Abstract
The effective leaching of rare earth elements (La, Ce, Y and Eu) from simulated contaminated soil using bio-surfactant was investigated in a lab-scale column leaching experiment, where anionic biosurfactant rhamnolipid and non-ionic biosurfactant saponin were used as washing solutions. Soil properties and the rare earth element fractions were analysed to define the effect of leaching on soil and elemental speciation. Column leaching results show that saponin solution was more effective than rhamnolipid in the removal of the four rare earth elements tested, with the accumulative removal efficiency of La, Ce, Y and Eu following flushing with 400 mL of 25 g L−1 saponin, reaching 35.258%, 26.072%, 31.476% and 30.849%, respectively. The change in REE speciation showed that REE removed from soils were mainly derived from the acid-soluble and residual fractions released when rhamnolipid solution was used as a leaching agent. However, for saponin leaching, removed REE amounts were derived from acid-soluble and reducible fractions. Complexation interactions were identified between saponin and REEs, according to infrared spectroscopy and ion exchange data, with saponin complexing with La, Ce, Y, and Eu at a complex ratio of 1:1.
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