Characteristics of Electrokinetic Remediation of Unsaturated Soil Contaminated by Heavy Metals-I: Experimental Study

Electrokinetic phenomena and remediation characteristics observed during the experimental application of an electrokinetic remediation technique for unsaturated soils contaminated by heavy metals were analyzed. Series of column tests were run in the laboratory at varying degrees of saturation for shooting range soils. The result indicates that lead (Pb) was removed under unsaturated conditions primarily by electromigration within a diffuse double layer. If the initial contaminant concentration was below the cation exchange capacity and equal to the adsorption per unit soil solid weight, the remedial efficiency decreased with decreasing transport efficiency due to changes in the degree of saturation in the electric gradient of 1 V/cm