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Insights into enhanced electrokinetic remediation of copper-contaminated soil using a novel conductive membrane based on nanoparticles

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Abstract

Electrokinetic remediation is a process in which a direct electric current is applied across a section of contaminated soil to remove metals. To improve the electrokinetic remediation in this study, a conductive membrane was fabricated via in situ chemical polymerization employing pyrrole and copper oxide nanoparticles. The fabricated membrane was placed in an electric field as part of the electrode structure. A physical model was constructed and filled with copper-contaminated kaolinite in the concentration of 200 mg/kg. To control the pH, 0.1 M citric acid and 0.01 M potassium chloride were used as the electrolyte solutions. Experimental parameters such as voltage, current, pH, EC, drained flow, and copper concentration were measured. The results showed that the minimum surface resistivity of the fabricated membrane under a maximum pressure of 8.2 kPa was 2.55 kΩ/m2. The experimental results demonstrated that the use of citric acid as an electrolyte was more useful to desorb the copper due to the formation of the copper-citrate complex. When employing the fabricated membrane, the copper removal increased from 13% (in CT-2) to 63% (in GM-2), while the removal of copper using potassium chloride electrolyte increased from 42% (in CT-1) to 52% (in GM-1). The highest power consumption was obtained in experiments using citric acid. Due to the higher removal efficiency of copper in GM-2, the energy utilization efficiency (β) increased and reached 29.9 near β value of GM-1 with the lowest power consumption.

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The data are available upon request from the corresponding author.

Notes

  1. American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Water Engineering, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

    Samar Behrouzinia & Hojjat Ahmadi

  2. Agricultural Engineering Research Institute, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization, (AREEO), Karaj, Iran

    Nader Abbasi

  3. Department of Engineering, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, North Park Road, Exeter, EX4 4QF, UK

    Akbar A. Javadi

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  1. Samar Behrouzinia
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HA contributed to conceptualization. SB, HA, NA, AAJ contributed to methodology. SB, HA helped in writing—original draft preparation. AAJ, NA contributed to writing—review editing. HA, NA, AAJ helped in supervision. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hojjat Ahmadi.

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Behrouzinia, S., Ahmadi, H., Abbasi, N. et al. Insights into enhanced electrokinetic remediation of copper-contaminated soil using a novel conductive membrane based on nanoparticles. Environ Geochem Health 44, 1015–1032 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-021-01006-w

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