Unraveling the mechanisms of post-treatment to enhance humification and Cd remediation in compost through EDTA-Fenton-Like systems

Hongjuan Jiang; Zhigang Yi; Yaoning Chen; Yuanping Li; Li Chen; Jun Wang; Yaoqin Nie; Mengwei Luo; Qianruyu Wang; Wei Zhang; Yanting Wu; Guangming Zeng

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.178236

Unraveling the mechanisms of post-treatment to enhance humification and Cd remediation in compost through EDTA-Fenton-Like systems

Sci Total Environ. 2024 Dec 26:959:178236. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.178236. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Hongjuan Jiang¹, Zhigang Yi¹, Yaoning Chen², Yuanping Li³, Li Chen¹, Jun Wang¹, Yaoqin Nie¹, Mengwei Luo¹, Qianruyu Wang¹, Wei Zhang⁴, Yanting Wu⁴, Guangming Zeng⁵

Affiliations

¹ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University and Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control, Hunan University, Ministry of Education, Changsha 410082, China.
² College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University and Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control, Hunan University, Ministry of Education, Changsha 410082, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
³ School of Municipal and Geomatics Engineering, Hunan City University, Yiyang, Hunan 413000, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁴ School of Municipal and Geomatics Engineering, Hunan City University, Yiyang, Hunan 413000, China.
⁵ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University and Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control, Hunan University, Ministry of Education, Changsha 410082, China. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 39729843
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.178236

Abstract

This study aimed to enhance humification and cadmium (Cd) remediation in compost by investigating the effects of three post-treatments: ultrapure water, citric acid, and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid disodium (EDTA). The results revealed that the EDTA post-treatment significantly enhanced humification by facilitating an EDTA-Fenton-like system within compost comprising rice straw and river sediment to remediate Cd-contaminated sediment. EDTA post-treatment not only promoted humic substances and humic acid concentrations of up to 66.30 g/kg and 30.40 g/kg, respectively, but also led to a reduction in the Cd content and bioavailability factor by 75.02 % and 9.76 %, respectively. In addition, parallel factor analysis revealed two distinct components, while two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy showed that the polysaccharides and carboxyl groups in humic acid were preferentially bound to Cd. Overall, this study proposes a promising approach for enhancing humification and Cd remediation in compost by the EDTA post-treatment.

Keywords: Cd; Compost; EDTA-Fenton-like system; Humification; Sediment.