Mechanochemical remediation of heavy metals contaminated soils: Modelling and experiments

Mechanochemical remediation of contaminated soil: A review

Mechanochemical techniques have been garnering growing attention in remediation of contaminated soil. This paper summarizes the performance, mechanism, influential factors, and environmental impacts of mechanochemical remediation (MCR) for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) contaminated soil and heavy metal(loid) s (HMs) contaminated soil. Firstly, in contrast to other technologies, MCR can achieve desirable treatment of POPs, HMs, and co-contaminated soil, especially with high-concentration pollutants. Secondly, POPs undergo mineralization via interaction with mechanically activated substances, where aromatic and aliphatic pollutants in soil may go through varied degradation routes; inorganic pollutants can be firmly combined with soil particles by fragmentation and agglomeration induced by mechanical power, during which additives may enhance the combination but their contact with anionic metal(loid)s may be partially suppressed. Thirdly, the effect of MCR primarily hinges on types of milling systems, the accumulation of mechanical energy, and the use of reagents, which is basically regulated through operating parameters: rotation speed, ball-to-powder ratio, reagent-to-soil ratio, milling time, and soil treatment capacity; minerals like clay, metal oxides, and sand in soil itself are feasible reagents for remediation, and alien additives play a crucial role in synergist and detoxification; additionally, various physicochemical properties of soil might influence the mechanochemical effect to varying degrees, yet the key influential performance and mechanism remain unclear and require further investigation. Concerning the assessment of soil after treatment, attention needs to be paid to soil properties, toxicity of POPs' intermediates and leaching HMs, and long-term appraisement, particularly with the introduction of aggressive additives into the system. Finally, proposals for current issues and forthcoming advancements in this domain are enumerated in items. This review provides valuable insight into mechanochemical approaches for performing more effective and eco-friendly remediation on contaminated soil.

Washing antimony and arsenic from agricultural soil with eco-friendly organic acids and the relevant bioavailability assessment

Antimony (Sb) and arsenic (As) contamination in agricultural soil poses human health risks through agricultural products. Soil washing with degradable low molecular weight organic acids (LMWOAs) is an eco-friendly strategy to remediate agricultural soils. In this study, three eco-friendly LMWOAs, oxalic acid (OA), tartaric acid (TA), and citric acid (CA), were used to treat Sb and As co-contaminated agricultural soil from Xikuangshan mine area. The OA, TA, and CA washed out 18.4, 16.8, and 26.6% of Sb and 15.3, 19.9, and 23.8% of As from the agricultural soil, with CA being the most efficient reagent for the soil washing. These organic acids also led to pH decline and macronutrients losses. Fraction analysis using a sequential extraction procedure showed that the three organic acids targeted and decreased the specifically sorbed (F2) (by 19.3-37.6% and 2.41-23.5%), amorphous iron oxide associated (F3) (by 49.1-61.2% and 51.2-70.2%), and crystallized iron oxide associated (F4) (by 12.3-26.0% and 26.1-29.1%) Sb and As. The leachability of Sb and As, as well as their concentrations and bioconcentration factor (BCF) in vegetables reduced due to the soil washing. It demonstrated that the bioavailability of both the elements was decreased by the organic acids washing. The concentrations of Sb and As in typical vegetable species cultivated in CA washed soil were less than the threshold value for consumption safety, while those in OA and TA washed soils were still higher than the value, suggesting that only CA is a potential washing reagent in soil washing for Sb- and As-contaminated agricultural soil.

