Abstract

Ballast gravel in a railroad field is often polluted by grease and heavy metals. In this paper, the performances of a dry cleaning method for polluted ballast gravel in which pollutants on the gravel surface can be physically removed was extensively studied. A polluted ballast cleaning device able to shoot emery blasting media onto the surface using compressed air was prepared. Polluted ballast gravel was put into this device for cleaning, with the treatment time varied from 1 to 10 min. The cleaning efficiency of the total petroleum hydrocarbons and heavy metals were studied. The total petroleum hydrocarbon removal efficiency was 70-80% for gravels sampled from a locomotive waiting line, while it was 40-60% for gravels sampled from a turnout area. The heavy metal removal efficiency exceeded 90% for copper and lead, while it was 65-80% for nickel and zinc. This system was found to be effective for the remediation of polluted ballast gravels.

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