• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.337-346
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• 2020

This study was carried out to evaluate the applicability of the soil washing process to remediation mercury-contaminated mine tailing or solid material (soil and sediments etc.) around abandoned mines. First, the physicochemical characteristics of mine tailing were analyzed through particle size analysis and sequential extraction. Secondly, laboratory scale washing experiments were performed using hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, potassium iodide and sodium thiosulfate. As a results of particle size analysis, mine tailing particle were concentrated below 40 mesh and the particle size below 200 mesh was the most analyzed. As a result of sequential extraction, elemental mercury fraction was analyzed as the highest with 69.12%, with strongly bound fraction 15.25% and residual and HgS fractions 11.97%, respectively. Laboratory scale washing experiments showed low applicability for nitric acid and sodium thiosulfate solutions. In case of hydrochloric acid solution, it was analyzed that mercury removal was possible at particle size of 200 mesh or more. Therefore, it is considered to be performed together with the physical sorting process. Potassium iodide solution was analyzed to have high washing efficiency at all concentrations and particle sizes. In particular, the mercury removal efficiency is high in the micro particles, and thus the applicability of the washing technology is the highest.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.59-64
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• 1998

The environmental problem of the rural area has been accelerated in soil as well as water. Soil contamination is usually caused by improper operation of landfills, abandoned mine fields, accidental spills, and illegal dumpings. Once soil contamination is initiated, pollutants migrate and may cause groundwater contamination which takes much effort for remediation. Early detection, therefore, is important to prevent further contamination. Electrical resistivity method was used to detect soil contamination, but it was not effective to the heterogeneous condition. Static cone penetrometer test (CPT) has been used widely to investigate geotechnical properties of the underground. In this study, electrical resistivity method and CPT are combined to improve the applicability of it. The pilot test was performed to examine the variation of electrical resistivity with different soil minerals and pore fluid characteristics. Soil samples used were poorly graded sand, silty sandy soil, and weathered granite soil. For all the cases, electrical resistivity decreased with increasing of moisture content. Soil mineral also affected the electrical resistivity significantly. Above all, leachate addition in the pore fluid was very sensitive and caused decreasing of electrical resistivity markedly. It implies that electrical resistivity method can be applied to investigate pollutant plume effectively. This is specially sure when the sensors contact the contaminated soils directly. The CPT method involves cone penetration to the ground, therefore, underground contamination around the cone could be investigated effectively even for heterogeneous condition as it penetrates if electrical resistivity sensors are attached on the cone.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.253-262
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• 2012

With the aim of remediating soils contaminated by heavy metals and oil, experimental research was conducted to evaluate the optimal design factors for remediation in terms of efficient soil washing methods and processes. The experiments employed absorptiometric analysis and gas chromatography methods to reduce the concentration of heavy metals such as cooper (Cu), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn), and total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) in contaminated soils. The experimental processes consisted of deciding on the washing solution, washing time, and dilution ratio for contaminated soils. A dissolution analysis of heavy metals was then performed by the addition of surfactant, based on the results of the decision experiments, and the injection processes of microbes and hydrogen peroxide were selected. The experimental results revealed that reduction effects in contaminated soils under the experimental conditions were most efficient with hydrochloric acid 0.1 mole, washing time 1 hour, and dilution ratio 1:3, individually. Additional reduction effects for heavy metals and TPH were found with the addition of a washing solution of 1% of surfactant. The addition of microbes and hydrogen peroxide caused a reduction in TPH concentration.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.55-65
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• 2003

