Adaptation of the Soxhlet Extractor for Pedologic Studies

Abstract

The use of the soxhlet apparatus has had limited success in its application to pedogenic weathering studies. Modified designs of the original soxhlet eliminated problems of sample inundation, erosion, and leachate contamination. The modifications, which utilized extraction thimbles, were made either by reducing the height (A) or completely removing (B) the siphon tube. B‐modified extractors increased Ca extractability of a soil material from the original 50 ppm to 210 ppm compared to an increase to 125 ppm in the unmodified apparatus. Use of a CO2 atmosphere in modification A caused rapid change in reaction of the material from the initial pH 5.1 to 4.5 compared to pH 6.1 in unmodified units. The use of these modified soxhlets showed promise in simulating pedogenic processes.

Experimental Simulation of Long Term Weathering in Alkaline Bauxite Residue Tailings

“…Soxhlet extractors have been used to simulate weathering for a variety of geological materials [10][11][12][13][14]; however, the very fine texture of bauxite residue (median particle diameter 130 μm for bauxite residue used in this study; [15]) inhibited leaching. Furthermore, the Soxhlet extraction procedure is slow and labour intensive when conducting experiments at multiple temperatures to investigate reaction kinetics.…”