抄録
While insolubilization and solidification are mainstream mercury treatment methods in the USA and Europe as well as Japan, soil washing with chelator or acid and heating and vaporization of contaminated soil (heating temperatures of 600 to 1000°C) as late techniques are being proposed. However, these emerging techniques have a few drawbacks, such as very high treatment costs for high-temperature heating or chemical washing, and the possibility of changing the natural soil characteristics. In order to overcome these drawbacks, we have undertaken fundamental laboratory work research to develop more suitable remediation technology. The method proposed in this paper, technically a soil heating method, uses catalysts and physico-chemical oxidation and reduction reaction, which allow heating temperature to be as low as 200 to 300°C and even allows treatment of mercuric silfide, considered to be the most stable mercury form among all mercury compounds. Our preliminary experiments with 2000 mg-Hg·kg-1 dry weight artificially contaminated soil and heating temperature 300°C showed that around 99% Mercury was removed.
