Scaling up soil electrokinetic removal of inorganic contaminants based on lab chemical and biological optimizations

Abstract One efficient physiochemical method for removing pollutants from soils, particularly those with low permeability, is soil electrokinetic remediation (SEKR). For the ex-situ laboratory scale, we have introduced the perforated cathode pipe SEKR system (PCPSS). The first effort to examine scaling up PCPSS for removing inorganic pollutants from real contaminated soil is presented in this article. First, the effects of various enhanced chemical and biological additives (ECBA) with soil were examined in order to maximize the PCPSS (i.e. HNO 3 , EDTA, biosurfactant with bacterial broth culture, powder of crude extracted biosurfactant, and formic acid). After then, the PCPSS was scaled up using the best ECBA and solar energy as a power source. When formic acid was combined with actual polluted soil, the findings demonstrated the high effectiveness of the PCPSS (laboratory scale) in removing inorganic contaminants. By combining biosurfactant with bacterial broth culture, nitric acid, and formic acid, the electroosmosis flow was enhanced. Solar energy has demonstrated the capacity to run the PCPSS in the scale-up experiment, which makes it an excellent substitute for the SEKR upscaling unit’s power source. From the center of the PCPSS scale-up, the inorganic contaminants were removed in the following descending order: Cd (50%) > Pb (48%) > Mn (40%) > Sr (39%) > Zn (23%) > Cr (20%) > Cu (16%) > Ni (15%). Nearly the same pattern was seen for the removed inorganic pollutants from the region behind the PCPSS scale-up unit’s center. The PCPSS scale-up unit will undergo ongoing modifications to increase the removal efficiency of inorganic pollutants from actual polluted soils. Graphical abstract