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KATOH Masahiko
Title Assistant Professor
Department Department of Civil Engineering
Course Environmental Studies Course

Research fields

I am studying behavior of heavy metal and/or metalloid in subsurface soil; how they are transported and reacted and which their phases are existing in the soil. Using the results obtained, I am developing a new technique of soil remediation to reuse the surface and subsurface soils contaminated with heavy metal and/or metalloid without any environmental impacts. In many cases in Japan, a typical technique, excavation and landfill, is applied when the soil contamination is found. So, where are the excavated soil transported? It is landfilled in a site far away. However, this treatment should be considered as relocation of soil contamination. Thus, in situ technique of soil remediation should be developed using plant and waste material. The soil remediation includes rehabilitation of natural ecosystem that has been destroyed by the contamination. In order to develop such technique, I apply chemical and biological approaches in addition to typical physical approaches. These approaches is necessary to develope the eco-friend technique because heavy metal and/or metalloid are present as ions and molecular states. The application of these approaches makes us able to develop a reliable technique of soil remediation and understand the phenomenons in a soil particle to the whole contamination site at the same time.

A new technique of heavy metal removal from soil using plant Heavy metal sorption material made from waste material

Research Keywords

Soil contamination and remediation, Waste material and soil improvement, Soil and groundwater, Environmental geotechnics

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