Influence of Cations in Anolytes on the Power Efficiency in the Electrokinetic Remediation of Chromium(VI)-Contaminated Soils

In the electrokinetic (EK) remediation of contaminated soils, the ions in porous fluid move out of soil and meanwhile the ions in electrolytes move in, resulting in the changes of soil conductance and remediation efficiency. This paper investigated the influence of different cations on the power efficiency of EK remediation of chromium-contaminated soils with Fe2+, Ca2+, H+, K+, and Na+ ions. Results showed that the cations of low equivalent ionic conductance can effectively decrease the power consumption meanwhile not deteriorating the removal rate of total chromium.