To understand the characteristics of vanadium leaching from soils formed by the weathering of basalts, paleo soil at Gosan, Jeju Island, Korea, and several present-day soils from neighboring areas were collected. Leaching experiments were carried out by two approaches: 1) batch experiments under various geochemical conditions (redox potential (Eh) and pH) and 2) continuous leaching experiments under conditions similar to those of natural environments. From the batch experiments, leached vanadium concentrations were highest under alkaline (NaOH) conditions, with a maximum value of 2,870 μg/L, and were meaningful (maximum value, 114 μg/L) under oxidizing (H2O2) conditions, whereas concentrations under other conditions (acidic-HCl, neutral-NaHCO3, and reducing-Na2S2O3) were negligible. This indicated that the geochemical conditions, in which soil-water reactions occurred to form groundwater with high vanadium concentrations, were under alkaline-oxidizing conditions. From the continuous leaching experiments, the pH and leached vanadium concentrations of the solution were in the ranges of 5.45 5.58 and 6 9 μg/L, respectively, under CO2 supersaturation conditions for the first 15 days, whereas values under O2 aeration conditions after the next 15 days increased to 8.48 8.62 and 9.7 12.2 μg/L, respectively. Vanadium concentrations from the latter continuous leaching experiments were similar to the average concentration of groundwater in Jeju Island (11.2 μg/L). Furthermore leached vanadium concentrations in continuous leaching experiments were highly correlated with pH and Al, Cr, Fe, Mn and Zn concentrations. The results of this study showed that 1) alkaline-oxidizing conditions of water-rock (soil) interactions were essential to form vanadium-rich groundwater and 2) volcanic soils can be a potential source of vanadium in Jeju Island groundwater.
Stormwater pollution is a major problem in urban areas. Pollutants like heavy metals and harmful chemicals in the runoff can endanger soil and ground water, when they are not sufficiently removed during infiltration. Strength and infiltration capacity of porous concrete are the major problems that must be considered if permeable pavement system are demanded to be used in a drive way application. In this study, a series of compacted porous concrete mixtures and the system of pavement are tested for the physical characteristics like compressive strength, flexural strength, unit weight, porosity, water permeability, and the purification capacity of contaminated water. The test results obtained indicate that the strength and infiltration capacity of porous concrete are strongly related to its matrix proportion and compaction energy and providing adequate filter layers underneath pavement surface course is one of the most important design considerations of permeable pavement system for pollution retention purpose.