Remediation of lead and cadmium from simulated groundwater in loess region in northwestern China using permeable reactive barrier filled with environmentally friendly mixed adsorbents

Permeable reactive barrier (PRB) is potentially effective for groundwater remediation, especially using environmentally friendly mixed fillers in representative areas, such as semi-arid loess region in northwestern China. The mixed materials, including corn straw (agricultural wastes), fly ash (industrial wastes), zeolite synthesized from fly ash (reutilized products), and iron–manganese nodule derived from loess (materials with regional characteristics) in northwestern China, were chosen as PRB media to reduce the contents of lead and cadmium in simulated groundwater. A series of lab-scale column experiments were investigated, and the response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize the working process; Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were applied to further reveal the reaction mechanism. It shows that the purification efficiencies are more acceptable when the concentrations of lead and cadmium are approximately 7 and 0.7 mg/L, respectively, at 25 °C in weakly acidic solution, and functional groups of –OH and C=C play an important role for contaminants removal. The mixed adsorbents used are effective to remove lead and cadmium in groundwater. This is the first report on the removal of lead and cadmium from groundwater in loess region in northwestern China using PRB filled with environmentally friendly mixed adsorbents.