The combined effect of bioaugmentation of dechlorinating bacterial cultures and addition of iron powder($Fe^0$ on reductive dechlorination of tetrachloroethylene(PCE) and other chlorinated ethylenes in a artificially contaminated soil slurry(60micromoles PCE/kg soil). Two different anaerobic bacterial cultures, a pure bacterial culture of Desulfitobacterium sp. strain Y-51 capable of dechlorinating PCE to cis-1,2-dechloroethylene(cis-DCE) and the other enrichment culture PE-1 capable of dechlorinating PCE completely to ethylene, were used for the bioaugmentation test. Both treatments introduced with the strain Y-51 and PE-1 culture (3mg dry cell weight/kg soil) showed conversion of PCE to cis-DCE within 40days. The treatments added with $Fe^0$(0.1-1.0%) alone to the soil slurry resulted in extended PCE dechlorination to ethylene and ethane and the dechlorination rate depended on the amount of $Fe^0$ added. The combined use of the bacterial cultures with $Fe^0$(0.1-1.0%)) showed the higher PCE dechlorination rate than the separated application and the pattern of PCE dechlorination and end-product formation was different from those of the separated application. When 0.1% of $Fe^0$ was added with the cultures, the treatments with the strain Y-51 and $Fe^0$ resulted in cis-DCE accumulation from PCE dechlorination, but the treatment with the enrichment culture and $Fe^0$ showed the more extended dechlorination via cis-DCE. These results suggested that the combined application of and the bactrial culture, specially the complete dechlorinating enrichment culture, is practically effective for bioremediation of PCE contaminated soil.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.417-422
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• 2001

Sutfactants may be used in remediation of subsoil and aquifer contaminated with hydrophobic compounds. The objectives of this study were to select potentially suitable sUlfactants that solubilize toluene present as a contaminant and to determine the effectiveness of toluene removal from Ottawa sand by the selected surfactants. Material used as the model soil was Ottawa sand and the organic used as model contaminant was toluene. Used experimental methods were separatory funnel experiment and shaker table agitation/centrifugation experiments. Based on the experimental results, the following conclusions were drawn; t) In the surfactant selection, six different surfactants were chosen based on surfactant types, toxicity, and water solubility. These six were focused into two on the basis of HLB and surface tension study, separatory funnel experiment, shaker table and centrifugation experiments. The two most suitable surfactants were Sandopan JA36 (an anionic surfactant), and Pluronic L44 (a non-ionic surfactant). 2) In the shaker table agitation and centrifugation experiments, the highest recovery of the toluene was 96% which was obtained with one surfactant wash plus two water rinses using an anionic surfactant (Sandopan JA36).

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Health Society Conference
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.91-99
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• 2002

A recent survey investigated that there were over one thousand un-controlled closed landfills(1,072 sites) in Republic of Korea. Most of these landfills were constructed before 1986. Waste management act were not promulgated at that time, so they usually do not have dranage system and leachate treatment facility. Also, considerable attention has been received to landfill leachate pollution, leachate has an adverse impact on the surrounding environment such as soil, groundwater, and water supply source. According to the result of survey for closed landfill management, it was reported that 875 sites out of 1,072sites(81.6％) have no leachate treatment facility and 630 sites out of 1,072sites(58.7％) have been used for farm lands and residence. Consequently it is hard to do postclosure care continuously in most of cases and these uncontrolled landfills have contaminated farm lands and residence. The average age of these landfills are ranged mostly between 2 to 15 years. Much time and advanced technology are needed to remediate these uncontrolled landfills, therefore the survey for present status of closed landfill sites is required and suitable treatment processes should be prepared. With this point of view, We has been investigated to find out the present status of closed landfill, problems of post management and discussed plans for remediation and reuse. Remedial actions of un-controlled landfill have been carried out the many cities since 1997 upto now. Most frequently applied technology were reuse after excavation and there were several cases to capping in the surface of landfill and to construct subsurface barriers. It is considered that landfills in use have a possibility not to be controlled because of inadequate construction and improper management. Therefore remediation of uncontrolled landfills and recovery technology should be develop continuously Especially, it has been expected that resource technology of landfill gas as a energy has some advantages in controlling odors in the site area and accelerating stabilization of landfills with the energy.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.117-126
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• 2015

