According to its etymology, the word lixiviación comes from Latin roots, from the voice "lixivia" which means "bleach"; In ancient times the Romans used the word to refer to the juices that the grapes distill before being trodden or, in another case, the olives before biting them. The term is found in the RAE to refer to the action and effect of leaching. At present, leaching describes the phenomenon of displacement of soluble or dispersible substances such as iron, clay, salts, humus, which is caused by the movement of water in the soil, which is why it occurs a lot in humid climates. In other words, you could say that it is aPhysical process of transfer of matter that occurs when a given liquid solvent passes through a solid, thus causing the elusion of some soluble component in said solid.
Because it is described as a physical process, it occurs in nature without interruption when a layer of soil is washed with water, dissolving salts and in almost all solids, commonly in humid climates, which causes the soils to be more acidic, causing certain toxicity and nitrates seeping into lower layers in the subsoil. Due to leaching, large amounts of fertilizers can be used because they descend to the lower horizons of the soil, where they do not reach the roots of the crops.
Leaching can occur in different areas such as:
Geology: described as a process of washing a layer of a given ground by water.
Chemistry: process through which a given quantity of solutes is squeezed or removed from a solid die using a liquid solvent.
Agriculture: when in the process of irrigation systems it is carried out with waters that contain large amounts of salt, so that a large part of the water is dosed than is necessary for the plants.
Ecology: where it alludes to the displacement of waste and excrement towards rivers and seas.
Then we can mention that within this context there is leaching in metallurgy also known as extractive metallurgy, which refers to the process that occurs in the field of metallurgy to work mainly oxidized minerals.
And finally we can find bioleaching, which is a process through which micro-organism-assisted leaching occurs, fulfilling the role of catalysts.
