A study of chemical remediation on 1,2,4-Trichlorobenzene in groundwater

Abstract:

Shujun Ye, Guanqun Wang, and Jichun Wu

Key Laboratory of Surficial Geochemistry, Ministry of Education; School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China, Nanjing, 210093, China; sjye@nju.edu.cn

 

The ground water is contaminated by 1,2,4 Trichlorobenzene (TCB) in a former chemical plant in Nanjing, China. So 1,2,4-TCB is the contaminant of concern in this study. As chemical oxidation technology is a common in-site remediation technique, hydrogen peroxide, sodium sulfate and the two-mixed oxidants under the catalytic condition are used to remove 1,2,4-TCB from groundwater. By changing the values of temperature and pH in the experiments, the best conditions for chemical oxidation with oxidants mentioned above were determined. The fluorescent brightener of PF, manufactured by the former chemical plant, was added to groundwater to evaluate whether its existence made an impact on the chemical oxidation. 1-D sand column tests were conducted to study the degradation effect by using the chemical oxidation technology. The experiment results showed that single oxidant and mixed both oxidants can remove 1,2,4-TCB completely. The oxidation efficiency of both oxidants is influenced by temperature and pH. For hydrogen peroxide, the oxidation efficiency decreases with the increase of pH, while, for sodium sulfate, the efficiency is high under the mild acidic condition. The fluorescent brightener PF has an impact on the oxidation efficiency, with negative effect on the oxidation with hydrogen peroxide but positive effect with sodium sulfate. 1-D sand column tests testified the degradation of 1,2,4-TCB by the chemical oxidation with hydrogen peroxide and sodium sulfate.

 

KEY WORDS: 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene，hydrogen peroxide，sodium persulfate，optical brightener PF，chemical oxidation

 

Acknowledgements

Funding for this research from DuPont Company and NSFC Project No. 41472212.