Removal or Reducing Heavy Metal (lead) from Soil by Electrokinetic Process

The electrokinetic process is an emerging technology for in situ soil contamination, in which chemical species, both ionic and nonionic are transported to an electrode in soil. These products are subsequently removed from the ground via collection systems engineered for each specific application. Electro kinetics refers to movement of water, ions and charged particles relative to one another under the action of an applied direct current electric field. Electrokinetic experiments were conducted using same type of clay soil taken from the site. Initial total concentrations of lead (II) maintained at 1000mg/kg for each process. The clay soils were to a voltage gradient of 1VDC/cm for over 24hrs, 36hrs and 48hrs.In a porous compact matrix of surface charged particles such as soil, the ion containing pore fluid may be made to flow to collection sites under the applied field. The work presented here describes part of the effort undertaken to investicate the electrokinetically enhanced transport of soil contaminants (lead) in synthetic systems. The result of this experiment presented here indicate that electrokinetic enhancement of contaminant transport in clay soils with different durations, increased duration (48hrs) is best removal efficiency for comparing the other durations (24hrs and 36hrs).