Abstract

Recently, surfactants have shown some potential for remediation of heavy metal contaminated soil, although research in this area has been limited. Batch and column studies were conducted to investigate the sorption processes and transport behavior of Cu(II) in a sandy soil in the presence of surfactants. SDS (sodium dodecyl sulfate) and Triton X-100 were chosen as representatives of an anionic surfactant and a nonionic surfactant, respectively. Results showed that the anionic surfactant (SDS) significantly decreased the retention of Cu(II) in the sandy soil and was more effective in removal of Cu(III) than the nonionic surfactant (Triton X-100) in the both batch and column experiments. Further, both SDS and Triton X-100 appeared more effective in removing Cu(II) under increasing acidic conditions. Description of the sorption process and transport of heavy metals is necessary for identifying the fate of heavy metals in soils. The batch-generated sorption isotherms were found to be quantitatively higher than those calculated in columns. The sorption processes of Cu(III) in the soil column showed a strong nonequilibrium. Both a first-order kinetic model and a two-region model were not capable of describing the entire experimental breakthrough curve (BIC) in most instances