The removal of Cu, Ni, and Zn in industrial soil by washing with EDTA-organic acids

Abstract

In order to improve the heavy metal removal ability of traditional single washing agents and explore the removal mechanism of heavy metals. Then, the washing reagents that mixed by low-molecular weight organic acids (citric acid, oxalic acid, and tartaric acid) and artificial chelating compound ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid disodium (EDTA) were selected. Furthermore, the effect of soil washing parameters, the variation of leaching toxicity, mobility, stability and speciation of heavy metals were also considered. The results of soil washing experiments showed that mixing an equal volume of 0.05 M EDTA and 0.2 M organic acids (citric acid, oxalic acid, and tartaric acid) could remove more than about 80% heavy metals from soil under the optimal conditions. In addition, the soil leaching toxicity was decreased and the stability of remaining heavy metals was increased, indicating that EDTA-organic acid washing reagents could effectively reduce the ecological risk of contaminated soil. EDTA had a stronger chelating ability with heavy metals than the organic acids, and the organic acids could not only chelate heavy metals but also decrease the pH of the mixture for promoting the desorption of heavy metals. Thus, mixing EDTA and organic acids was advisable method to improve soil washing technology. Keywords: Soil washing, EDTA-organic acids, Heavy metals, Chelating, Desorption