title: Remediation of mercury contaminated sites - A review.
abstract: Environmental contamination caused by mercury is a serious problem worldwide. Coal combustion, mercury and gold mining activities and industrial activities have led to an increase in the mercury concentration in soil. The objective of this paper is to present an up-to-date understanding of the available techniques for the remediation of soil contaminated with mercury through considering: mercury contamination in soil, mercury speciation in soil; mercury toxicity to humans, plants and microorganisms, and remediation options. This paper describes the commonly employed and emerging techniques for mercury remediation, namely: stabilization/solidification (S/S), immobilization, vitrification, thermal desorption, nanotechnology, soil washing, electro-remediation, phytostabilization, phytoextraction and phytovolatilization.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, 550002, China.
authors.forename: Jianxu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xinbin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Christopher W N
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xing
authors.forename: Lihai
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shang
mesh_terms: D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000633:toxicity; D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008628:Mercury / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000633:toxicity
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D008628:Mercury