Treatment and remediation by the stabilization/solidification process based on hydraulic binders of soil contaminated by heavy metals

Abstract

Nature and the environment are affected by various human industrial and/or urban discharges. Remediation for this problem requires first and foremost an in-depth analysis and an overall characterization of the intrinsic properties of the pollution-receiving environments. Secondly it is necessary to predict in these environments the behavior of dangerous chemical species (here particularly heavy metals) in the long term. This study focuses mainly on a detailed characterization of 4 soil samples sampled in vicinity of wild dump-BOULIMAT located 15 km west of the city of Bejaia-Algeria. The samples were characterised by atomic absorption spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, Fluorescence X and Infrared spectroscopy. The data showed high concentrations of metallic elements especially Zn (2,651.8 mg.kg⁻¹) and Ni (163.44 mg.kg⁻¹) in the soil samples. For their remediation, the stabilization/solidification (S/S) process with hydraulic binders appeared promising in reducing the polluting power of metal. This approach has considerably reduced the content of pollutants; 98 % removal was obtained for Ni and 99 % for Zn. The XRD analysis technique revealed the occurrence or absence of metallic elements in the crystallized phases.