Hydrolytic release of bound residues from composted soil contaminated with 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene
- Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab., Hanover, NH (United States)
The US Army is obligated to restore land previously contaminated with the explosive 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT). One remediation method that is being tried is composting. In this method, the soil to be treated is mixed with a readily decomposable source of organic carbon, which is usually a mixture of readily available organic material. Samples of composted soil were extracted with solvent, then hydrolyzed with acid or base. The concentrations of extractable, unbound 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene and its mono- and diamino metabolites fell rapidly after the first days of composting. Hydrolysis of the extracted residues released significant quantities of intact metabolites. The objectives of this work were to differentiate between bound and unbound explosives and their transformation products in composted soil, to investigate the time course of metabolite evolution and binding, and to evaluate various hydrolysis methods.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Department of the Army, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 514595
- Journal Information:
- Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Journal Name: Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 16; ISSN 0730-7268; ISSN ETOCDK
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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