A theoretical approach to determination of evaporation rates and half lives of some priority pollutants in two major lakes of Istanbul

Abstract

The volatilization rate coefficients and half‐lives of fifteen priority pollutants in the (Jekmece Lakes of Istanbul are predicted by using a mass transfer model which relates the evaporation rate of a chemical to its Henry's constant, molecular diffusion coefficient and the transport properties of the water body, namely the oxygen transfer coefficient and the evaporation flux, which are estimated by using the collected environmental data and published literature representative of similar water bodies. It is observed that some high molecular weight compounds such as hexachlorobenzene and DDT volatilize more rapidly from both lakes than do some low molecular weight and high solubility compounds such as phenol which shows almost no tendency to evaporate. The calculated half lives of the chemicals in each lake are related to a mathematical combination of diffusion coefficient ratios. A good fit is obtained.