Investigation and Review of the Capping Method of Contaminated Sediments in Aquatic Ecosystems Using Activated Carbon

Effective and safe treatment of contaminated sediments in aquatic ecosystems has always been one of the most important environmental challenges in the world. Natural ecosystems are always threatened by likely accumulation of toxic pollutants. Therefore, rapid remediation of these valuable ecosystems is essential. Dredging and Capping are among the well-known methods in the world that have been used for clean and quick reduction of the concentration of toxic contaminants in sediments. Capping is a proven and common remediation technology for containment of contaminated sediments in order to reduce their contaminants mobility and contact with the environment. In capping, the contaminated sediments are covered by one or more layers of clean materials such as sand, gravel, clean dredged material, active or reactive materials and etc. This method provides the restoration of these ecosystems by rapidly reducing the amount of pollutants in surface waters through absorbing and reducing the mobility of toxic substances in contaminated sediments. This technology has less environmental hazards than the dredging method, while it has never been studied on a laboratory or field scale in Iran. This research intends to introduce the method involving activated carbon, as a background for the implementation of this technology in the country. This research is of practical type and documentary-libraries in terms of purpose and method of data collection, respectively.