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Updated: Nov 11, 2025

Resource Recycling of Red Soil to Synthesize Fe2O3/FAU-type Zeolite Composite Material for Heavy Metal Removal
Published on: June 2, 2022
An electric field immobilizes heavy metals through promoting combination with humic substances during composting
Yubo Cao1, Xuan Wang2, Xinyuan Zhang2
1Key Laboratory of Agricultural Water Resources, Hebei Key Laboratory of Soil Ecology, Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetic and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Science, 286 Huaizhong Road, Shijiazhuang 050021, Hebei, China; University of Chinese Academy of Science, 19 A Yuquan Road, Shijingshan District, Beijing 100049, China.
Abstract:
The aim of this study was to explore a novel method to immobilize heavy metals (HM) in composting through increasing the combination of these with humic substances. An electric-field assistant technique was applied to strengthen biomass biodegradation and assess the impact on the humification process and HM immobilization in composting. Results demonstrated that the application of an electric field enriched bacterial abundance and enhanced bacterial metabolism. Humic substance and humic acid (HA) contents in compost product were significantly increased by 19 and 69%, respectively. The HA-complexed Cu, Zn, As, Cd contents were increased by 34, 41, 29 and 135.1%, respectively, which was attributed to the promotion of HA formation since a positive correlation between HA and HA-complexed HM (R2 = 0.60-0.87) was established. The evidence presented here supports the future development of electric field implementation as an intrinsic bioremediation technique for HM immobilization.
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