Washing out heavy metals from contaminated soils from an iron and steel smelting site

Washing is a promising method for separating contaminants bound to the particles of soil ex-situ by chemical mobilization. Laboratory batch washing experiments were conducted using deionized water and varying concentrations of oxalic acid, citric acid, tartaric acid, acetic acid, hydrochloric acid and ethylenediaminetetra acetic acid (EDTA) to assess the efficiency of using these chemicals as washing agents and to clean up heavy metals from two heavily polluted soils from an iron and streel smelting site. The toxicity reduction index and remediation costs were analyzed, and the results showed that the soils were polluted with Cd, Pb and Zn. Hydrochloric acid and EDTA were more efficient than the other washing agents in the remediation of the test soils. The maximum total toxicity reduction index showed that 0.5 mol·L^-1 hydrochloric acid could achieve the remediation with the lowest costs.