Can the green energies improve the sustainability of electrochemically-assisted soil remediation processes?

Incidence of Electric Field and Sulfuric Acid Concentration in Electrokinetic Remediation of Cobalt, Copper, and Nickel in Fresh Copper Mine Tailings

In the present study, the assessment of heavy metal contaminant migration from fresh mine tailings was conducted using the electrokinetic remediation technique (EKR). In this sense, a pilot EKR cell was designed to evaluate the recovery potential of copper, nickel, and cobalt species. In particular, the focus was on the impacts of electric field intensity and pH in initial mixture and testing their interaction in copper, nickel, and cobalt migration. Experiments were made using a 22 factorial experimental design with a central point, using DC electric fields from 1.0 to 2.0 V cm−1 and H2SO4 pretreatment solutions from 1.0 to 2.0 mol L−1, along with an ANOVA test with error reduction. The metal removal rates were approximately 7% for cobalt, neglectable for copper, and 6% for nickel. In the best cases, the highest concentrations by migration at the cathodic zone were 11%, 31%, and 30%, respectively. According to ANOVA tests, factor interaction was proven for each metal in the half cell near the cathode and the closest zone from the cathode specifically. Both factors affected metal concentrations, which indicates that when the goal aims for species accumulation in a narrower section, each factor has a significant effect, and their interaction makes a proven enhancement. Thus, using 2.0 V cm−1 and 2.0 mol L−1 showed a high improvement in metal concentration in the cathodic zone.

A novel solar-powered electrochemical mineralization system for persistent remediation of uranium-contaminated groundwater

Reduction of the migratory ability of uranium via reduction, co-precipitation or immobilization is a widely used technology for remediation of uranium contaminated groundwater (UCG). However, the re-released uranium due to environmental alterations such as oxidation, acid dissolution, or microbial decomposition limits the long-term effect of UCG remediation. Here, we developed a novel solar-powered electrochemical mineralization (SPEM) system for persistent remediation of UCG under laboratory conditions. The SPEM system incorporates uranium into magnetite crystal to achieve long-term stability of uranium. The effects of photoelectric conversion, subsurface void fraction, groundwater seepage velocity, and electrode configuration on uranium removal were systematically analyzed. The results showed that the remediation system had excellent adaptability to complex water quality and geological conditions, and could remediate large-area contamination. After 12 h of persistent treatment, the system with newly hexagonal two-dimensional electrode configuration (1A6C) reduced uranium concentration by more than 85% in simulated subsurface environment. The mineralized uranium was not re-released within continuous rinsing of treated regions using an acid solution (pH = 3.0), for 370 h. The developed method solely requires metallic iron as a raw material, which has high and long-term efficiency, is eco-friendly, simple, and widely applicable, thus reliable for the remediation of deep UCG.