BOF steel slag as a low-cost sorbent for vanadium (V) removal from soil washing effluent

Soil washing is an effective remediation method to remove heavy metals from contaminated soil. However, it produces wastewater that contains large amounts of heavy metals, which lead to serious pollution. This study investigated the removal of vanadium (V) from synthetic soil washing effluent using BOF steel slag. The effects of particle size, slag dosage, initial pH, and initial vanadium concentration on removal behavior were studied. Adsorption kinetics and isotherms were also analyzed. The results showed that the vanadium removal efficiency increased as the steel slag particle size decreased and as the amount of slag increased. The initial pH and vanadium concentration did not play key roles. At the optimum particle size (<0.15 mm) and dosage (50 g/L), the removal rate reached 97.1% when treating 100 mg/L of vanadium. The influence of the washing reagent residue was studied to simulate real conditions. Citric acid, tartaric acid, and Na₂EDTA all decreased the removal rate. While oxalic acid did not have negative effects on vanadium removal at concentrations of 0.05-0.2 mol/L, which was proved by experiments using real washing effluents. Considering both soil washing effect and effluent treatment, oxalic acid of 0.2 mol/L is recommended as soil washing reagent.