POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLSREMOVAL.EVALUATION OF PYROLYSIS EFFECTS ON SOIL FERTILITY

References: 14th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2014, www.sgem.org, SGEM2014 Conference Proceedings, ISBN 978-619-7105-14-8 / ISSN 1314-2704, June 19-25, 2014, Book 3, Vol. 2, 215-222 pp

ABSTRACT
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been produced for a wide array of applications for more than fifty years and have been exported as chemicals and in products to virtually every country in the world. Despite a ban on production since the 1970s, PCBs constitute a major class of persistent environmental contaminants. PCBs can be found in contaminated soils and the disposal is a global problem. The most frequent remediation solution adopted to PCBs contaminated soils are excavation for incineration or disposal to the landfill. This study was aimed to evaluate the feasibility of the decontamination of the soils with PCBs using pyrolysis technology. Soil samples subjected to this procedure showed that the concentration of total PCBs decreases with increasing temperature and pyrolysis time. Increasing the processing temperature with 100°C is revealed an increase in the efficiency of pyrolysis with 13% when exposed for 30 minutes and with 14% for an exposure of 60 minutes. In the ash from the pyrolysis process was planted peas. Note that in the soil treated at 300ºC for 60 minutes, the organic matter was not completely destroyed in the process, as evidenced by the emergence and favourable evolution of the peas. In the soil treated at 400°C for 60 minutes, a low amount of organic matterwas found.

Keywords: PCBs, remediation, pyrolysis, soil