Evaluation of persulfate oxidative wet scrubber for removing BTEX gases

Abstract

Soil vapor extraction (SVE) coupled with air sparging of groundwater is a method commonly used to remediate soil and groundwater contaminated with volatile organic petroleum contaminants such as gasoline. These hazardous contaminants are mainly attributable to the compounds—benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (known collectively as BTEX). Exhaust gas from SVE may contain BTEX, and therefore must be treated before being discharged. This study evaluated the use of iron-activated persulfate chemical oxidation in conjunction with a wet scrubbing system, i.e., a persulfate oxidative scrubber (POS) system, to destroy BTEX gases. The persulfate anions can be activated by citric acid (CA) chelated Fe 2+ to generate sulfate radicals (SO 4 −, E° = 2.4 V), which may rapidly degrade BTEX in the aqueous phase and result in continuous destruction of the BTEX gases. The results show that persulfate activation occurred as a result of continuous addition of the citric acid chelated Fe 2+ activator, which readily oxidized the dissolved BTEX. Based on initial results from the aqueous phase, a suitable Fe 2+/CA molar ratio of 5/3 was determined and used to initiate activation in the subsequent POS system tests. In the POS system, using persulfate as a scrubber solution and with activation by injecting Fe 2+/CA activators under two testing conditions, varying iron concentrations and pumping rates, resulted in an approximate 50% removal of BTEX gases. During the course of the tests which in corporate activation, a complete destruction of BTEX was achieved in the aqueous phase. It is noted that no removal of BTEX occurred in the control tests which did not include activation. The results of this study would serve as a reference for future studies into the practical chemical oxidation of waste gas streams.