Preliminary results from the investigation of thermal effects in electrokinetics soil remediation.

摘要

Electrokinetics is an emerging soil remediation technology. Contaminants are extracted from the soil as a result of a complex set of phenomena that occur when an electric gradient is imposed across a soil-water system. The primary phenomena include electroosmosis, electromigration, and electrophoresis. Secondary phenomena, such as changes in solubility or speciation of various chemical components, may occur as a result of electrically induced changes in the chemical environment of the system. Numerous factors, such as temperature, may affect each of these phenomena and, consequently, the overall process efficiency. We have begun an investigation of thermal effects in the extraction of potassium dichromate from kaolinite soils under conditions of constant saturation and dewatering. Preliminary results suggest that increasing the soil temperature from 21 to 55(degrees)C may decrease the processing time under saturated conditions. However, increasing the soil temperature under dewatering, conditions causes soil cracking, which reduces the overall process efficiency.