Preliminary assessment of laboratory techniques for measurement of volatiles through soils at hazardous waste sites. [Trichloroethylene; dichloroethylene]

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:5412457

Breckenridge, R P; Case, J T

This study was conducted to determine if an inexpensive laboratory screening technique could be developed to detect the presence of hazardous volatile compounds without disturbing the soil over buried waste. A laboratory investigation was designed to evaluate the movement of two volatile organics through packed soil columns. Six soil columns were filled with three different soils. Two volatile organics, trichloroethylene (TCE) and dichloroethylene (1, 2 DCE), were placed at the base of the columns as a saturated water solution. Column headspace analysis was performed by purging the top of the columns with nitrogen gas and bubbling this gas through a pentane trap. Samples in the air space were also collected using 25 and 100 microliter gas tight syringes. All samples were analyzed using Electron Capture Detector (ECD) by gas chromatography. Results indicate that the volatile organic compounds can be detected through a five foot column of soil in concentrations down to parts-per-billion (ppB) for both TCE and DCE. Distribution coefficients (Kd) experiments were also conducted to assess breakthrough time and related concentration with soil type. 11 refs., 3 tabs.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Engineering Lab., Idaho Falls (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-76ID01570
• OSTI ID: 5412457
• Report Number(s): EGG-M-27184; CONF-850242-9; ON: DE85014617
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

510200* -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
CHLORINATED ALIPHATIC HYDROCARBONS
CHROMATOGRAPHY
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY
HALOGENATED ALIPHATIC HYDROCARBONS
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
MASS TRANSFER
MATERIALS
ORGANIC CHLORINE COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SOILS
TOXICITY