Effect of soil solids concentration in batch tests on the partition coefficients of organic pollutants in landfill liner-soil materials

 The effect of the soil solids concentration in batch tests on the measured values of the partition coefficient (K _p) of organic pollutants in landfill liner-soil material was investigated. Since this study was based on the results of batch and column tests conducted independently, there were limitations to the conclusions derived. The organic compounds tested were benzene, methylene chloride, toluene, trichloroethylene, and p-xylene. The results of this study showed that as soil solids concentrations increased, the measured K _p values of these organic compounds strongly decreased. The observed values of K _p stabilized when the soil solids concentration was above a certain value. Typical K _p values obtained from batch tests conducted under high soil solids concentrations were close to those obtained from column tests. It was concluded that the K _p values of organic compounds measured under low soil solids concentrations, i.e., less than 100 g/l, may not correctly simulate the field situation. Consequently, the values of K _p obtained with low soil solids concentrations can result in an overestimation of the retardation factor of the landfill liner material. Received: March 14, 2002 / Accepted: August 25, 2002     

Plant/soil concentration ratios for paired field and garden crops, with emphasis on iodine and the role of soil adhesion

In the effort to predict the risks associated with contaminated soils, considerable reliance is placed on plant/soil concentration ratio (CR) values measured at sites other than the contaminated site. This inevitably results in the need to extrapolate among the many soil and plant types. There are few studies that compare CR among plant types that encompass both field and garden crops. Here, CRs for 40 elements were measured for 25 crops from farm and garden sites chosen so the grain crops were in close proximity to the gardens. Special emphasis was placed on iodine (I) because data for this element are sparse. For many elements, there were consistent trends among CRs for the various crop types, with leafy crops > root crops ≥ fruit crops ≈ seed crops. Exceptions included CR values for As, K, Se and Zn which were highest in the seed crops. The correlation of CRs from one plant type to another was evident only when there was a wide range in soil concentrations. In comparing CRs between crop types, it became apparent that the relationships differed for the rare earth elements (REE), which also had very low CR values. The CRs for root and leafy crops of REE converged to a minimum value. This was attributed to soil adhesion, despite the samples being washed, and the average soil adhesion for root crops was 500 mg soil kg⁻¹ dry plant and for leafy crops was 5 g kg⁻¹. Across elements, the log CR was negatively correlated with log Kd (the soil solid/liquid partition coefficient), as expected. Although, this correlation is expected, measures of correlation coefficients suitable for stochastic risk assessment are not frequently reported. The results suggest that r ≈ −0.7 would be appropriate for risk assessment.     

Antibiotics along an alpine river and in the receiving lake with a catchment dominated by grazing husbandry

The livestock breeding industries face overuse of antibiotics, which has been intensively studied in recent years. However, the occurrence and fate of antibiotics as well as their potential threats to the aquatic environments in alpine and arid regions remain unclear. This study investigated the relationship of the occurrence and concentrations of antibiotics between the Kaidu River and Bosten Lake in a typical alpine basin in China. Hot spots with antibiotic pollution source were explored. The antibiotic concentrations in river water and suspended sediment (SPS) were 2.20-99.4 ng/L and 1.03-176 ng/g. The dominant antibiotics were tetracyclines, sulphacetamide, and ofloxacin in river water and sulfonamides, clarithromycin, roxithromycin, and ofloxacin in SPS. The apparent differences in pollution sources and landscapes in different reaches led to the obvious spatial patterns of antibiotics in the Kaidu River. Higher partition coefficient of antibiotic between SPS and water phases for sulfonamides than tetracyclines was because that tetracyclines strongly responded to clay contents while sulfonamides significantly responded to organic carbon contents in SPS. There were significant differences in detected antibiotic categories between the river and the lake. Fluoroquinolones (especially ciprofloxacin and enrofloxacin) were detected in the lake while sulphacetamide was only detected in the river. Therefore, the surrounding husbandry and aquaculture around the Bosten Lake was an important antibiotic pollution source in addition to inputs from the Kaidu River. This research suggested that alpine lakes could be an important sink of antibiotics in alpine dry regions, and thus impose greater threats to the aquatic ecosystem.     

Development of a continuously stirred flow cell for investigating sorption mass transfer

This paper introduces a new reversible-flow design for a continuously stirred reactor used to study sorption mass transfer in soil and solvent systems. The stirred reactor has potential advantages over conventional packed column or batch reactors because it isolates intraparticle sorption rate limitations from advective-dispersive transport, yet allows changes to flux through the reactor for analysis of sorption kinetics under dynamic conditions. Previously, stirred reactors have often failed due to clogging of sediment on the effluent frit. The reverse-flow backwashing design allows longer life and higher confidence in maintaining mixed conditions than previous designs. Mass transfer 'rate coefficients estimated from stirred and column experiments are compared; both techniques produced results consistent with a published correlation. The data also show that fitted sorption mass transfer coefficients can be strongly dependent on the choice of equilibrium partition coefficient (i.e. batch or first-moment derived values), and that the conventional two-site sorption kinetics model fails to accurately predict sorption mass transfer in the presence of changing solvent velocity through the reactor.     

