Carpathian Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences

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ARTICLE IN Volume 3, 2008 - Number 2

High-contaminated soil with mercury in Bay of Vlora (Albania) and its possible remediation



Arjan BEQIRAJ*, Alqi ÇULLAJ**, Petrit KOTORRY*** & Fran GJOKA****
*Polytechnic University of Tirana,Sheshi "Nene Tereza", Albania ae_beqiraj@yahoo.com **University of Tirana, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Albania acullaj@albmail.com)
***University of Vlora, Albania petrit_kotorri@yahoo.it
****Agricultural University of Tirana, Albania fgjoka2001@yahoo.com

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Abstract

High - contaminated soil with mercury in bay of Vlora (Albania) and its possible remediation. Most of mercury pollution was caused by Chlorine-alkali unit where mercury cathode was used for NaCl brine electrolyses and by PVC unit where HgCl2 was used as a catalyst for the C2H3Cl monomer synthesis. We evaluated the mercury pollution within a former PVC (polyvinyl chloride) plant area situated 3 km west of Vlora centre and gave the solution for its rehabilitation. In this aim, 40 soil samples, 14 sludge samples, 4 leachate samples and 10 groundwater samples were analyzed with respect to content of mercury, in the framework of the project: "Environmental Clean Up of the PVC Plant in Vlora".
The highest (>20.0 mg/kg) mercury concentrations are found in surface soils around the buildings of former electrolysis and de-mercurisation plants and they show a roughly downward decrease.
Keywords:
  • Mercury
  • contamination
  • sludge
  • PVC
  • plant
  • landfill
  • CDF

How to cite

Arjan BEQIRAJ, Alqi ÇULLAJ, Petrit KOTORRY, Fran GJOKA (2008). High-contaminated soil with mercury in Bay of Vlora (Albania) and its possible remediation

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