Abstract

The role of surfactants in the remediation of metal contaminated sites has remained unclear due to the limited number of earlier investigations devoted to surfactant enhanced metal removal from soils. In the present study, distilled water, surfactants with and without a complexing agent are used to remove Zn (II) and Cu (II) from an artificially contaminated sandy soil. SDS (sodium dodecyl sulfate), AOT (sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate) and Tx-100 (Triton X-100) are the surfactants used in this study. EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) is the complexing agent selected for soil washing. In batch tests, it is shown that extraction by all surfactants is nearly 6 times more effective for copper removal, and 1.2 to 1.4 times more effective for zinc removal than extraction by distilled water alone. The use of surfactants together with the complexing agent EDTA is shown to considerably improve the efficiency of metal removal by EDTA. It is suggested that surfactants do improve the performance of soil washing by enhancing elution of metallic compounds and the reduction of interfacial tension. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)