Oxidative Degradation and Kinetics of Trichloroethylene by Thermally Activated Persulfate

Abstract

In situ chemical oxidation with persulfate (PS) anion (S2O82-) is a viable technique for remediation of groundwater contaminants such as trichloroethylene (TCE). This laboratory study investigated the use of the oxidant sodium PS for the chemical oxidation of TCE at different conditions to determine the influence of temperature, pH, and the PS/TCE molar ratio. Experiments revealed that higher temperatures, lower pH, and higher PS/TCE molar ratios were to the benefit of TCE oxidation by PS. By investigating the reaction kinetics, the degradations of contaminant can be described by use of pseudo-first-order reaction. At the temperatures ranging from 25°C to 40°C, the activation energy for the degradation of TCE was determined to be 85.04 KJ/mol.