A critical review on mechanochemical processing of fly ash and fly ash-derived materials

Fly ash (FA) is a solid, fine powder that constitutes a by-product obtained when coal, biomass, municipal solid waste or a mixture of these are combusted. This review article focuses on the mechanochemistry of coal fly ash (CFA), as well as highlights the issue of fly ash from municipal solid waste (MSW). In general, FA is regarded as a waste of public concern (since it contains hazardous components), which is primarily consumed in the construction industry, as well as in chemical synthesis and environmental engineering. However, the actual amount of FA recycled is still less than the amount produced, with the reuse rate of only up to 30 %. Due to its relatively low reactivity and heterogeneity, FA is commonly landfilled in huge quantities. Nevertheless, the physical and chemical properties of FA can be tailored, for example, by mechanical forces, ultimately leading to a higher value-added product. Currently, mechanochemistry (MC) is drawing attention in chemical synthesis, pollution remediation and waste management, especially as a possible solution for various drawbacks of conventional syntheses and processes. Mechanochemical processing of FA can be considered eco-friendly, inexpensive and efficient, in particular for processing tons of readily available fly ash already stored in ponds or landfills. With the aim of highlighting the hidden potential and facilitating the favorable use of FA, this article deals with FA as an environmentally challenging material, FA reactivity and recycling through mechanochemical processing, mechanochemical stabilization of heavy metals in FA, as well as up-to-date challenges for life cycle assessment (LCA) in evaluating FA-derived materials. Furthermore, all these full-potential aspects of FA mechanochemistry have not been addressed before, which is a valuable contribution to the existing literature.

Synergistic roles of montmorillonite and organic matter in reducing bioavailable state of chromium in tannery sludge

Organic matter (OM) has an excellent retention effect on stabilizing chromium (Cr), and functional groups on OM play a predominant role in this process. Based on this result, it is found that a considerable amount of Cr in tannery sludge is immobilized from ion exchangeable species into bound species, benefiting from complexing reaction with functional groups. Especially, the mentioned immobilizing process is enhanced in way of adding with montmorillonite (MMT) which performs adsorption reaction with Cr, as well as plays interaction with functional groups. The result is confirmed by employing density functional theory (DFT) analysis, suggesting the binding ability among Cr, functional groups, and MMT is stronger (- 77.36503 eV) than that of the system of Cr and MMT (- 61.29942 eV), indicating the synergetic roles of OM and MMT. This synergetic role could also be illustrated by a new peak (Cr-OH 20.1%) shown in XPS result. Meanwhile, DFT analysis emphasizes that functional groups on OM give the response for binding with Cr in the order of hydroxyl (-OH) > carboxyl (-COOH) > epoxy (-COC), and all the functional groups tend to donate electron to bind with Cr. In addition, the stabilizing process shows a better fitting effect with pseudo second-order kinetic model (R² > 0.94), indicating that exchangeable Cr mass transfer and chemical adsorption occur simultaneously.

Immobilizing chromium in tannery sludge via adding collagen protein waste: an in-depth study on mechanism

Owing to containing high fraction of organic matter, the tannery sludge seemed to be fit for composting. Actually, it was intensively harmful to the environment, due to containing chromium (Cr). So it might undergo a long time of storage until finding a proper way to dispose it. In the storage period, it would expose the surrounding environment a risk via releasing Cr. In this study, an approach was proposed to minimize the amount of released Cr, and reveal the mechanism on immobilizing Cr. Collagen protein waste (CPW) was adopted to immobilize Cr, and it was evaluated via leaching experiment. The lowest leaching concentration of Cr was 12 mg/L, meeting the limits of related standard in China (GB 5085.3-2007, Tcr < 15 mg/L). Moreover, the compositions and functional groups of the optimum sample (12 mg/L) were also characterized, confirming that the dominant functional groups cross-linking with Cr were hydroxyl (-OH), carboxyl (-COOH), and epoxy (-COC). Importantly, density functional theory (DFT) calculation was also employed, suggesting that Cr was restrained by accepting electrons from O atoms donating by functional groups.

