Leaching of Heavy Metals from Contaminated Soil Stabilised by Portland Cement and Slag Bremen

Abstract Leaching behaviour is an important evidence of soil quality. The assessment of leaching of heavy metals from the contaminated soil is vital for environmental applications. However, leaching may differ in soil stabilised by various ratios of binders. In this study we measured leaching behaviour of soil contaminated by As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, V, Zn, methyl Hg, aliphatic compounds of hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). To evaluate leaching of these substances we tested the effects of changed amount of binder (120 kg and 150 kg) and binder ratios (70/30 %, 50/50 % and 30/70 %) added to soil samples. Soil was dredged from several stations in Ostrand area, SCA Sundsvall Ortvikens Pappersbruk. The results demonstrated a systematically decreasing leaching with the increased slag. The contribution of this research include: (i) devising systematic approach to extract information on leaching from stabilised soil collected from the coastal area of Bothnian Bay, (ii) developing a workflow for stabilising soils by various combination of Portland cement Basement CEM II/A-V (SS EN 197-1) and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS), Bremen type (SS EN 15167-1), (iii) determining water ratio and density for the untreated and stabilised soil and performing comparative analysis, (iv) evaluating chemical content of pollutants and toxic elements in the aggregated soil samples. Treatment of the contaminated soil by binders improved its parameters by the increased strength and decreased leaching of heavy metals and toxic elements.