Portland cements (PC) and blended PCs are the most commonly used binders in stabilisation/solidification (S/S) applications. However, such systems have found limited suitability with organic contaminants. Moreover, the high alkalinity associated with PC militates against the soil microbes and hence, hinders the natural attenuation of the organics. Furthermore, the production of PC is not only an extremely resource and energy intensive process but also has significant negative environmental impacts. Thus, with the aim of tackling the above issues, this research has been focused on firstly developing and applying a low-pH binder system for facilitating microbial activity in parallel to the S/S of heavy metals, and additionally on investigating the application of less environmentally damaging cement in S/S. These were addressed employing two novel binders; viz. low pH magnesia phosphate cements (MPCs) and reactive magnesia (MgO) cements respectively. This study was successful in formulating MPC mixes which not only developed low-pH ranges favourable to soil microbes but were also more effective in immobilising heavy metals than PC-based binders in an individual contamination scenario. Furthermore, the heavy metal stabilisation performance of the MPC mixes suffered negligible impact in the presence of organic contaminant.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:604975 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Iyengar, S. R. |
| Publisher | University of Cambridge |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.0015 seconds