Electroremediation of contaminated soils under nonstationary and nonuniform conditions

Using uranium and copper, entered in parallel, as an example, experimental investigations of the mechanisms of removal of these ions from soils with different exchange and buffer capacities have been performed. The experiments revealed that the simultaneous action of electrochemical, physicochemical, and chemical factors cause an essential nonuniformity and nonstationarity of electroosmotic and electromigration flows, the quantitative characteristics of which depend on the properties of the dispersion system investigated.Theoretical estimation of the electromigration speed of charged admixtures and, correspondingly, the rate of soil decontamination as a function of the values of their exchange and buffer capacities was carried out. The causes of variations of the electrokinetic potential of dispersion and the distribution of electric field intensity giving rise to nonuniform electroosmotic flows in soil were analyzed.