Sediments are normally the final pathway of both natural and anthropogenic components produced or derived from the environment. Sediment quality is a good indicator of pollution in the water column, where heavy metals and other organic pollutants tend to concentrate. Metals are introduced in aquatic systems as a result of the weathering of soils and rocks, from volcanic eruptions, and from a variety of human activities involving the mining, processing, or use of metals and/or substances that contain metal pollutants. Heavy metal concentration in the water column can be relatively low in some cases, but the concentrations in the sediment may be elevated. The presented work aimed to investigate the pollutant levels of some heavy metals (Fe, Mn, Al, Cu, Zn, As, Cd, Pb) in the water and sediments related to acid mine drainage (AMD) produced from an abandoned sulphide mine in Smolnik in Eastern Slovakia. A metal pollution index was used to compare the total content of metals at five sampling stations. The level of partitioning of the metals between the surface water and sediments in the area was calculated using Partition coefficients and the correlation coefficients between the metal pairs in both media were calculated by a Pearson coefficient.

Organic waste materials and semi-products containing cellulose are used as low-cost adsorbents that are able to compete with conventional sorbents. In addition, their capacity to bind heavy metal ions can be intensified by chemical treatments using mineral and organic acids, bases, oxidizing agents, and organic compounds. In this paper, we studied the biosorption capacity of natural and modified wooden sawdust of poplar, cherry, spruce, and hornbeam in order to remove heavy metals from acidic model solutions. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra showed changes of the functional groups due to the alkaline modification of sawdust, which manifested in the considerably increased intensity of the hydroxyl peaks. The adsorption isotherm models clearly indicated that the adsorptive behavior of metal ions in treated sawdust satisfied not only the Langmuir model, but also the Freundlich model. The adsorption data obtained for studied sorbents were better fitted by the Langmuir isotherm model for both metals, except for spruce sawdust. Surface complexation and ion exchange are the major mechanisms involved in metal ion removal. We investigated the efficiency of the alkaline modified sawdust for metal removal under various initial concentrations of Cu(II) and Zn(II) from model solutions. The highest adsorption efficiency values (copper 94.3% at pH 6.8 and zinc 98.2% at pH 7.3) were obtained for poplar modified by KOH. For all types of sawdust, we found that the sorption efficiency of modified sorbents was higher in comparison to untreated sawdust. The value of the pH initially increased more in the case of modified sawdust (8.2 for zinc removal with spruce NaOH) and then slowly decreased (7.0 for Zn(II) with spruce NaOH).

This paper investigates the influence of a phosphogypsum dump on the surrounding environment (soil ecosystem) in the Sumy region (Ukraine). Analysis of the surrounding soils was performed to study the possible presence of compounds leaching from the dump. For physical chemical analysis of samples, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, and Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry (FTIR) were used. XRF analysis did not confirm the contamination of soils around the phosphogypsum dump, and the soil fluoride levels measured in this study were comparable to the average soil fluoride concentration of soils globally. The colonization of the surface of the phosphogypsum dump by living organisms after the reclamation process was also analyzed. Field research was carried out on the routes, which specify the boundaries of the contours of plant communities, for description of phytocenoses in the territory of the dump, where the pH value ranged from 2.5 to 5.3, depending on the age of phosphogypsum terraces. Annual and perennial herbaceous plants are dominant on the reclaimed dump slopes. On the third and fourth phosphogypsum terraces (20 and 25 years old, respectively), tree forms have begun to settle, represented mainly by Populus tgemula, Populus alba, Betula pendula, and Robinia pseudoacacia. The studied patterns of ecological groups of plants growing under natural change of species can be used for the complete reclamation of the dump.

The paper is focused on the research of biochemical treatment of sewage sludge and phosphogypsum under sulphate-reducing conditions with a phosphorus release process. The theoretical foundations of the work were based on the biochemical formalization using the principles of autocatalysis of natural systems. During the experimental research for the control of physicochemical parameters of the process spectroquantic, X-ray fluorescence analysis and other techniques were used. A schematic model of the dephosphatation process under anaerobic stabilization of sewage sludge and phosphogypsum was developed. The increase of phosphogypsum dosage had a close correlation with the release of phosphate ions. At the stimulating action of the phosphogypsum additive, a 2.5–5.0-fold increase in soluble phosphate concentration was observed. The rational dose of phosphogypsum was determined. Along with an increase the ratio of COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand)/phosphogypsum to 0.1, an increase in the phosphate ions in solution was observed. A further increase in the ratio of COD/phosphogypsum did not affect the concentration of phosphate ions in solution.

Some kinds of natural organic materials have a potential for removal of heavy metal ions from wastewater. It is well known that cellulosic waste materials or by-products can be used as cheap adsorbents in chemical treatment process. In this paper, poplar wood sawdust were used for removal of Cu(II), Zn(II) and Fe(II) ions from model solutions with using the static and dynamic adsorption experiments. Infrared spectrometry of poplar wood sawdust confirmed the presence of the functional groups which correspond with hemicelluloses, cellulose and lignin. At static adsorption was achieved approximately of 80 % efficiency for all treated model solutions. Similar efficiency of the adsorption processes was reached after 5 min at dynamic condition. The highest efficiency of Cu(II) removal (98 %) was observed after 30 min of dynamic adsorption. Changes of pH values confirmed a mechanism of ion exchange on the beginning of the adsorption process.