Effect of soil/contamination characteristics and process operational conditions on aminopolycarboxylates enhanced soil washing for heavy metals removal: a review

The present paper analyzes literature data dealing with the use of aminopolycarboxylates for chemical washing of heavy metals contaminated soils. The aim is to rationalize and organize the up-to-date knowledge of process dependence on different parameters, in order to give a contribution to the development of washing protocols applicable for process optimization. Process efficiency is found to be dependent on i) parameters related to soil composition, ii) parameters related to contaminant characteristics and iii) operating parameters. The effect that each of them, according to the reviewed experimental studies, has on process efficiency, is highlighted, and the interdependence among them is presented as a key point to understand the overall removal mechanism and therefore to calibrate its application case-by-case.