Soil electerokinetic remediation and its effects on soil microbial activity - A review

Over the years, the persistence of heavy metals in the nature associated with their intensive use by modern society has caused metal accumulation in the biosphere and adverse effects on food quality, soil health and the environment. In response to these negative effects, there has been an ongoing development of variety of technologies to treat the contaminated soils with heavy metals. Electrokinetics provides a physical method for the extraction of chemicals from contaminated sites and can be used for in-situ treatment of heavy metals and organic contaminated soil and its operation principle is applying direct electric field in soil to drive pollutant within the soil pores towards the electrode through electromigration, electroosmosis as well as electrophoresis. An important requirement, before using any method for the remediation of contaminated soil, is specifying their efficiency and assurance of having few destructive impacts on soil health. Chemical transformation occurring during the treatment could greatly modify the bioavailability of these metals and possibly make them more hazardous to the living organisms. The aim of this review is to assess the consequences of soil electrokinetic decontamination on biological activities.