Investigation into the Effect of Strong Oxidizers on the Electrokinetic Removal of Chromium, Copper, and Arsenic from CCA Impregnated Wood Waste

The focus of this research is to determine the effects of particle size reduction and chemical pretreatment with strong base oxidizers on the effectiveness of the electrokinetic remediation of wood waste contaminated with chromated copper arsenate. Selection of an oxidative chemical pretreatment solution involved an initial screening between three pre-selected chemicals followed by optimization of oxidative chemical solution strengths and solid to liquid ratios. Samples of each of the three particle sizes were chemically treated with the final oxidative pretreatment and loaded into electrokinetic units where a direct current was applied for approximately fifty days. Similar experiments were performed without subjecting the contaminated wood to oxidative pretreatment to serve as an experimental control. It was identified that oxidative pretreatment of the lowest particle size prior to electrokinetic treatment was able to remove the highest percentages of chromium (75 %), copper (95 %), and arsenic (92 %) from the contaminated wood