Critical passivation mechanisms on heavy metals during aerobic composting with different grain-size zeolite

Hu Cui; Yang Ou; Lixia Wang; Baixing Yan; Yingxin Li; Meiwen Bao

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124313

Critical passivation mechanisms on heavy metals during aerobic composting with different grain-size zeolite

J Hazard Mater. 2021 Mar 15:406:124313. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124313. Epub 2020 Oct 19.

Authors

Hu Cui¹, Yang Ou², Lixia Wang³, Baixing Yan², Yingxin Li¹, Meiwen Bao¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China; Jilin Provincial Engineering Center of CWs Design in Cold Region & Beautiful Country Construction, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
² Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China; Jilin Provincial Engineering Center of CWs Design in Cold Region & Beautiful Country Construction, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China; Jilin Provincial Engineering Center of CWs Design in Cold Region & Beautiful Country Construction, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China. Electronic address: lxwang@iga.ac.cn.

PMID: 33160789
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124313

Abstract

Available information about the passivation effect on heavy metals (HMs) through adsorption and humification during zeolite-amended composting remains limited. Thus, this study explored the dynamic changes in HM-fractions (Zn, Cu, Cd, Cr and Pb) during aerobic composting added with different grain-size zeolite (Fine zeolite, < 0.1 mm, ZF; Coarse zeolite: 3-5 mm, ZC). Compared to the control (without zeolite, CK) and ZF treatments, ZC treatment got the highest temperature in the thermophilic phase, and significantly reduced the bioavailability factor (BF) of HMs, especially for Cu (45.13%), Cd (16.11%) and Pb (25.49%). Redundancy analysis (RDA) and structural equation models (SEMs) indicated that zeolite accelerated the passivation effect on Cd and Pb through regulating the electrical conductivity (EC) as a result of surface adsorption, and on Cu by influencing total carbon (TC) under the function of humification. These results increase our understanding of the passivation mechanisms of HMs during aerobic composting.

Keywords: Aerobic composting; Grain-size; Heavy metals; Passivation; Zeolite.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't