Open-field experimentation of an innovative and integrated zeolitite cycle: project definition and material characterization

This study is a part of the European LIFE +2010 Project "ZeoLIFE - Water pollution reduction and water saving using a natural zeolitite cycle". It characterizes the application of Italian zeolite-rich pyroclastic rocks (zeolitites) as soil conditioner. Laboratory experiments will be tested on an experimental field in the Codigoro area, Ferrara district (North-East Italy). The samples investigated are chabazite- and phillipsite-rich and are all collected in quarries from Central Italy: (1) Grosseto area (Sorano and Sovana); (2) Viterbo area (Farnese, Grotte Santo Stefano, Corchiano, Nepi), and (3) Rome area (Riano). All samples are characterized by more than 30 % of zeolite content, together with volcanic glass, feldspars, pyroxenes, and micas. The quantitative mineralogical characterization of soil samples from Codigoro shows variable proportions of quartz, illite, plagioclase, K-feldspar, calcite, dolomite, chlorite, serpentine, kaolinite, gypsum together with an amorphous residual. Collected data confirm that conditioning of soils with selected zeolitite can be extremely promising for a well evident improvement of the soil quality, and contribute to define a standard approach which can surely find a general application well above the boundaries of the selected area for the field test.