Reclaiming Saline-Sodic Soils Using Electrochemical Processes: A Case Study From Sahl El-Tina Plain, Egypt

Abstract

A leaching experiment was conducted using column techniques assessing efficiency of electrochemical process to reclaim saline-sodic soils. Soil material was collected from Sahl El-Tina plain, which located in North West coast of Sinai, Egypt. The experiment was designed as factorial randomized complete block and all treatments were replicated three times. Two 2.5 cm diameter×30 cm height mild stainless steel tubes were inserted into the soil matrix to serve as electrodes (i.e. cathode and anode). Distance between cathode and anode was 10 cm. Electrodes were supplied by a direct current (DC) power supply; Volt ages of 0.3 or 9 Volt. Leaching was done using the intermittent method so as to add portions to the already saturated soil columns, and obtain leachates equal to the added portions. Pore volume 0.1 PV was used in the leaching processes which are equal 498.4 cm 3 , i.e. PV being volume of pores per column, thus 1 PV equals volume of pores (cm 3 ) expressed as water quantity. Electric remediation increased ionic mobility and separated salts from soil. All treatments decreased soil EC and soil sodicity expressed as SAR and ESP. Results showed that 9 Volt treatment was more effective in decreasing the soil EC and soil sodicity than the other treatments. Efficiency of treatments were 9-Volt > 3-Volt > leaching alone (non-DC treatment). This study suggests that leaching using direct current (DC) led to improvement of the chemical properties of saline sodic soils and required a short time to reclaim saline-sodic soils compared with leaching alone.

Saline-Sodic Soils Reclamation by Electrochemical Remediation Technique

“…On the other hand, DC led to accelerate the dissolution of gypsum mending, which accumulated on the exchange sites and improved physical properties of soil like aggregation thus reducing the ECe. This results supported by the work of You-Jin et al (2013) and Abdel-Fattah (2014). Regarding to soluble ions (cations and anions) and SAR, results showed that soluble ions and SAR took a similar trend to that of EC e .…”

“…Besides, large quantities of CO 2 , which evolved during leaching process the decomposition of the organic matter such as compost by activity of microorganisms resulting increase of organic and inorganic acids, thereby decreasing soil pH. Similar observation were also reported by Wassif et al (1992), Ismail et al (1992), Sabri et al (1993) and Abdel-Fattah (2012 and2014).…”

“…Electrokinetic treatment was performed by Cho et al (2011) using column techniques to evaluate the effect of electric current duration, they detected that after electric current duration the electrical conductivity (EC) of the soil decreased to 1.93 dSm -1 from an initial value of 5.3 dSm -1 and the distribution of sulfate was similar to that of EC. Abdel-Fattah (2014), who used a column techniques to asses the efficiency of electrochemical process in reclaim salinesodic soils, he concluded that leaching using direct current (DC) led to improvement of the chemical properties of saline sodic soils and the efficiency of reclamation was in the following order: 9-Volt > 3-Volt > leaching alone (non-DC treatment).…”

Salt stress tolerance mechanisms and potential applications of legumes for sustainable reclamation of salt‐degraded soils

“…Although the hydro-technical technique is ineffective without gypsum application, the electro-reclamation technique remediates saline soils through electrodialysis (Zia-ur-Rehman et al, 2016). Field investigations and laboratory analyses have shown that treatments with electric currents may facilitate the reclamation of saline soils (Abdel-Fattah, 2014), although it cannot be used to completely replace the more conventional procedures used for the reclamation of saline soils (Zia-ur-Rehman et al, 2016). In addition, a major problem associated with the electro-reclamation technique is the presence of insoluble compounds, such as CaSO 4 , in soils that have the potential to decrease the responsiveness of soils to electro-reclamation (Nasim, Oh, & Chai, 2012;Zia-ur-Rehman et al, 2016).…”

Electrorremediación de suelos agrícolas contaminados con plomo, Carabayllo

“…Por otra parte, la fuente de energía es también importante tener en cuenta, investigadores indican que la efectividad del experimento en recuperación de suelos salinos-sódicos estuvo en relación al grado de voltaje utilizado, encontrando del orden: 9 V>3V, presentándose una reducción de la conductividad eléctrica (EC), el pH y la salinidad. [18]. En Comodoro-Argentina se realizó la electrorremediación con diferencia de potencia de 0,5V y conservó la cantidad de microorganismos [19].…”