Numerical analysis of electrokinetic soil remediation for Mercury removal

Electrokinetic soil remediation is a promising technology that can be used for insitu treatment of fine-grained soils. In this study the numerical analyses of electro kinetic process in soil is considered. Numerical model is formulated for simulating mercury transport under an electric field using one-dimensional convection-diffusion equation that describes contaminant transport. The presented model is used for demonstrating the pH changes and mercury removal from kaolinite clay at last day. The finite difference method is used for solving the model. Computational programs were written in two ways of FTCS and Crank-Nicolson using MATLAB software. The Crank-Nicolson scheme has been more consistent with experimental results. Experimental results are used for the calibration of the model. The proposed numerical model shows good agreement with experimental results.