Solid Phase Forms of Heavy Metals in Sewage Sludge‐Treated Soils

Abstract

A sequential extraction procedure was used to fractionate Cd, Cu, Ni, and Zn in sludge‐treated soils into the designated forms of exchangeable, adsorbed, organically bound, carbonate, and residual. Samples were obtained from a soil column study where anaerobically digested sewage sludge in either liquid or air‐dried form was mixed into the top 15 cm of three reconstructed soil profiles and leached for 25 months with Colorado River water. The applied sewage sludge and uncontaminated soil samples were also sequentially extracted. The metals added into the soil had not moved out of the sludge‐soil layers during the course of leaching. The chemical forms present in the sludge‐soil layers at the termination of the leaching process were compared with those initially present in the soil and sludge. Most of each of the metals studied in the columns were found in the organically bound, carbonate, or residual forms, with the relative distribution among these forms depending on whether samples were taken in or below the sludge‐soil layer. Less than 36% of each metal in the sewage sludge was in the residual form, while, except for Cd, the soils contained > 65% of each metal studied in this form. It appeared that Cd, Ni, and Zn were all shifting to the residual form. The chemical forms of Cu had not changed significantly during the study. The occurrence of metals in the stable organically bound, carbonate, and residual forms in the sludge, coupled with a shift toward the more stable form (residual) after soil incorporation, contributed to the lack of metal movement in the soil profiles.

Availability and fractionation of trace elements in arid calcareous soils

“…Sequential chemical fractionation procedures segregate trace elements into soil fractions by subjecting the soil to a series of chemical reagents, each more destructive than the previous one (Zufiaurre et al, 1998;Tessier et al, 1979;Morabito, 1995). The following soil fractions are the most widely used and acceptable among the scientific community: (1) exchangeable ; (2) bound to carbonates; (3) bound oxides and hydroxides (reducible); (4) bound to organic matter and sulfides (oxidizable); and (5) residual: in the mineral lattice of silicates or nonreducible oxides or hydroxides (McLaren and Crawford, 1973;Sims and Kline, 1991;Morabito, 1995;Tessier et al, 1979;Emmerich et al, 1982). The trace elements in the soil fractions are, ideally, indicative of their potential mobility and bioavailability, in a decreasing parallel to the order of the sequential extraction steps.…”

Impact of single reagent extraction using NH4OAc-EDTA on the solid phase distribution of metals in a contaminated dredged sediment

“…The first concerns single reagent extractions to assess mobile and bioavailable fractions of metals. The second approach involves the use of sequential fractionation techniques to distinguish between different physico-chemical associations of metals (Tessier et al, 1979;Emmerich et al, 1982;Förstner, 1984).…”

Copper Accumulation in Vineyard Soils: Distribution, Fractionation and Bioavailability Assessment

“…It is also in the soils treated with waste sludge or stable manure rich in copper that most of this metal is bound in the organic fraction [71,72]. Affinity of humic and fulvo acids to copper sorption was, among others, reported by Senesi et al [73] while McLaren et al [74], pointed to the importance of soluble copper chelates in soil solution.…”