Heavy metal sorption with lignin-containing sludge from the pulp and paper industry

Relevance. At present, the problem of soil pollution with heavy metals, which are accumulated in the body of animals and plants, causing various toxic effects, is especially acute. Despite the existence of various methods of reclamation of disturbed lands, as a rule, their application is inefficient or expensive, especially when it comes to abnormally high concentrations of heavy metals. Thus, an extremely urgent task is to find effective and inexpensive ways to recultivate lands contaminated with high concentrations of heavy metals. The article considers one of the promising areas for the reclamation of such lands using a mixture obtained from the accumulated waste of lignin-containing sediments from the pulp and paper industry of Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill as sorbents. Aim. To study and evaluate the effectiveness of using a mixture, which includes frozen lignin-containing sediments of Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill, as heavy metal sorbent. Methods. To assess the sorption efficiency of the obtained sorbent from the frozen sediments of sludge-lignin, the samples of anomalously contaminated soils were taken from the industrial site of the former battery plant "Vostsibelement", located in Svirsk, Irkutsk region. To determine the surface structure of the obtained sorbent for the presence of micro-, meso-, and macropores, its surface was surveyed using a JEOL two-beam system. IR spectroscopy was used to establish the types of bonds between the sorbent and the extracted metals. Results. The studies have shown that the resulting sorbent from the frozen lignin-containing sediments of Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill has a porous structure with a predominance of mesopores, sorbing heavy metal ions, while a large number of micropores contributes to the occurrence of chemical sorption. The obtained IR spectra indicate the possibility of chemical sorption of lead as a result of the reaction of substitution of a hydrogen atom in various hydroxyl groups of the sorbent of the group of aromatic or carboxyl structures. At the same time, the resulting sorbent in terms of its sorption properties is not inferior to commercial natural sorbents – bentonite clay and grassroots peat. The conducted studies allow us to make a positive conclusion about the possibility of using the developed mixture as a sorbent for the immobilization of heavy metals during the reclamation of lands that are contaminated with high levels of heavy metals, including lead.