Elemental mercury has a very high volatility allowing easy dissipation from water or soil into air. To better understand how the kinetics of diffusion of elemental mercury through a medium, which is soil in this study, a mercury diffusion column experiment was done. The correlation between temperature and equilibrium concentrations of mercury in standardized soil samples and a pure mercury standard were determined. Total mercury concentrations were analysed using CVAFS. The effect of time and soil depth to the kinetics of mercury diffusion were determined. Differences in mercury concentrations at different sampling probes were observed during the first few gas phase analyses. Equilibrium was reached through the column after 72 hours.

A laboratory experiment was performed to investigate nitrogen removal by the soil column. The addition of 20% waste oyster shell to the soil accelerated nitrification in soil column. The NO3--N concentration in the effluent decreased with the decrease of HRT(Hydraulic Retention Time). When methanol and glucose added as carbon sources, the average removal rates of T-N(Total Nitrogen) were 82% and 77.9%, respectively. The NO3--N removal by methanol supplementation in soil column can likely be attributed to denitrification. In continuous removal of nitrogen using the soil column, the COD(Chemical Oxygen Demand) and NH4+-N removed simultaneously in organic matter decomposing column. The greater part of NH4+-N was nitrified by the percolated through nitrification column, and the little NH4+-N was found in the effluent. The T-N of 87.4% removed at HRT of 36 hrs in denitrfication column. Because of nitrified effluents from nitrification column are low in carbonaceous matter, an external source of carbon is required.