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Low-thermal remediation of mercury-contaminated soil and cultivation of treated soil

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Abstract

In this study, low-thermal technology was used to treat the mercury contaminated farmland soil from a chemical plant in Guizhou Province, China. A series of field planting experiments were also aimed at determining the content of total and methyl-Hg in crop plants after thermal treatment. The results showed that the mercury concentration in soils was reduced about 70% from 255.74 mg/kg to 80.63 mg/kg when treated at 350 °C for 30 min in engineering-scale experiments, and the treated soil retained most of its original soil. Organic-bound and residual mercury in treated soil were reduced by 64.1 and 56.4% by means of a sequential extraction procedure, respectively. The total and methyl-mercury concentrations in crops decreased significantly, and the degree of soil mercury accumulation to crop roots has been reduced significantly. The total Hg concentrations in potato and corn were lower than the mercury tolerance limits for food in China, and the Hg concentration of radish was close to the limit. The technology provides a more sustainable remediation method for treating mercury-contaminated farmland soil in future engineering applications.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41463013) and the Qiankehe of China [2016] Zhicheng No. 2804.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, China

    Ting Zhao, Zhi Yu & Liya Qu

  2. Research and Design Institute of Environmental Science of Guizhou Province, Guiyang, 550023, China

    Zhi Yu, Junfang Zhang & Liya Qu

  3. Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, 550002, China

    Ping Li

Authors
  1. Ting Zhao
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  2. Zhi Yu
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  3. Junfang Zhang
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  4. Liya Qu
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  5. Ping Li
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Liya Qu.

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Responsible editor: Severine Le Faucheur

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Zhao, T., Yu, Z., Zhang, J. et al. Low-thermal remediation of mercury-contaminated soil and cultivation of treated soil. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 24135–24142 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2387-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2387-2

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