Electrodialytic Remediation of Soil Fines (<63μm) in Suspension: Influence of Current Strength and L/S.

Current treatment of the remaining soil fines from soil wash is onerous and expensive, and therefore, in this work, we investigated the feasibility of electrodialytic remediation (EDR) as an alternative treatment. The study focuses on EDR efficiency as a function of current strength, liquid-to-solid-ratio (L/S), pH and time. We found out that during the experiments, Pb was easily dissolved by the acidification resulting from water splitting at the anion-exchange membrane. When higher currents and/or higher L/S ratios were applied, it was found that water splitting occurring at the cation-exchange membrane increased the pH, and this resulted in decreased remediation efficiency. It was shown that complete remediation of the soil-fines is possible, with the majority of the Pb being transported into the catholyte and precipitated at the cathode. Based on the results it is recommended that EDR is implemented using a number of reactors in series, where the initial reactor works at the highest possible removal rate, and the final reactor works at the target Pb-concentration.