Influence of Acoustic Excitation on Effluent Concentration of Zinc from Clayey Soils

The efficiency of soil remediation techniquesgenerally depends upon the contaminant sorption by soil andcontaminant desorption from soil. Sorption and desorption againdepends upon the soil contaminant interaction. Generally thedesorption of heavy metals from fine grained soils like clay isconsidered as lengthy and costly process, particularly underin-situ conditions. In this research acoustically enhanced columntests were performed to evaluate the influence of acoustics todesorb heavy metal contaminant like zinc from fine grained soilslike clay, considering in-situ stress conditions. The test resultsshow that the sorption of zinc remained significantly higher thanthat of desorption, application of acoustics increased the removalof zinc ions sorbed on solid phase of soil and optimum increase ineffluent concentration achieved at 1.4 pore volume.