Abstract
PAHs are major pollutants that are widely distributed in soil and groundwater environment, so that may be regarded as carcinogens. We investigated the degradation kinetics of PAH in aqueous solution when low pressure UV energy and ultrasonic irradiation were applied. Phenanthrene and pyrene were used as model compounds. The degrees of degradation of these compounds with time were analyzed with a GC/MSD (SIM-mode). UV photolysis experiments showed that phenanthrene was reduced by 90 -67% at initial concentrations of 1 ppm to 8ppm whilst it decreased to 50% at 10 ppm. Under the same conditions pyrene was degraded up to about 75% at lower initial concentrations but the reduction efficiency dropped to a level of 34 to 29% at the higher concentrations above 8 ppm. The reaction orders for phenanthrene and pyrene were found to be zero-th and ca. -0.4th order, respectively, thus implying that the reported assumption of pseudo 1st order reaction for some PAHs would be no longer valid. PAH degradation was roughly proportional to the intensity of UV (number of lamps), exhibiting maximum 92.5% of the degradation efficiency. The solution pH was lowered to 4.4 from 6.4 during the experiments partially because the carbons decomposed by the energy reacted with oxygen radicals to produce carbon dioxides. Ultrasonic irradiation on phenanthrene solutions gave relatively poor results which matched to 50 to 70% of degradation efficiency even at 2 ppm of initial concentration. Phenanthrene was found to be degraded more efficiently than pyrene for the two energy sources. Ultrasound also followed the same reaction kinetics as UV energy on PAH degradation.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.