Tungmetaller i lakvatten
avskiljning med mineraliska filtermaterial
Four different kinds of filter-materials with reactive surfaces have been studied concerning their capacity to absorb heavy metals in leachate from a municipal waste deposit. The heavy metals studied were: lead, cadmium, copper, mercury, chromium, nickel and zinc. The leachate contains high levels of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and has a high pH-value along with a high buffer capacity. These characteristics of the leachate make it difficult to remove pollutants and require efficient filters. The filters that were examined in the report are blast-furnace slag with CaO, sand covered with iron oxides, olivine and nepheline. The experiment was carried out in two sets, starting with batch experiments followed by a column study. The objective of the batch experiments was to find out how variations in pH affected the sorption capacity of the materials. The interval used during the test was from pH 5 to pH 10. The computer program VisualMinteq was used to evaluate the dominating sorption processes when the materials interacted with the solutions. Two different kinds of solutions were used in the batch experiment. One of them was the leachate, to which known concentrations of heavy metals were added (about 1 ?M) and the other consisted of sodium nitrate, a solution without organic compounds, which was used as a reference. The sodium nitrate solution was also spiked with the same concentration of heavy metals as the leachate.The results from the batch experiment showed that the sorption of heavy metals was lowered if the DOC level was high. No relation between pH and sorption ability could be found for the leachate, but for some metals in the sodium solution a higher pH improved the removal of heavy metals. The two materials that showed best results in the batch experiment were the blast-furnace slag and the sand with iron oxides. These materials were used in the column study. The olivine material was somewhat better than the nepheline in the batch experiment.Four columns were used in the column study, two for each material. Leachate with heavy metals was pumped into the columns with a specific flow rate; at first a low flow rate was used and when half the experiment time had passed the flow rate was increased. The flow rates used were 0.12 m/24 h and 0.62 m/24 h. The outcome of the column experiment showed that the slag had the highest ability to adsorb metals. The metal sorption was over 60 percent for lead, cadmium and zinc, where the highest sorption was obtained for lead. No affects were noticed when the flow rate was increased.