Effects of pulse current on energy consumption and removal of heavy metals during electrodialytic soil remediation

The aims of this paper were to investigate the possibility for energy saving when using a pulsed electric field during electrodialytic soil remediation (EDR) and the effect of the pulsed current on removal of heavy metals. Eight experiments with constant and pulse current in the different industrially polluted soils were performed. At a current density of 0.1 mA/cm2 in soil 1 and 0.2 mA/cm2 in soil 2, there was no difference on energy consumption and removal of heavy metals between pulse current and constant current experiments, but at higher current experiments (i.e., 0.2 mA/cm2 in soil 1 and 0.8 mA/cm2 in soil 2) the energy was saved 67% and 60% and the removal of heavy metals was increased 17–76% and 31–51% by pulse current in soil 1 and soil 2, respectively. When comparing the voltage drop at different parts of EDR cells, it was found that the voltage drop of the area across cation exchange membrane was the major contributor of energy consumption, and the pulse current could decrease the voltage drop of this part effectively. The overall removal of heavy metals in soil 1 (6–54%) was much higher than soil 2 (1–17%) due to the different acidification process and chemical speciation of heavy metals reflected by sequential extraction analysis. Among all experiments, the highest removal efficiency occurred in pulse current experiment of soil 1, where 54% of Cu and 30% of As were removed.

► The pulse current showed positive effect on energy saving during EDR.
► The major contributor of energy consumption was the cation exchange membrane.
► The possibility on diminishing the polarization of soil particles was demonstrated.
► The removal of heavy metals was enhanced by the pulse current.