Remediation of petroleum-contaminated soil by ball milling and reuse as heavy metal adsorbent

A simple mechanochemical (MC) method is used to treat petroleum-contaminated soil and prepare a heavy metal adsorbent in one step. XRD, Raman, FT-IR, VSM, BET, and XPS were used to characterize the adsorbent. After MC treatment, the dissolved total petroleum hydrocarbons of the adsorbent is less than 1 mg·L^-1, and a porous structure and carbonization phenomenon are evident. The specific surface area and cumulative void volume increase, and the adsorption pore size decreases. On the surface of soil, the percentages of iron oxides, carbonates, CO, -C-O-H, -COOH, and π unsaturated bonds increase. The Langmuir model shows that the maximum adsorption capacity of Pb²⁺, Cu²⁺, Cd²⁺, and Zn²⁺ are 338.58, 51.61, 32.34, and 25.05 mg·g^-1, respectively. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model fits the Pb adsorption process, indicating the domination of chemical adsorption. GC-MS shows that petroleum hydrocarbons are completely degraded. The Tessier continuous extraction result shows that heavy metals are bound to carbonate, iron manganese oxide, and organic matter. The MC treatment achieves deep cleanup and resource utilization of petroleum-contaminated soil through the formation of amorphous carbon, carbonates, and iron oxides on the surface of soil particles. The material is magnetic and can be recycled when used in wastewater treatment.

Experiments and modeling of mine soil inertization through mechano-chemical processing: from bench to pilot scale using attritor and impact mills

Mechano-chemical treatment has been recognized to be a promising technology for the immobilization of heavy metals (HMs) in contaminated soils without the use of additional reagents. Despite this, very few studies aiming to investigate the applicability of this technology at full scale have been published so far. In this study, a quantitative approach was developed to provide process design information to scale-up from laboratory- into pilot-scale mechano-chemical reactors for immobilizing heavy metals in contaminated mining soil. In fact, after preliminary experiments with laboratory-scale ball mills, experiments have been carried out by taking advantage of milling devices suited for pilot-scale applications. The experimental data of this work, along with literature ones, have been quantitatively interpreted by means of a mathematical model allowing to describe the effect of milling dynamics on the HM immobilization kinetics for applications at different scales. The results suggest that the mechanical process can trigger specific physico-chemical phenomena leading to a significant reduction of HMs leached from mining soils. Specifically, after suitably prolonged processing time, HM concentration in the leachate is lowered below the corresponding threshold limits. The observed behavior is well captured by the proposed model for different HMs and operating conditions. Therefore, the model might be exploited to infer design parameters for the implementation of this technique at the pilot and full scale. Moreover, it represents a valuable tool for designing and controlling mechano-chemical reactors at productive scale.

Mechanochemical immobilization of heavy metals in contaminated soils: A novel mathematical modeling of experimental outcomes

Mechanochemical processing to immobilize heavy metals in contaminated soils has been proposed few years ago. The corresponding experimental results have shown that, under specific operating conditions, the mechanical energy provided by suitable ball mills, can greatly reduce heavy metals mobility without the addition of any reactant. Such results, together with the extreme simplicity of the proposed technique, are still very promising in view of its industrial transposition. Along these lines, the use of suitable mathematical models might represent a valuable tool which would permit to design and control mechano-chemical reactors for field applications. In this work, a simple albeit exhaustive model is proposed for the first time to quantitatively describe the effects of the dynamics of milling process, such as impact frequency and energy, on the immobilization kinetics. Model results and experimental data obtained so far are successfully compared in terms of leached heavy metals and immobilization efficiency evolution with treatment time. Finally, the potential capability of the model to contribute to the industrial scale transposition of the proposed technique is addressed.

Mechanochemical stabilization of heavy metals in fly ash with additives

Mechanochemistry, as a non-thermal method showing remarkable degradation for persistent organic pollutants, is extended to stabilize the heavy metals in municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) fly ash in the present study. The leaching suppression of heavy metals (i.e., Zn, Pb, Cu, Cr, Cd, and Ni) facilitated by five additives during mechanochemical (MC) treatment is systematically investigated, identifying that almost all heavy metals are effectively suppressed with the assistance of either CaO or Ca₃(PO₄)₂. The pH-dependent leaching test further reveals the superiority of Ca₃(PO₄)₂ over CaO for heavy metals stabilization. Moreover, the evolution of heavy metal speciations analysed via an optimized sequential extraction procedure shows that MC treatment with Ca₃(PO₄)₂ significantly reduces the water- and acid-soluble fraction with high mobility from 56.8, 1.39, 12.3, 8.46, 1.13, and 29.5% to 4.96, 0.17, 0.14, 7.36, 0.12, and 0.22%, respectively for Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn. The risk assessment indicates remarkable detoxification of fly ash in terms of heavy metals after MC treatment: the Nemerow pollution index is dramatically decreased from 9.35 (far above 3.0- the threshold of seriously polluted domain) to 0.71 (slightly over 0.7- the threshold of safety domain). Finally, a hypothetical mechanism according with results in this study for MC stabilization of heavy metals in fly ash is proposed as: the conversion of heavy metal compounds from mobile to immobile form through reaction with additives after activated by mechanical energy.

