SUMMARY

Sorbents are widely used for binding up environmental contaminants in soil to prevent them leaching with the objective of reducing their risk to human health and the environment.

Bench-scale tests are routinely undertaken to determine the optimal dose and type of sorbent that will best meet the leachability reduction objectives of the project.

Bench-scale testing is relatively reliable because it can be carried out under controlled conditions with thorough mixing and multiple replicates.

However, when the treatment process is scaled up to full-scale field application, there are a number of potential errors that are introduced during the sorbent addition, soil mixing and validation processes.

This learning lab explores some of these issues using examples from global soil stabilisation projects.

Aspects explored include soil particle size reduction, PFAS and soil heterogeneity and sorbent dosing efficiencies with different types of soil and mixing equipment.