Novel soil washing technology which efficiently removes toxic metals from soil by complexation with strong chelators was developed. The technology features reaction of alkaline substitution, precipitation and adsorption of toxic metals on polysaccharides, and chelator acidic precipitation for process waters and chelator recycling in a closed loop. No wastewaters are generated.
F.32 International patent
COBISS.SI-ID: 8977273The post-remedial toxic emissions from soil are mitigated to the levels close or bellow limits of quantification by addition of zero-valent Fe (ZVI) into the soil slurry which enables for fast and permanent adsorption of residual quantities of chelator and toxic metals chelates.
F.32 International patent
COBISS.SI-ID: 9326201We investigated the feasibility of using EDTA and biodegradable GLDA, EDDS and IDS under conditions pertinent to operational remediation technology, in a pilot-scale experiment. In process parameters, chelator supplement, Na-saturation of process solutions and processing time, EDTA outperformed biodegradable chelators. Treatment with EDTA was also the most effective in total Pb and Zn removal and least impacted soil properties. GLDA was slightly better in Cd removal. EDDS and IDS were inefficient. All chelators effectively removed easily-available Pb, Zn and Cd from the exchangeable soil fraction. EDTA was the most efficient chelator in reducing the bioaccessibility of Pb and GLDA in reducing the bioaccessibility of Cd from simulated human gastrointestinal tract. Treatment with GLDA had an edge in reducing plant bioaccessibility of toxic metals, but induced worrying leachability of Pb. This was 8.3-times higher than with the process with EDTA and 3.4-times higher than in original soil. In general, our results demonstrate the advantage of EDTA over tested biodegradable chelators.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 9223545We scaled-up the novel soil washing technology - ReSoil, which efficiently removes toxic metals from soil by complexation with strong chelator EDTA into demonstrational stage TRL 7. The patented technology features a novel reaction of alkaline substitution, precipitation and adsorption of toxic metals on polysaccharides, and chelator acidic precipitation for process waters and chelator recycling in a closed loop. No wastewaters and max. 1% of solid wastes are generated.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 9224057Erika Jež was awarded with L'Oréal price for women in science for her research in project team.
D.10 Educational activities
COBISS.SI-ID: 9210745