Adsorção de metais tóxicos em liners de solo compactado em aterros sanitários.

Abstract

In sanitary landfills, the base layer used for waterproofing should ensure that there is no migration of pollutants into the environment and is called a liner. The evaluation of the mechanisms governing the transport of contaminants in the geological materials can be carried out in the laboratory by means of equilibrium tests in lot, which consists of a quick way of estimating the adsorption of metallic cations by the soils. The objective of this work was to evaluate the adsorption of toxic metals in two liners of compacted soils, with different compositions, using the equilibrium assays in lot. The studied soils comprise the base liner of an experimental cell, which simulates a sanitary landfill, and a liner from the base of a real-scale landfill, located in the municipality of Campina Grande-PB. The liner used in the experimental cell is composed of compacted natural soil, while in the sanitary landfill, the addition of bentonite was carried out to the local soil, and this mixture was later compacted. Soil samples from the liner of the experimental cell were collected in a field located in the municipality of Boa Vista-PB, which is located at 50 km from the city of Campina Grande-PB. The soil of the liner used in the sanitary landfill was collected in the landfill site, which is located in Catolé de Boa Vista, a district in Campina Grande-PB. The samples of the respective liners were collected, stored in the Laboratory of Environmental Geotechnics, from the Department of Civil Engineering in the Federal University of Campina Grande, and prepared for the geotechnical, physical-chemical and mineralogical characterization. In the equilibrium assay in lot, solutions with 1: 12,5 soil-solution ratio (4g of dry soil for 50 ml solution) were used. The experimental isotherms obtained were statistically adjusted to the physical-chemical models of linear adsorption, Langmuir and Freundlich. The adjustments of the experimental curves to the models were performed using the STATISTICA 8.0 software, applying the nonlinear regression of the least squares method, using the Gauss-Newton algorithm. Considering the R2 ≥ 0.7 criterion, the Langmuir and Freundlich model were better fitted to the liner soil isotherms of the experimental cell, while the adsorption occurred in the liner of the sanitary landfill was better fitted to the Langmuir model. The different soils studied in this work presented adsorptive properties for all metals, which makes it feasible to be used in compacted soil base layers for sanitary landfills, as well as other applications in environmental geotechnics. Among the metals studied, the Pb was distinguished by the higher adsorption in relation to the other metals in both soils. The geotechnical, physical-chemical and mineralogical characterization, as well as the adsorptive behavior of the soils, verified by means of a balance test in lot, indicates that the studied materials present a relevant potential for the use in liners for sanitary landfills.