A study of the hydrophysical properties of substrates of technogenic landscapes, an assessment of the prospects of using thermoactivated vermiculite as an ameliorant was carried out. Contaminated areas are characterized by the absence of vegetation and a low probability of initiating the process of soil formation without direct intervention. Thermally activated vermiculite has been proposed as an ameliorant to improve the quality of soil and reduce the geochemical mobility of metals. The proposed materials have water-retaining properties, high sorption activity with respect to a number of metals, developed specific surface area and availability in sufficient quantities. The use of local mining enterprises as remediators of waste makes it possible to increase the profitability of developments and helps to reduce the volume of accumulated waste.
The search for effective technologies for the remediation of technologically polluted natural objects is an urgent problem of environmental protection. At the experimental site near Kola MMC JSC (Murmansk region, Monchegorsk), experiments have been carried out on the use of mining waste to create phyto-adsorption sites in technologically polluted territories. During the experiments, filtering modules were used to study the processes of sorption/desorption of emission components with vermiculite-sungulite composition materials obtained by enriching phlogopite mining waste (Murmansk Region, Kovdor). To load two types of filtering modules designed to study open (I) and partially open (II) systems, the authors have used the initial and heat-treated granular sungulite, as well as slurry products (the content of sungulite and vermiculite was 30 %). As a control option, an experiment has been carried out using pure peat, selected in the vicinity of Apatity (Murmansk region). As a result of the study, the layer-by-layer content of the acid-soluble (or semi-gross) form of the components has been determined; the toxicity module has been calculated (the ratio of the total molar content of metals (Cu + Ni) and macronutrients (Ca + Mg)) used to assess the possible toxic effect of products in relation to plants. Pure peat has proved to possess the greatest sorption ability, however, at the end of the experiment, the highest degree of toxicity has been observed for peat; mineral products have been the least toxic. An analysis of the distribution of metals among the layers of filtering modules (II) has shown that intense accumulation of metals is observed in the upper layers; with increasing depth (layers 2-4) there is a gradual decrease in the copper content, in some products nickel is leached in the lower layers. The results of the study have shown that for loading phyto-adsorption sites it is advisable to use a granular sungulite product characterized by good sorption ability and low toxicity.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.