Chapter 1
Contaminant Mobilization from Polluted
Soils: Behavior and Reuse of Leaching
Solutions
Nicolas Fatin-Rouge
Abstract Soil and water contamination by toxic elements or molecules cause risks
of chemical pollutions. These pollutions can heavily affect resources and activities of
humans and ecosystems. By nature, the remediation of environmental pollutions is a
constraint, because its application is hampered by high costs. Soil and groundwater
remediation implements a variety of strategies, technologies, and practices to face
the diversity and the complexity of every cases. Contaminant recovery is among the
three main strategies implemented for the remediation of contaminated soils, and
contaminant separation or mobilization by water is widely used for this purpose. As
water solubility is the driving force of dissolution, selective chemical agents are used
to enhance the mobilization of a wide range of contaminants in aqueous solution
from permeable soils. This chapter provides the basic principles about the distribution of contaminants between the soil compartments and the transfer kinetics
between these pools. Extracting agents, technologies, and methods used to mobilize
priority contaminants are reviewed, considering performances, benefits, costs, and
risks within a sustainable approach of reuse and of waste recycling. On the basis of
an analysis of the existing literature, the possibility to reuse effective extracting
agents and solutions is discussed, considering the overall performances, the costs of
the separative methods implemented as well as waste management. However, multicontamination, restrictive regulations or specifications, availability of appropriate
installations and the lack of reported full-scale assessments limit the use of this
strategy for the remediation of polluted zones. An example of field test using
ultrafiltration for the recovery and reuse of surfactant solutions to flush creosotecontaminated soils is presented. Field tests show that the part of costs dedicated to
extracting agents is often minor. In the short term, it is hardly compensated for by
capital and operating costs of the separative technologies implemented for extraction
solution regeneration.
N. Fatin-Rouge (*)
Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté – Institut UTINAM, UMR CNRS 6213, Besançon,
France
e-mail: nicolas.fatin-rouge@univ-fcomte.fr
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
E. D. van Hullebusch et al. (eds.), Environmental Soil Remediation
and Rehabilitation, Applied Environmental Science and Engineering for a
Sustainable Future, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40348-5_1
1
Contaminant Mobilization from Polluted
Soils: Behavior and Reuse of Leaching
Solutions
Nicolas Fatin-Rouge
Abstract Soil and water contamination by toxic elements or molecules cause risks
of chemical pollutions. These pollutions can heavily affect resources and activities of
humans and ecosystems. By nature, the remediation of environmental pollutions is a
constraint, because its application is hampered by high costs. Soil and groundwater
remediation implements a variety of strategies, technologies, and practices to face
the diversity and the complexity of every cases. Contaminant recovery is among the
three main strategies implemented for the remediation of contaminated soils, and
contaminant separation or mobilization by water is widely used for this purpose. As
water solubility is the driving force of dissolution, selective chemical agents are used
to enhance the mobilization of a wide range of contaminants in aqueous solution
from permeable soils. This chapter provides the basic principles about the distribution of contaminants between the soil compartments and the transfer kinetics
between these pools. Extracting agents, technologies, and methods used to mobilize
priority contaminants are reviewed, considering performances, benefits, costs, and
risks within a sustainable approach of reuse and of waste recycling. On the basis of
an analysis of the existing literature, the possibility to reuse effective extracting
agents and solutions is discussed, considering the overall performances, the costs of
the separative methods implemented as well as waste management. However, multicontamination, restrictive regulations or specifications, availability of appropriate
installations and the lack of reported full-scale assessments limit the use of this
strategy for the remediation of polluted zones. An example of field test using
ultrafiltration for the recovery and reuse of surfactant solutions to flush creosotecontaminated soils is presented. Field tests show that the part of costs dedicated to
extracting agents is often minor. In the short term, it is hardly compensated for by
capital and operating costs of the separative technologies implemented for extraction
solution regeneration.
N. Fatin-Rouge (*)
Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté – Institut UTINAM, UMR CNRS 6213, Besançon,
France
e-mail: nicolas.fatin-rouge@univ-fcomte.fr
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
E. D. van Hullebusch et al. (eds.), Environmental Soil Remediation
and Rehabilitation, Applied Environmental Science and Engineering for a
Sustainable Future, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40348-5_1
1