Electrokinetic-Fenton remediation of organochlorine pesticides from historically polluted soil

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international 2018-04, Vol.25 (12), p.12159-12168
• Main Authors: Ni, Maofei, Tian, Shulei, Huang, Qifei, Yang, Yanmei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; China; Contamination; Cyclohexane; DDD; DDE; DDT; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Electrical conductivity; Electrical resistivity; Electrochemical Techniques - methods; Electrokinetics; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental Restoration and Remediation - methods; Environmental science; Hexachlorocyclohexane; Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated - analysis; Hydrogen Peroxide - chemistry; Iron - chemistry; Kinetics; Nitrous oxide; Organic compounds; Organic soils; Organochlorine pesticides; PCB; Persistent organic pollutants; Pesticides; Pesticides - analysis; Pollutant removal; Pollutants; Pollution control; Polychlorinated biphenyls; Research Article; Soil - chemistry; Soil contamination; Soil Pollutants - analysis; Soil pollution; Soil remediation; Trichloroethane; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-018-1479-3

Soil contamination by persistent organic pollutants (POPs) poses a great threat to historically polluted soil worldwide. In this study, soils were characterized, and organochlorine pesticides contained in the soils were identified and quantified. Individual electrokinetic (IE), EK-Fenton-coupled technologies (EF), and enhanced EK-Fenton treatment (E-1, E-2, and E-3) were applied to remediate soils contaminated with hexachloro-cyclohexane soprocide (HCH) and dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT). Variation of pH, electrical conductivity, and electroosmotic flow was evaluated during the EK-Fenton process. The IE treatment showed low removal efficiency for HCHs (30.5%) and DDTs (25.9%). In the EF treatment, the highest removal level (60.9%) was obtained for α-HCH, whereas P,P-DDT was the lowest (40.0%). Low solubility of pollutants impeded the HCH and DDT removal. After enhanced EK-Fenton treatment, final removal of pollutants decreased as follows: β-HCH (82.6%) > γ-HCH (81.6%) > α-HCH (81.2%) > δ-HCH (80.0%) > P,P-DDD (73.8%) > P,P-DDE (73.1%) > P,P-DDT (72.6%) > O,P-DDT (71.5%). The results demonstrate that EK-Fenton is a promising technology for POP removal in historically polluted soil.