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Electrochemical Fencing of Cr(VI) from Industrial Wastes to Mitigate Ground Water Contamination

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Abstract

Indiscriminate dumping of solid industrial wastes and the consequent ground water contamination by heavy metals such as Cr(VI) is a major environmental concern. Electrochemical fencing, an extension of electroremediation, appears to be a viable technique for impeding the vertical transport of heavy metals, dissolved in rain water, through the soil to mitigate ground water contamination. Preliminary experiments showed that electrochemical fencing captured 50% of the Cr(VI) dissolved in rain water. However, this percentage can be increased by changing, for example, electrode configuration or electrolyte composition. A novel mathematical model, that calculates the trajectory of Cr(VI) ions, was developed to provide practicing engineers a simple methodology to design and implement real-life electrochemical fencing systems. Because of its versatility, electrochemical fencing can be used to capture a wide variety of carcinogenic heavy metals, or even water soluble organic molecules, and hence warrants further investigation.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the help of G. P. Bajpai, P. Kumar and M. Nishad in fabrication of the experimental set-up and conduct of the experiments.

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Correspondence to R. Shekhar.

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Shukla, N., Harbola, M.K., Sanjay, K. et al. Electrochemical Fencing of Cr(VI) from Industrial Wastes to Mitigate Ground Water Contamination. Trans Indian Inst Met 70, 511–518 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12666-016-1000-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12666-016-1000-y

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