High levels of fluorine in soil may pose health risks and require remediation. In this study, the feasibility of using a practical chemical washing method for the removal of fluorine from an enriched soil was evaluated. The chemical washing procedures were optimized through experimental analyses of various washing solutions and washing conditions (i.e., washing solution concentration, solid–liquid ratio, agitation speed, and reaction time). Additionally, the effects of techniques for improving the washing efficiency, such as ultrasonic washing, aeration, and multi-stage washing, were evaluated. Herein, among all applied methodologies, the maximum washing efficiency achieved for the total fluorine present in soil was only 6.2%, which indicated that chemical washing was inefficient in remediating this particular soil. Further sequential extraction analysis showed that the fluorine in this soil was present in a chemically stable form (residual fraction), possibly because of the presence of mica minerals. It was demonstrated that chemical washing may not be effective for remediating soils containing such chemically stable forms of fluorine. In these cases, other physical-based remediation technologies or risk management approaches may be more suitable.

No abstract

This study was conducted to optimize a mixing design of lightweight aerated concrete with the blast furnace slag(BFS) using Box-Behnken method, one of response surface designs. The lightweight aerated concrete with the BFS was made on the conditions of steam curing method at atmospheric pressure. The experimental factors were unit Water(W)/total powder(P d ) ratio, BFS replacement percentage and Al powder addition based on the total powder (P d *%). From the results of the response surface analysis, regression models for dried specific gravity and compressive strength of the lightweight aerated concrete were derived. When the target values for dried specific gravity and compressive strength of the lightweight aerated concrete were set at 0.72 and 4.42 MPa respectively, its optimized mixing conditions driven from the regression models were 0.62 of W/P d ratio, 35.5% of BFS replacement and 0.05% of Al powder addition. This experimental design model was found to be credible by measuring the dried specific gravity and compressive strength of the sample made from the above mixing conditions

No abstract

No abstract