Experimental study on the effect of salinity change on Fe and Cr removal from estuary water

Abstract

Freshwater mental contaminants which in the estuary tend to precipitate into intertidal surface sediments during freshwater-seawater mixing because of heavy water chemical reaction. The impacts of ferric hydroxide on the removal rate of Cr with increasing pH and salinity were conducted by laboratory simulation experiment. The removal rate of Cr by ferric hydroxide decreased with increasing pH from river water to seawater in the estuary; this is because pH changed the Zeta potential of ferric hydroxide. And with increasing salinity, the removal rate of Cr by ferric hydroxide firstly decreased and then increased. On the hand, Na+ entering the sliding surface, which could improve Zeta potential and stability of ferric hydroxide colloid, which leads to the amount of Cr removal by colloid aggregation decreased. On the other hand, there was competitive adsorption between Cland CrO42-/HCrO4-. In this study, Fe was the key factor of heavy metal Cr distribution with pH change.