Leaching percolators

The analysis of landfill effluents collected in Finland and Norway resulted in a maximum concentration observed for PFC of 1,537 ng/L [34]. In landfill effluents from 22 sites in Germany, a maximum concentration of EPFC of 13,000 ng/L was observed [29]. Although effluents of modem landfills are often collected and treated nowadays, many former landfills leach percolate water to groundwater aquifers and are a potential source of PFCs to drinking water wells. It might be reasonable to assume that the concentrations leached into the environment would have been in the same order of magnitude as encountered in collected leachate. 

Batch Extractors. Coarse soHds are leached by percolation in fixed or moving-bed equipment. Both open and closed tanks (qv) having false bottoms are used, into which the soHds are dumped to a uniform depth and then treated with the solvent by percolation, immersion, or intermittent drainage methods. 

Moving-bed percolation systems are used for extraction from many types of ceUular particles such as seeds, beans, and peanuts (see Nuts). In most of these cases organic solvents are used to extract the oils from the particles. Pre-treatment of the seed or nut is usually necessary to increase the number of ceUs exposed to the solvent by increasing the specific surface by flaking or rolling. The oil-rich solvent (or misceUa) solution often contains a small proportion of fine particles which must be removed, as weU as the oil separated from the solvent after leaching. 

Percolation Leaching. Ground material coarse enough to permit circulation of a solution through a bed of particles can be leached by percolation of the solvent through the material placed ia a tank or vat. The process usually takes several days. 

Eor pesticides to leach to groundwater, it may be necessary for preferential flow through macropores to dominate the sorption processes that control pesticide leaching to groundwater. Several studies have demonstrated that large continuous macropores exist in soil and provide pathways for rapid movement of water solutes. Increased permeabiUty, percolation, and solute transport can result from increased porosity, especially in no-tiUage systems where pore stmcture is stiU intact at the soil surface (70). Plant roots are important in creation and stabilization of soil macropores (71). 

Whatever the mechanism and the method of operation, it is clear that the leaching process will be favored by increased surface per unit volume of sohds to be leached and by decreased radial distances that must be traversed within the solids, both of which are favored by decreased particle size. Fine solids, on the other hand, cause slow percolation rate, difficult solids separation, and possible poor quahty of sohd product. The basis for an optimum particle size is estabhshed by these characteristics. 

It is classification by contacting method that provides the two principal categories into which leaching equipment is divided (I) that in which the leaching is accomphshed oy percolation and (2) that in which particulate solids are dispersed into a hquid and subsequently separated from it. Each includes batch and continuous units. Materials which disintegrate during leaching are treated in equipment of the second class. 

Percolation In addition to being applied to ores and rock in place and by the simple technique of heap leaching (usually on verv large scale see Wadsworth, loc. cit.) percolation is carried out in batcJi tanks and in continuous or dump extractors (usually on smaller scale). 

Batch Percolators The batch tank is not unlike a big nutsche filter it is a large circiilar or rectangiilar tank with a false bottom. The solids to be leached are dumped into the tank to a uniform depth. They are sprayed with solvent until their solute content is reduced to an economic minimum and are then excavated. Countercurrent flow of the solvent through a series of tanks is common, with fresh solvent entering the tank containing most nearly exhausted material. In a typical ore-dressing operation the tanks are 53 by 20 by 5.5 m (175 by 67 by 18 ft) and extract about 8200 Mg (9000 U.S. tons) of ore on a 13-day cycle. Some tanks operate under pressure, to contain volatile solvents or increase the percolation rate. A series of pressure tanks operating with countercurrent solvent flow is called a diffusion battery. 

Continuous Percolators Coarse sohds are also leached by percolation in moving-bed equipment, including single-deck and nmlti-deck rake classifiers, bucket-elevator contactors, and horizontal-belt conveyors. 

