Scaling up a treatment to simultaneously remove persistent organic pollutants and heavy metals from contaminated soils

Soil washing is a treatment process that can be used to remediate both organic and inorganic pollutants from contaminated soils, sludges, and sediments. A soil washing procedure was evaluated utilizing about 100 g samples of soil that had been field-contaminated with arsenic, chromium, copper, pentachlorophenol (PCP), polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs). The highest level of mobilization/detoxification was achieved in three soil washes with a mixture of 0.1M [S,S]-ethyelnediaminedisuccinate ([S,S]-EDDS) and 2% Brij 98 at pH 9 with 20 min of ultrasonication treatment at room temperature. This combination mobilized 70% of arsenic, 75% of chromium, 80% of copper, 90% of PCP, and 79% of PCDDs and PCDFs, so that the decontaminated soil met the maximum acceptable concentrations of the generic C-level criteria regulated by the Ministère du Développement Durable, de l’Environnement et des Parcs for the Province of Québec, Canada.The organic pollutants were back-extracted from the aqueous suspension with hexane. Heavy metals were virtually completely precipitated from the aqueous washing suspension with Mg0 particles at room temperature. The PCP was detoxified by catalytic hydrodechlorination with a stream of 5% (v/v) H2-supercritical CO2 that transported the organosoluble fraction through a reaction chamber containing 2% Pd/γ-Al2O3.In toto, this soil washing procedure demonstrates that persistent organic pollutants and selected heavy metals can be co-extracted efficiently from a field-contaminated soil with three successive washes with the same soil washing solution containing [S,S]-EDDS and a non-ionic surfactant (Brij 98) in admixture. An industrial-scale ex situ soil washing procedure with a combination of a non-ionic surfactant and a complexing reagent seems to be a plausible remediation technique for this former wooden utility pole storage facility.

► Simultaneous trace metal and hydrophobic organic contaminant extraction from soil.
► Mixed contaminants are extracted with [S,S]-EDDS formulated in aqueous surfactant.
► Hydrolysis of magnesium metal induces filterable trace metal precipitates.
► Organochlorine contaminants in hexane are detoxified by hydrodechlorination.
► Cleaned extraction aids are recycled by re-combination with the soil particulates.