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Laboratory investigation on calcium nitrate induced coupling reactions between nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, and metals in contaminated sediments

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Abstract

In recent years, calcium nitrate addition has become a promising and usually used method for in situ sediment remediation. In this study, excess calcium nitrate was applied to column sediments to explore the coupling reactions of elements such as N, Fe, S, and P. Diffusive gradients in thin film (DGT) devices were used to collect labile substances at the sediment-water interface. Rhizon samplers were used to collect soluble substances in interstitial water. Results showed that nitrate addition turned the surface sediment into a more oxidized state, and mobile Fe, S, P, and As were removed in surface ~ 10-cm sediment. Due to different nitrate distributions in corresponding sediment depths, the consumption rates of NH3-N and soluble reactive P were faster in the surface sediment than that in deeper layers. Different from previous researches, the transient increase of soluble Fe was observed in this study, which was probably attributed to the solvation of FeS in the autotrophic denitrification process. According to our results, we suggest that a dosage of far less than 141 g N/m2 and slightly more than 45.3 g N/m2 can be used for the remediation of black and odorous sediment and control of internal P by calcium nitrate.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was funded by the National Scientific Foundation of China (41877492, 41621002), the Nantong Science and Technology Project (JC2019158), the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan of Jiangsu Province, and the Research Startup Foundation of Nantong University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geographic Science, Nantong University, Nantong, 226000, China

    Juan Lin

  2. School of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China

    Zhen Fu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Shiming Ding, Mingyin Ren & Shuaishuai Gao

  4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Mingyin Ren & Shuaishuai Gao

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  1. Juan Lin
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  2. Zhen Fu
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  3. Shiming Ding
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  4. Mingyin Ren
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  5. Shuaishuai Gao
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Contributions

JL: conceptualization, methodology, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, funding acquisition, writing—original draft. ZF: formal analysis, investigation, writing—review & editing. SD: conceptualization, methodology, funding acquisition, writing—review & editing. MR: investigation, writing—review & editing. SG: investigation, writing—review & editing.

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Correspondence to Juan Lin.

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Lin, J., Fu, Z., Ding, S. et al. Laboratory investigation on calcium nitrate induced coupling reactions between nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, and metals in contaminated sediments. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 25866–25877 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12441-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12441-8

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