A comparative study for the sorption of Cd(II) by soils with different clay contents and mineralogy and the recovery of Cd(II) using rhamnolipid biosurfactant

Recent research has demonstrated that biosurfactants, especially rhamnolipids, can enhance recovery of soil-bound metals. To propose the success of remediation process of soils by rhamnolipids, both sorption and desorption characteristics of soils having different clay mineralogy should be known exactly. To assess sorption of Cd(II), batch equilibrium experiments were performed using three soils characterized with different proportions of clay minerals from Eskişehir region of Turkey. Soil pH, initial metal concentration and clay mineralogy affected the sorption process. For comparisons between soils, the sorption process was characterized using the Langmuir, Freundlich, Redlich-Peterson, Koble-Corrigan sorption models. The Freundlich model showed the best fit for the Cd(II) sorption data by the soils, while the Langmuir-type models generally failed to describe the sorption data. Soils with higher clay content characterized by having smectite as a dominant component had the greatest sorption capacity and intensity estimated by the KF and n parameters of the Freundlich model. The soil C has the highest sorption efficiency of 83.9%, followed by soils B and A with sorption efficiencies of 76.7% and 57.9%, respectively. After the soils were loaded by different doses of Cd(II), batch washing experiments were used to evaluate the feasibility of using rhamnolipid biosurfactant for the recovery of Cd(II) from the soils. The Cd(II) recovery of the soils were investigated as a function of pH, amount of Cd(II) loaded to the soils, and rhamnolipid concentration. Cd(II) recovery efficiencies from the soils using rhamnolipid biosurfactant decreased in the order of soil A > soil B > soil C. This order was the reverse of the Cd(II) sorption efficiency order on the soils. When 80 mM rhamnolipid was used, the recovery efficiencies of Cd(II) from the soils A, B, and C was found to be 52.9%, 47.7%, 45.5% of the sorbed Cd(II), respectively. Rhamnolipid sorption capacity of the soils in the presence of Cd(II) ions decreased in the order of soil A > soil B > soil C.