Assessment of the feasibility of the electro-remediation technique as an emerging technology for soil salinity management: current status and future perspectives

Recently, soil salinity has become a serious environmental concern, adversely affecting ecosystem biodiversity, soil health, global food security and civil engineering facilities. Then, special attention has been given to develop new, viable and eco-friendly desalinization technologies. Among them, Electro-Remediation Treatment (ERT) is a promising developing technique due to its great efficiency for fine-grained soils. The use of an electric field to remove noxious salts from soil is effective on a wide range of matrices despite their heterogeneity. In this framework, the present work provides a detailed discussion on the feasibility of ERT, passing through past to present ERT evolution, mechanisms of ERT as well as factors affecting its efficiency. The main advantages, disadvantages and limitations of ERT have been addressed. Up-to-date applications of ERT around the globe via several soil types and under different operation conditions are thoroughly studied, thus, highlighting the various aspects of ERT at the field scale is of major importance. The future concerns arising from ERT and its possible alternatives have been discussed to provide useful information and prospects to researchers in the field.