Effect of additives on the remediation of arsenic and chromium co-contaminated soil by an electrokinetic-permeable reactive barrier

To enhance the remediation efficiency of arsenic (As) and chromium (Cr)co-contaminated soil, the effect of various combinations of reducing and chelating agents on the removal of As and Cr was studied in the present work by using electrokinetic technology coupled with a permeable reactive barrier (EK-PRB). In an experiment with EK-PRB, reducing agents (ascorbic acid and citric acid) and chelating agents (EDTA-2Na) were applied together with CaAl-layered double hydroxide (CaAl-LDH) to pretreat As and Cr co-contaminated soil. The chelating agents increased the removal efficiency of As and Cr, while the reducing agent only improved As removal in co-contaminated soil. The best removal efficiencies of As and Cr were 41.2% and 46.8%, respectively. The reducing agents promoted the production of As(III) and enhanced the migration of As. However, a large amount of Cr(VI) was reduced to Cr(III), which affected the migration of Cr. Although the addition of chelating agents partly increased the migration of Cr(III), the removal of total chromium (TCr) still decreased. In this remediation system, a PRB can effectively capture and fix As and Cr. The results indicated that As was mainly adsorbed on the surface of CaAl-LDH, while the surface adsorption and intercalation of CaAl-LDH were the main mechanisms for Cr.