Sorption of modified clay minerals in pore solution of fired clay brick under pulsed current

Abstract

This experimental study examines the influence of salt ions from poultice compositions entered into the contaminated fired clay brick with applied continuous and pulsed DC current across contaminated brick sample. The concentration of salt ions in the brick samples after electrokinetic (EK) treatment was also determined. For this purpose, the brick samples were intentionally contaminated with 15 g/kg of sodium chloride (NaCl) for 10 days. Subsequently, a series of experiments were conducted utilizing electrokinetic treatment by the application of different poultices. During electrokinetic experiments, a constant DC voltage of 9 V was applied across electrodes. The results show that by employing buffering elements in kaolin clay poultice; only 55 % of Cl− ions were removed with energy consumption of 219Wh in the presence of pulsed DC current, which is very low as compare to conventional continuous DC current having (up to 84 %) removal efficiency of Cl− ions but with energy consumption of 301Wh. According to existing results, further experimental development is needed to improve the desalination efficiency and reduce the energy consumption using pulsed DC current in order to expand the application scope of this work.