Suitability of environmental indices in assessment of soil remediation with conventional and next generation washing agents

Barbara K Klik,Zygmunt M Gusiatin,Dorota Kulikowska

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-77312-7

Barbara K Klik, Zygmunt M Gusiatin + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77312-7

Copy DOI

Journal: Scientific Reports	Publication Date: Nov 25, 2020
Citations: 18	License type: open-access

Affiliation: University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn

Abstract

Remediation of soils contaminated with metal must ensure high efficiency of metals removal, reduce bioavailability of residual metals and decrease ecological risk. Thus, for comprehensive environmental soil quality assessment, different indices must be used. In this study, suitability of 8 indices was used for soil highly contaminated with Cu (7874.5 mg kg−1), moderately with Pb (1414.3 mg kg−1) and low with Zn (566.1 mg kg−1), washed in batch and dynamic conditions with both conventional and next-generation washing agents. The following indices were used: modified contamination factor (mCf), modified contamination factor degree (mCdeg), mobility factor (MF), reduced partition index (IR), potential ecological risk factor (Er,Z), modified potential ecological risk factor (Er,m), potential ecological risk index (RIZ) and modified ecological risk index (RIm). For mCf,mCdeg and IR own classification scale was proposed. It was proven that most useful indices for assessment of soil pollution with metals were mCf and mCdeg. The mCf together with the IR allow to simultaneous assessment of soil pollution and stability for individual metals. These indices were appropriate for soil contaminated with different concentrations of metals, washed under both hydrodynamic conditions using various washing agents and different effectiveness of metals removal. Thus, they may be considered as most useful for evaluation of remediation method, feasibility of washing agent and assessing soil quality after washing.

Highlights

Remediation of soils contaminated with metal must ensure high efficiency of metals removal, reduce bioavailability of residual metals and decrease ecological risk
This may be due to the way of contact between the soil and washing agent (WA), which is more vigorous under batch conditions and a higher ratio of soil weight to volume of washing solution in comparison to dynamic washing
Higher metal removal under batch than dynamic soil washing is typical p henomenon[44,45,46], our intention was to show the different efficiency of metals removal and their different fractional distribution in batch- and dynamic-washed soil in terms of the possibility of assessing the usefulness of modified environmental indices for soils with different remediation efficiency

Summary

Introduction

Remediation of soils contaminated with metal must ensure high efficiency of metals removal, reduce bioavailability of residual metals and decrease ecological risk. The mCf together with the IR allow to simultaneous assessment of soil pollution and stability for individual metals These indices were appropriate for soil contaminated with different concentrations of metals, washed under both hydrodynamic conditions using various washing agents and different effectiveness of metals removal. They may be considered as most useful for evaluation of remediation method, feasibility of washing agent and assessing soil quality after washing. The contaminated soil is vigorously mixed with washing solution, which in turn reduces the remediation time and provides high pollutant removal. For effective washing technology it is Scientific Reports | (2020) 10:20586

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion