Enhanced Electrokinetic Remediation of Soil Contaminated with Heavy Metals

The experimental set-up was designed to examine the removal of heavy metals cadmium and copper from clayey soil by electrokinetic (EK) remediation process. Different enhancement agents such as chelating (ammonium citrate) and surface active agent (tween-20) have been tested for better removal of the metallic species by electrokinetic process. Applied voltage was 35 V DC and time duration was 120 h. A large pH influence has been observed over removal of metals. The results showed that the ammonium citrate during remediation process enhanced the removal rate of cadmium (48.8%) and copper (30.0%) compared to experiments with tween-20. EK treated soil samples were analysed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) to understand the mineralogical changes during electrokinetic process.