The endless-belt percolator (Wakeman, loc. cit.) is similar in principle, but the successive feed, solvent spray, drainage, and dumping stations are hnearly rather than circulany disposed. Examples are the de Smet belt extractor (uncompartmented) and the Lurgi frame belt (compartmented), the latter being a kind of linear equivalent of the Rotocel. Horizontal-belt vacuum filters, which resemble endless-belt extractors, are sometimes used for leaching. 

Screw-Conveyor Extractors One type of continuous leaching equipment, employing the screw-conveyor principle, is strictly speaking neither a percolator nor a dispersed-solids extractor. Although it is often classed with percolators, there can be sufficient agitation of the solids during their conveyance by the screw that the action differs from an orthodox percolation. 

Leaching Cycle and Contact Method As is true generally, the choice between continuous and intermittent operation is largely a matter of the size and nature of the process of which the extraction is a part. The choice of a percolation or solids-dispersion technique depends principally on the amenability of the extraction to effective, sufficiently rapid percolation. 

Although most of the volatile components are released to the atmosphere, a small fraction is dissolved and/or carried away with the water in the soil matiix. Leached waters are carried with the water as it percolates through the underlying soil strata. Most of the organic constituents contained in the leachate receive additional treatment as they pass through the soil cohimn. Leached wastes can also be lost in surface rtinoff. 

Often, the immobilized product has a structural strength sufficient to prevent fracturing over time. Solidification accomplishes the objective by changing a non-solid waste material into a solid, monolithic structure that ideally will not permit liquids to percolate into or leach materials out of the mass. Stabilization, on the other hand, binds the hazardous constituents into an insoluble matrix or changes the hazardous constituent to an insoluble form. Other objectives of solidiflcation/stabilization processes are to improve handling of the waste and pri uce a stable solid (no free liquid) for subsequent use as a construction material or for landfilling. 

Tremblay, L. Deschenes, G. Ghali, E. McMullen, J. Lanouette, M. Gold recovery from a sulfide bearing gold ore by percolation leaching with thiourea. Int. J. Miner. Process. 1996, 48, 225-244. 

Data on water leaching fluxes have been calculated using iteration approaches (Priputina, 2004). Water percolation parameters have been accounted (Manual, 2004). Annual mean air temperature and precipitation data have been obtained from IWMI World Water and Climate Atlas (2002). Two iteration versions of the map of water leaching parameters are shown in Figure 7. 

The modem method of removing I from coffee resembles the operation of a coffee percolator, in which the water-soluble chemicals giving flavour, colour and aroma are leached from the ground-up coffee during constant irrigation with a stream of boiling water. 

Perchlorotoluene, 6 327 Perchlorylation, 12 183 Perchloryl fluoride, 18 279 Percolation leaching, 16 153 Percolation processes of filled polymers, 11 303 for wood, 26 358-359 Percolation theory, 20 345 23 63 Percolation transition, 10 16 Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), 3 712 -per- designation, 7 609t PE resins, applications of, 20 206t. See also Polyethylene (PE)... 

Infiltration and percolation rates also determine which salts have been leached out of the soil. For instance, high infiltration and percolation rates leach calcium and magnesium out of soil and they become acidic. Where calcium and magnesium are not leached out, the soils are neutral or basic. Thus, the type and amount of salts present will affect a soil s pH, which will in turn affect the solubility and availability of both natural and contaminating inorganic and organic compounds. 

To determine the leaching of chemical constituents from SWMs/COMs under conditions of constant surface renewal, columns (2.5 cm in diameter, 25 cm long) filled with SWMs/COMs were leached with distilled water at three different flow rates. The column tests were used to simulate leaching of highway materials under conditions of subsurface percolation of rainwater. Effluent samples from the column were taken with time for up to 80 h. The filtered solutions were measured for TOC and/or individual compound concentrations, and for toxicity. 

Accumulation of salt in the root zone can be prevented by allowing a certain amount of water to percolate through the root zone. This is known as the leaching requirement, and is defined as the leaching fraction, LF, such that ... 

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