In-situ stabilization of multiple heavy metals (Pb, Zn, As) by ferrous sulfate—From batch experiments to pilot study
摘要
Chemical stabilization has been widely applied to stabilize various heavy metals in soil, but there have been few systematic investigations of in situ stabilization at practical contaminated sites. In this study, batch experiments were conducted to investigate the stabilization effect of heavy metals in soil from an iron-smelting site using multiple materials. The results showed that FeSO4 simultaneously reduced the bioavailable heavy metal (BHM) concentrations of Pb, Zn, and As by 61.1%, 28.1%, and 68.6%, respectively. Therefore, FeSO4 was further applied at the practical contaminated site. Experimental results indicated that the heterogeneous distribution of stabilization efficiency deviated from that of batch experiments, which were influenced by multiple factors. Compared to the control group, the bioavailable Pb, Zn, and As concentrations decreased by 23.1, 13.6, and 4.73 mg/kg, respectively, when the injected FeSO4 concentration was 0.27 mol/L in the saturated zone. The decreased concentrations of bioavailable Pb, Zn, and As decreased with the distance from the injection well, showing a limited radius of influence at 1.0–2.0 m, larger than the theoretical value (0.92 m). Correlation analysis revealed a significant negative relationship between the change in BHM content and the fraction of BHM content before stabilization (FB), indicating that FB significantly controlled the stabilization efficiency. While excess injected FeSO4 had only a slight influence on the stabilization efficiency of heavy metals, it negatively impacted groundwater. This study provides new perspectives for in situ stabilization and highlights the importance of pilot-scale experiments over batch experiments for guiding engineering activities.