Activated carbon Adsorption of phenanthrene in several soils. In the case of soil pollution, soil amendments can be used to fix organic pollutants while maintaining soil functions. Activated carbon is a promising soil remediation material. In this experiment, phenanthrene (Phe) was used to pollute soil pollutants, and we studied the effects of three activated carbons on three different substrates, two agricultural topsoil and pure sand under 1% application. We assessed changes in soil properties, sorption desorption of phenanthrene, and mineralization of phenanthrene in all treatments.

Petroleum hydrocarbon pollution is one of the common problems in soil and sediment. Phenanthrene is a widespread tricyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, which has existed for a long time and is difficult to remove from the environment. Activated carbon adsorption is a key process to control the mobility, availability and fate of organic pollutants in soil and aquatic systems. The adsorption behavior of PAHs is mainly regulated by the content of soil organic matter, which is a parameter that is easy to rise in the soil through the remediation of carbon containing products. In the past decades, many efforts have been made to explore and produce new materials as an effective and low-cost soil remediation tool, and the application of activated carbon in soil has been deeply studied. Activated carbon is a kind of thermal decomposition product of carbon rich solid organic matter. Compared with pyrogen free organics contained in soil, the behavior of pyrolytic organics (charcoal, biochar, activated carbon) is significantly different. This strong adsorption property of activated carbon can adjust the degradation process of aromatic hydrocarbons in soil by changing soil properties, but it can also be adjusted by reducing the availability of organic pollutants.