005

Coagulation and precipitation process by using lime$(Ca(OH)_2)$ and calcium carbonate $(CaCO_3)$ were applied to remove heavy metals from groundwater in laboratory scale. From results of batch tests, by the addition of $0.3\;wt.\%$ lime, more than $90\%$ of As and Mn were removed and $70-80\%$ of Cd and Zn were removed by using $0.5\;wt.\%$ of lime. Removal efficiency of Pb almost reached $100\%$ with only $0.1\;wt.\%$ of calcium carbonate and more than $93\%$ of Cd were removed by the addition of $0.1\;wt.\%$of calcium carbonate. Pilot scale column experiments were performed to remove heavy metals in the separation process of precipitated Hoc to supernatant after the coagulation/ precipitation. For lime as a coagulant, more than $99\%$of As were removed from artificial groundwater and removal efficiencies of Cd, Mn, and Zn were over $80\%$. By using calcium carbonate, more than $95\%$ of Cd and Pb were removed in column experiment. Fe and Mn contaminated groundwater taken from a real landfill site, Ulsan was used for the column experiment and more than $99\%$ of Fe and Mn were removed by the addition of $1\;wt.\%$ lime in column experiment, suggesting that the coagulation/precipitation process by using lime and calcium carbonate have a great possibility to remove heavy metals from contaminated groundwater.

• 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 the Korean Society of Mineral and Energy Resources Engineers
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.527-537
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• 2018

Column tests of a sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) bioreactor were conducted to determine the design factors for sulfate-rich mine drainage. Various substrates were applied to the bioreactor, including cow manure and its mixture with a mushroom compost, with rice straw and limestone as subsidiary materials. This procedure provided a removal efficiency of up to 82% of the total sulfur with the mixture of cow manure (70%), mushroom compost (10%) and rice straw (20%), and higher efficiencies were observed after 2 days of retention time. In the downflow condition of the flow direction, oxygen supply and re-oxidation of the sulfates occurred, causing a decrease in sulfate removal efficiency. The addition of an inorganic sludge containing heavy metals, which was intended for production of metal-sulfides in the bioreactor, had a negative effect on the long-term operation owing to arsenic release and toxicity to the SRB. The results thus show that a bioreactor using a mixed substrate with cow manure and operating in the downflow direction could reduce sulfates and total dissolved sulfur content; this process confirms the applicability of the SRB bioreactor to sulfate-rich saline drainage.