Remediation of Chromium-Contaminated Soils by Electro-Kinetic Technique

The problem of heavy metal pollution, especially (chromium), is a serious problem that threatens the ecosystem, especially due to the ease of entry of this pollutant into the soil and its rapid spread. Therefore, a promising technology must be found to treat these pollutants in the soil without the need to transfer this soil. Among these treatments, the electrokinetic technology was identified as a promising and effective technology for on-site treatment. Four experiments were conducted in this study. The effect of pH of 2 and oxalic acid as an enhancement solution on sandy soil and loamy sandy soil was studied. A constant voltage of 1.2 V/cm was used and tap water was adopted as a carrier aqueous solution. In this study, an absorbent material (wheat straw) was used to prevent reverse flow. After completing the treatment process, the EX-3 experiment gave the best result with a removal efficiency of 81.9% compared to the other experiments, where the removal efficiency was 78.3%, 57.71%, and 65.26%, for experiments EX-1, EX-2, and EX-4, respectively.