Abstract:
To investigate the influencing factors and migration characteristics of HCHs with different isomers in contaminated soils under electrokinetics, samples collected from a suspended HCHs manufacturer in southwest China were employed to conduct experiments. Electrokinetic factors, including reaction time, voltage gradient, electrolyte content (w) and pH value, were taken into account for the HCHs migration investigation. The results indicate that effective migration of the HCHs could be achieved by the electrokinetic process. First, the increase of reaction time could enhance the migration effect towards a stable status at 192 h. Second, the migration of the HCHs was improved by raising the voltage gradient, with optimum value of 3.0 V/cm. Third, the optimum w was 2%. Finally, the best migration effect for the HCHs was correlated to pH 5.07 in the experiments. As the migration was from cathode to anode, different HCHs isomers exhibited different accumulation performances at the anode. The best accumulation rates from 210.5%-226.3% were tested for α-HCH, followed by 72.5%-265.3%, 38.5%-79.3% and 57.3%-62.6% for β-HCH, γ-HCH and δ-HCH, respectively. After the electrokinetic processes, the cathode displayed the highest electrical conductivity 1.2-324.4 mS/cm, while P
(0.6) (the normalized distance from cathode was 0.6) had the lowest one (0.1-70.1 mS/cm). It was also found that the pH value of the soil decreased from the cathode (10.31-12.05) to the anode (0.98-4.56). In conclusion, electrokinetic factors play important roles in the migration of HCHs. Among different HCHs isomers, the best migration capability was found in α-HCH, followed by β-HCH, γ-HCH and δ-HCH.