Demetalization of Pb, Ni, Zn, Cu and Cr heavy metal ions from sea sand and
real samples of sewage sludge by subcritical water and supercritical carbon
dioxide was investigated. Experimental parameters such as temperature,
pressure, extraction time in the static and dynamic mode and sampling were
optimized in order to determine the suitable conditions for high metals
removal. The best extraction efficiencies were obtained by using acetyl
acetonate as chelating agent in both subcritical water and supercritical CO2
extractions for real and artificial samples. Samples collected from
extraction system using both subcritical water and supercritical carbon
dioxide were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry
(ICP-MS). The highest recoveries (%) obtained from real samples for Cr, Cu,
Ni, Pb and Zn were 77.25, 95.1, 84.82, 94.92 and 98.39, respectively, with
the chelating agent in the subcritical water extraction.