Marine, lagoon, and river sediment remediation

A two-year research project has been financially supported by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, and carried out through the cooperation of five different Universities and the Institute for the Scientific and Technological Research Applied to the Sea, in order to experiment or develop technologies (physical or chemical washing; chemical reduction or oxidation; electrochemical oxidation; chemical-aided electrokinesis; solid phase bioremediation; phytoremediation) for treating sediments from different water bodies (sea, lagoon, or river), affected by organic (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; polychlorinated biphenyls; total petroleum hydrocarbons) or inorganic (metals) pollutants. Results showed that the highest removal efficiencies could be obtained by chemical reduction for TPHs and PCBs (up to about 95% and 80% respectively), oxidation for PAHs (up to 98%), by chemical washing for As (87%), Cr (98%), Cu (63%), Pb (82%) and Zn (82%).