Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Effect of Heavy Metal on Complex Permittivity
Characteristics of Saturated Sand
Muhammad F.M. Zain, Mohd R. Taha, Hashem A. Mattarneh,
Rabah M.A. Ismail, and Maslina Jamil
Introduction
In the past decades, both terrestrial and aquatic environments have been polluted
with metals
[1]
. Soil normally contains a low concentration of heavy metals
such as iron (Fe), which is an essential micronutrient for the optimum growth of
plants. A metal like lead (Pb) is usually not found in agricultural soil, and is toxic
to plants. However, in areas where agricultural, industrial or municipal wastes are
land-applied as fertilizer, concentrations may be much higher. Excessive levels of
heavy metals can be hazardous to humans and ecosystems
[2]
. Although heavy metals
are released in varying quantities into the soil from parent materials, increasing
environmental contamination has been caused by human activities, such as mining,
smelting, fossil fuel combustion, agricultural practices and waste disposal
[3, 4]
.
In order to characterize subsurface contamination, the most commonly used methods
involve collection of representative samples of soil and pore fluid and then analyzing
them for targeted species in the laboratory. In general, this way of characterizing
the contamination of a soil-fluid system is the only one acceptable to regulatory
agencies
[5]
. However, sample collection and analysis in the laboratory pose
significant problems: (1) sampling of the soils is extremely time consuming and
expensive; (2) sampling is destructive in the case of removing the soil samples; (3)
the sampling is not continuous with time; and (4) samples can be contaminated
during sampling, transportation, and analysis in the laboratory.
Thus several geophysical methods have been developed which utilizes the
contrast caused by the contaminant on physical properties of the soil
[6, 7]
.
Electromagnetic and dielectric methods show high potential for characterization
hydrocarbon contaminated soil and determination of the level of contaminant.
M.F. . Zain, M.R. Taha, R.M.A. Ismail, and M. Jamil
Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
H.A. Mattarneh
Civil Engineering Dept, Universiti Tenaga National, Malaysia
M
