Journal of Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers ISSN:1738-3692(Print) 2093-7709(Online) 한국농공학회논문집

This study was aimed to investigate the influence of cation exchange capacity (CEC) and application amounts of zeolite on the stabilization of heavy metals (As, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in upland soils. The upland soils were sampled from field near mines located in Gyeonggi Province. The CEC of zeolite was treated at three different levels, ie, low, medium, and high, while zeolite was amended with soils at the ratio of 0.1 % and 0.5 % as to soil weight. A sequential extraction was performed for the soil sampled at 1, 2 4, and 8 week after zeolite was added to the soil. The concentrations of Pb and Zn appeared to be high in the sampled soils. The mobility of heavy metals obtained from sequential experiments was as follows: Pb > Zn > Ni >As. Addition of zeolite to contaminated soils effectively reduced exchangeable and carbonate fractions but increased organic and residual fraction, indicating that zeolite is effective for immobilizing heavy metals in soils. The influence of incubation time on the metal stabilization was rather pronounced as compared to the application amount and CEC of zeolite.