Attenuation of pollutants in municipal landfill leachate by clay minerals. Final report Dec 72-Aug 75

Technical Report · Tue Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1978

OSTI ID:6312927

Griffin, R A; Shimp, N F

The first part of this project was a laboratory column study of attenuation of pollutants in municipal solid waste landfill leachate by mixtures of sand and calcium-saturated clays. K, NH4, Mg, Si, and Fe were moderately attenuated; and the heavy metals Pb, Cd, Hg, and Zn were strongly attenuated even in columns with small amounts of clay. Precipitation was the principal attenuation mechanism for the heavy metals; cation exchange was responsible for any attenuation of the other elements. The clays, in order of increasing attenuation capacity, were Kaolinite, Illite, Montmorillonite. The second part of the project involved batch studies of adsorption of Cr, Cu, Pb, Cd, Hg, and Zn by Montmorillonite and Kaolinite from water solutions and from landfill leachate. Adsorption of the cations Cr(III), Cu, Pb, Cd, Hg, and Zn increased with increasing pH; adsorption of the anions Cr(VI), As, and Se decreased with increasing pH. Above pH about 5.3 precipitation of the cations was an important mechanism while adsorption was the principal mechanism for the anions over the pH range studied. Because adsorption/mobility of any element was affected by other solutes in leachate, adsorption information on one leachate may not be directly applied to predicting adsorption of the same element at the same concentration in another leachate.

• Research Organization: Illinois State Geological Survey, Urbana (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6312927
• Report Number(s): PB-287140
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
400201 -- Chemical & Physicochemical Properties
510200* -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ADSORPTION
ALKALI METALS
ALKALINE EARTH METALS
ALUMINIUM COMPOUNDS
ALUMINIUM SILICATES
AMMONIUM COMPOUNDS
CADMIUM
CLAYS
COPPER
DISSOLUTION
ELEMENTS
ILLITE
INORGANIC ION EXCHANGERS
ION EXCHANGE
ION EXCHANGE MATERIALS
IRON
KAOLINITE
LEACHING
LEAD
MAGNESIUM
MANAGEMENT
MERCURY
METALS
MINERALS
MONTMORILLONITE
MUNICIPAL WASTES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PH VALUE
POTASSIUM
PRECIPITATION
SANITARY LANDFILLS
SEMIMETALS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SILICATES
SILICON
SILICON COMPOUNDS
SOLID WASTES
SORPTION
SORPTIVE PROPERTIES
SURFACE PROPERTIES
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
ZINC