METALOK®

Solution for Heavy Metal Contamination

Heavy metals are amongst the major pollutants in the environment. Metals occur as pollutants in industrial and domestic waste waters, solid wastes and also pose a major problem with recycling organic waste into compost. They are not degradable and thus can build up in both solid and liquid wastes,and in receiving soils.

METALOK® is a unique product specially developed to manage heavy metal pollution in soils, and solid and liquid waste. METALOK® is a specially formulated integrated mineral compound that is very effective in reducing heavy metal contamination in soils and water.

METALOK® is designed to manage heavy metal pollution effectively in a range of environmental conditions by the integration of several active metal immobilisation mechanisms:

Why pay high transport and landfill charges when it may be cost effective to process organic waste or contaminated soils, using the BIOBOX?

  • Precipitation
  • Chemisorption
  • Adsorption
  • Chelation
  • Co-precipitation

These mechanisms provide METALOK® with the flexibility and power to effectively deal with metal pollution in most situations.

METALOK® Performance

METALOK® has a very high metal absorption capacity as shown in the table and figure below.

Metal Residue in solution after addition of METALOK® to a 400ppm metal solution, concentration of metal adsorbed and the Max. Adsorption Capacity of METALOK®

MetalResidue
mg/l		In METALOK®
mg/100 g		Max.Capacity
mg/100g
Cadmium0.5199.84000
Chromium0.020014500
Copper0.020015600
Lead0.0200>15000
Nickel0.9199.64170
Zinc0.2199.98930
METALOK® can be applied to

Contaminated soils to achieve TCLP test compliance
Composting of organic wastes, such biosolids or municipal waste, to reduce metal concentration and mobility
Treatment of metal containing waste waters such as metal plating, photolabs, etc.

Benefits of using METALOK

METALOK® offers the following unique advantages for processing liquid metal waste and metal contaminated organic waste and soils:

Liquid Waste

  • Rapid removal of heavy metal compounds into solid state
  • Easy separation of METALOK® and liquid
  • Active at a wide pH range

Organic Waste Recycling

  • Reduced total and available metal concentration
  • Improves compost soil properties

Contaminated Soils

  • In situ immobilisation of heavy metals
  • Improved compliance with TCLP test

Reduction in leachable heavy metals from compost as a result of METALOK®