Applicability of tire powder for the control of volatile organic compound emission in solid waste landfills: Sorption of volatile organic compounds onto tire powder

Abstract

A series of batch tests using tire powder were performed to investigate the volatile organic compound (VOC) sorption behavior, and to evaluate the effect of surrounding conditions on the VOC sorption onto tire powder. Benzene, TCE, PCE, and ethylbenzene were selected as target VOCs. Sorption of VOCs onto tire powder was well explained by a linear (partitioning type) model. Target VOCs did not seem to compete with other VOCs significantly when sorbed onto tire powder for the range of concentrations tested. However, sorption of benzene was slightly suppressed in the presence of ethylbenzene. Solid effect was observed in sorption of benzene, TCE, and PCE. Tire-water partition coefficients of these VOCs decreased with increasing sorbent dosage and solid effect disappeared when sorbent dosage increased sufficiently. An appropriate tire powder dosage (≥10 g/L) should be used to preclude solid effect in measuring tire-water partition coefficients of VOCs. The effects of background conditions, such as temperature, pH, and ionic strength did not seem to be significant. Tire-water partition coefficients of VOCs, not tested in this study, could be estimated using a good logarithmic relationship between observed partition coefficients and octanol-water partition coefficients of VOCs tested.