Immobilization of Pb, Cu and Zn in contaminated soil using ball milling technique

Soil contamination caused by heavy metals has gained widespread attention from both government and public. In the present research, ball milling was utilized to remediate soil contaminated by Pb, Cu, and Zn and the influence of milling time on immobilization effectiveness was also investigated. The effectiveness of immobilization was evaluated by analyzing the leachable fraction of heavy metals from the ball-milled soil. When the milling time was 2 h, Pb, Cu, and Zn leaching concentrations decreased from 13.92 mg·L^-1, 2.83 mg·L^-1, and 114.42 mg·L^-1 to 0.027 mg·L^-1, 0.59 mg·L^-1, and 0.16 mg·L^-1, respectively; these values were all lower than the surface water Class III standard regulatory thresholds proposed by the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment. Furthermore, the leaching characteristics of Pb, Cu, and Zn were investigated through pH-dependent tests and those results indicated that mechanical treatment improved the anti-acid ability of soil. In addition, the BCR sequential extraction procedure revealed that speciation shiftsof heavy metals are the root cause for the reduction of leaching concentrations; after ball milling of 4 h, the primary components of Pb, Cu and Zn in the soil were relatively stable (F₂ + F₃) and residual fraction (F₄), which accounted for 76.75%, 67.06% and 48.05% of total Pb, Cu and Zn, respectively.

Rapid Cr(VI) reduction and immobilization in contaminated soil by mechanochemical treatment with calcium polysulfide

Mechanochemical treatment with calcium polysulfide (CPS) was applied to remediate the Cr(VI) contaminated soil. The effects of parameters including milling speed, milling time, ball to powder ratio (BPR) and dosage of CPS were investigated. The effectiveness of mechanical treatment with or without CPS is estimated by analyzing the leachable fraction of Cr(VI). The results show that mechanochemical treatment with CPS can decrease and immobilize Cr in soil more quickly and efficiently with comparison to the case without additive. Under a milling speed of 500 rpm, milling time of 2 h, BPR of 9 and CPS dosage of 3%, the Cr(VI) leaching concentration significantly decreased from 115 mg L^-1 to 0.51 mg L^-1, much lower than the regulatory limit of 5 mg L^-1. Additionally, XPS results demonstrated that Cr(VI) can be converted into Cr(III) during ball milling with CPS. The high Cr(VI) removal and Cr immobilization capacity makes mechanochemical treatment a great potential in field remediation.

Mechanochemical treatment of Cr(VI) contaminated soil using a sodium sulfide coupled solidification/stabilization process

In this research, mechanochemical reduction was carried out to remediate Cr(VI) contaminated soil, and the reduction effectiveness was evaluated by analyzing the corresponding leachable fraction obtained through the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) proposed by the EPA. The results indicated that mechanochemical reduction can efficiently reduce the Cr(VI) concentration in the leachate. Under a milling time of 2 h, milling speed of 500 rpm, ball-to-powder weight ratio of 14 and Na₂S dosage of 5%, the Cr(VI) leaching concentration significantly decreased from 663.98 mg L^-1 to 0.84 mg L^-1, much lower than the regulatory limit of 5 mg L^-1. In addition, the significant decrease in Cr(VI) was mainly due to the reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III), as supported by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The mechanochemical reduction with mechanism proposed in this experiment may involve two major processes: solidification and reduction (stabilization).