Multicomponent Cation Adsorption During Convective‐Dispersive Flow Through Soils: Experimental Study

Abstract

AbstractThe adsorption of Na+, Mg2+, and Ca2+ from aqueous solutions flowing through soil was examined under different total cation concentrations and input pulse volumes. The pulses of Na+ and Mg2+, which were introduced into a Ca2+‐saturated Yolo loam soil column, appeared separately in the effluent. The degree of separation decreased with total concentration, but was not affected significantly by the pulse volume. At constant total concentration, the initial appearance of the Na+ pulse in the effluent was not affected by input volume; the appearance of the Mg2+ pulse was delayed with increasing pulse volume. The experimental results were compared to theoretical calculations based on a single component linear equilibrium model. At a low loading (a small amount of adsorbate with respect to a large amount of adsorbent), the agreement of the theoretical model and the experimental results was satisfactory. However, when the loading was increased, the discrepancy between the calculated values and the experimental results increased.