Salt removal from soil using the argil porous ceramic

In this study, porous ceramic columns formed by argil of traditional pottery were used to remove salt from the saline soils. Experiences were conducted in a laboratory prototype to determine the salinity variation in different soil depths and locations as well as the salt germination and deposal on the porous ceramic. The obtained experimental results showed that this technique has effectively reduced the soil salt's concentration by 95%. Moreover, samples from the porous ceramic material were analyzed before and after application for the salt extraction from the soil. The analyses using the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) had showed the importance of the pore's dimensions and structures on the solution movement and salt deposal. In addition, the possible mechanisms of salt movement and deposal such as evaporation, interaction between saline solution and porous ceramic and salt ionic germination were discussed. Even a comparison with the Electrokinetic (EK) desalination method was performed to reveal the importance of using the porous ceramic column that constitutes a simple, cheap, preferment and appropriate environmental process. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.