Department of Chemical Engineering, Chemistry and Environmental Science
Degree:
Master of Science
Program:
Environmental Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Advisory Committee:
Armenante, Piero M. (Committee chair)
Kafkewitz, David (Committee member)
Mukherjee, Sudhi (Committee member)
Date:
1998-08
Keywords:
Electric filters.
Supercritical fluid extraction.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons--Environmental aspects.
Availability:
Unrestricted
Abstract:
Methods for the extraction and analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from contaminated soil were evaluated for use in a treatability study. Candidate procedures were selected from EPA SW-846 (Third Edition) methods. Soxhlet extraction (3540B) was selected to determine initial PAH concentrations. Supercritical fluid extraction with carbon dioxide (SFE: 3561) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC: 8310) were evaluated for use as the extraction and analysis methods. Experimental soil was obtained from a petroleum product refinery site; a Certified Reference Material (CRM) was also studied.
Experiments focused on determining concentrations of anthracene, chrysene, fluoranthene, phenanthrene, and pyrene in untreated experimental soil; recoveries from SFE and Soxhlet extraction were compared. SFE method 3561 uses a 5%, 1/4 (v/v) methanol/water modifier; a 5% methanol modifier was also evaluated. Soxhlet extractions yielded the highest recoveries of the PAHs with the exception of fluoranthene, recovered only after SFE with the pure methanol modifier.
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