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Laboratory studies on the remediation of mercury contaminated soils
Author(s) -
Ray Asim B.,
Selvakumar Ariamalar
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
remediation journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.762
H-Index - 27
eISSN - 1520-6831
pISSN - 1051-5658
DOI - 10.1002/rem.3440100406
Subject(s) - mercury (programming language) , environmental remediation , environmental chemistry , mercury contamination , chemistry , contamination , sulfide , elemental mercury , waste management , environmental science , adsorption , organic chemistry , ecology , computer science , engineering , biology , programming language
Abstract Mercury, in contrast to other toxic metals, cycles between the atmosphere, land, and water. During this cycle, it undergoes a series of complex chemical and physical transformations. Because of these transformations, it is found in the environment not only as simple inorganic and organic compounds, but also as complex compounds. As a result, it is difficult to remediate mercury contaminated materials. Laboratory studies were conducted with a mercury contaminated complex waste from an industrial site to evaluate the ability of extractants such as H 2 O 2 , H 2 SO 4 and Na 2 S 2 O 3 to decontaminate the waste. Up to 87 percent of the total mercury present in the waste was extracted. Mercury was recovered as insoluble mercury sulfide by adding Na 2 S solution to the combined filtrates from the H 2 O 2 + H 2 SO 4 and Na 2 S 2 O 3 treatment steps. The technique described in this article is capable of recovering mercury in a usable form and can be used as a pretreatment to remediate mercury contaminated waste before laud disposal.