On-Site Treatment of Soil Contaminated by Heavy Metals and Petroleum using Relocatable Soil Washing Equipment

On-Site Treatment of Soil Contaminated by Heavy Metals and Petroleum using Relocatable Soil Washing Equipment

We studied the on-site treatment of soil contaminated by heavy metals and petroleum was tested using relocatable soil washing equipment for greater remediation efficiency. Different combinations of pH and solid/liquid ratio were tested to determine the optimum balance, settling on values of 5 and 1:2, respectively. Next, soils containing Pb, Hg, and petroleum were further tested to assess the optimum number of washing cycles. The remediation efficiency of Pb and Hg in soil contaminated solely by heavy metals was 90.1% and 86.4% after three and two washings, respectively. The remediation efficiency of petroleum in soil contaminated solely by petroleum was 98.8% after one washing. When soil contaminated by both heavy metals and petroleum was cleaned, up to 91.0% of Pb, 86.9% of Hg, and 96.1% of petroleum was removed after two, one, and one washings, respectively. We conducted all remediation efficiencies and concentration reductions satisfied the standard threshold for soil contamination in South Korea.