Soil washing with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) is highly effective in the remediation of soils contaminated with heavy metals. The EDTA recycling process is a requisite for reducing the operating cost. The applicability of Na₂S addition on the precipitation of heavy metals from the spent soil washing solution and thereby recycling of EDTA was investigated. Addition of Na₂S into the single metal-EDTA and the mixed metal-EDTA solutions ([Na₂S]/[metal-EDTA] ratio = 30, reaction time = 30 min and pH = 7~9) was highly effective in the separation of Cu and Pb from metal-EDTA complexes, but not for Ni. The Zn removal efficiency varied with pH and slightly increased upto 40% as the reaction time increased from 0 to 240 min which was longer than those for Cu and Pb. Ca(OH)₂ was subsequently added to induce further precipitation of Zn and Ni and to reduce the Na₂S dose. At the [Na₂S]/[metal-EDTA] ratio of 10, the removal efficiencies of all heavy metals excluding Ni were above 98% with the dose of Ca(OH)₂ at 0.002, 0.006 and 0.008 g into 100 mL of Cu-, Pb- and Zn-EDTA solutions, respectively. However, Ca(OH)₂ addition was not effective for Ni-EDTA solution. A further research is needed to improve metal removal efficiency and subsequent EDTA recycling for the real application in field-contaminated soils.

Keywords: Soil washing;EDTA;Recycling;Heavy metals;$Na_2S$;