Reductive degradation of hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) by nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) was investigated to evaluate the feasibility of using it for in-situ groundwater remediation. Batch experiments were conducted to quantify the kinetics and efficiency of RDX removal by nZVI, and to determine the effects of pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), and ionic strength on this process. Experimental results showed that the reduction of RDX by nZVI followed pseudo-first order kinetics with the observed rate constant (k_obs) in the range of 0.0056-0.0192 min⁻¹. Column tests were conducted to quantify the removal of RDX by nZVI under real groundwater conditions and evaluate the potential efficacy of nZVI for this purpose in real conditions. In column experiment, RDX removal capacity of nZVI was determined to be 82,500 mg/kg nZVI. pH, oxidation-reduction potential (ORP), and DO concentration varied significantly during the column experiments; the occurrence of these changes suggests that monitoring these quantities may be useful in evaluation of the reactivity of nZVI, because the most critical mechanisms for RDX removal are based on the chemical reduction reactions. These results revealed that nZVI can significantly degrade RDX and that use of nZVI could be an effective method for in-situ remediation of RDX-contaminated groundwater.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.8-14
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• 2008

The effects of surfactant types and the ratio of nonionic and anionic surfactants on the washing of diesel contaminated soil were investigated. In batch tests, the nonionic surfactant, which has HLB within 12-13, showed a high diesel removal efficiency and Tergitol 15-S-7 (T15S7) with 20 g/L concentration exhibited the highest removal efficiency of 79-88% among the tested nonionic surfactants. Anionic surfactants, in general, showed lower removal efficiency than nonionic surfactants. In case of mixed surfactant system, the removal efficiency increased with nonionic surfactant concentration. With mixed surfactants of T15S7 and SDS as 3 : 1 ratio, diesel removal was enhanced to 76% with 10 g/L of the mixed surfactants. These results could be used in the selection of proper surfactants for remediation of diesel contaminated soils.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.247-254
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• 2010

Ultrasound and Surfactant aided soil washing process has been shown to be an effective method to remove diesel from soils. The use of surfactants can improve the mobility of diesel in soil-water systems by increasing solubility of adsorbed diesel into surfactant micelles. However, a large amount of surfactant is required for treatment. In addition, synthetic surfactants, specially anionic, are more toxic and the surfactant wastewater is hard to treat by conventional wastewater treatments even by AOPs. Ultrasound improves desorption of the diesel adsorbed on to soil. The mechanisms are based on physical breakage of bonds by hot spot, directly impact onto soil particle surface, the fragmentation of long-chain hydrocarbons by micro-jet and microstreaming in the soil pores. The use of ultrasound as an enhancement method in both anionic and nonionic surfactant aided soil-washing processes were studied. And all experiments were examined proceeded under CMC surfactant concentration, frequency 35 khz, power 400 W, Soil-water ratio 1:3(wt%), particle size 0.24 ~ 2mm and initial diesel concentration. 20,000 mg/kg. Combination with ultrasound showed significant enhancements on all the processes. Especially, nonionic surfactant Triton-X100 with ultrasound showed remarkable enhancements and diesel removal rate enhanced by ultrasound helps desorpting of surfactant adsorbed onto soils which prevented decreasing surfactant activity.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.281-288
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• 2012

Phytoremediation-the use of plants for the in situ treatment of contaminated soil and water-has recently emerged as an inexpensive and user-friendly alternative to traditional methods of environmental clean-up. The present article outlines the characteristics of phytoremediation based on accumulated research evidence, along with discussions on its advantages and disadvantages. It further reviews various mechanisms involved in the phytoremediation processes: phytoextraction, rhizofiltration, phytostabilization, phytovolatilization and phytodegradation. Along the way, the author summarizes examples of its applications to environmental pollution control. These include wastewater treatment, removal of heavy metals, and hydrocarbons, remediation of recalcitrant contaminants, phytoremediation of radionuclides, and application of transgenic plants for enhanced biodegradation and phytoremediation. The remainder of the article briefly concludes with directions for future research.