苯酚、苯在水／阴离子有机膨润土界面的环境行为研究

研究了苯酚在水／阴离子有机膨润土界面的吸附行为，初步探讨了阴离子有机膨润土对苯酚、苯的吸附性能、机理及影响因素。结果表明，阴离子表面活性剂改性后，膨润土中有机碳含量增加了10～38倍，对苯酚、苯的吸附能力大大提高。水中苯酚、苯在水／阴离子有机膨润土界面的吸附行为主要分配作用所致，其吸附等温线呈线性。     

Characterizing the source/sink behavior of double-layer building materials

A model is developed to predict the rate of mass transfer between a double-layer material and indoor air. The model allows non-uniform initial material-phase concentrations in each of the two layers and a transient influent gas-phase concentration to be considered. This model builds on a recently validated single-layer model and should prove useful in predicting the behavior of double-layer material assemblies. Many indoor furnishings and building structures are comprised of layers of different material. The approach taken here represents a first step in the development of a more generally applicable multi-layer model. An analytical solution to the double-layer model is obtained and a parametric analysis is performed illustrating the behavior of the model as a function of the primary model parameters. The paper concludes by examining the potential use of thin diffusion barriers to reduce material emission rates and a hypothetical example of emissions from an adhesive that is part of an adhesive/material assembly.     

Tylosin Sorption to Silty Clay Loam Soils,Swine Manure,and Sand

The objectives of this study were to assess sorption and desorption of tylosin, a macrolide antimicrobial chemical used in swine, cattle, and poultry production, in three silty clay loam soils of South Dakota and compare soil sorption to sand and manure sorption. The silty clay loam soils, from a toposequence in eastern South Dakota, standardized sand samples, and swine manure were used in 24-h batch sorption studies with tylosin concentrations ranging from 25 to 232 μ mole/L. Desorption from soil was conducted over a four-day period. Partition coefficients, based on the Freundlich isotherm (K _f ) or K _d values, were calculated. K _f values for the silty clay loams were similar, not influenced by landscape position, and averaged 1350 with isotherm slopes ranging from 0.85 to 0.93. K _f values for sand were dependent on solution/sand ratios and pH, ranging from 1.4 to 25.1. K _d values of manure were dependent on the solution type and ranged from 840 L/kg with urine to about 175 L/kg when sorbed from water. Desorption of tylosin from each soil over the four-day period was < 0.2% of the amount added. The soils' high K _f values and low desorption amounts suggest that once tylosin is in these soils, leaching to lower depths may not occur. However, this does not preclude runoff with soil eroded particles. If tylosin reaches a sand aquifer, through bypass flow or other mechanism(s), movement in the aquifer most likely would occur.     

Radiosynthesis of perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorobutanesulfonate (PFBS), including solubility, partition and adhesion studies

Here, we describe for the first time the synthesis of [³⁵S] PFOS and [³⁵S] PFBS with sulfur-35 enriched sulfur dioxide as the radiolabelled reagent, resulting in 2.5 and 2.3 mCi of product, respectively. Basic information concerning the physicochemical properties of perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), perfluorobutanesulfonate (PFBS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are still limited. Hence, we utilized these radiolabelled perfluoroalkanesulfonates (PFSAs), as well as carbon-14 labelled perfluorooctanoic acid ([¹⁴C] PFOA) to determine some basic characteristics of physiological and experimental significance.The solubility of PFOS in buffered aqueous solutions at pH 7.4 was found to be severely reduced in the presence of potassium and sodium ions, which, however, did not reduce the solubility of PFOA or PFBS. PFOS was found to adhere to a small extent to polypropylene and polystyrene, whereas no such adhesion of PFOA or PFBS was detected. The extents of adhesion of PFOS and PFOA to glass were found to be 20% and 10%, respectively. For the first time, the partition coefficients for PFOS, PFBS and PFOA between n-octanol and water were determined experimentally, to be −0.7, −0.3, and 1.4, respectively, reflecting the difference in the amphiphilic natures of these molecules.     

Determination of 1‐octanol/water partition coefficients of isocyanate compounds by an HPLC method

The octanol/water partition coefficients (P _ow) of six monoisocyanate and five diisocyanate compounds were determined by high performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC) methods. Two HPLC peaks, a broad tailed peak followed by a sharp one, were observed with all compounds. The later peak was identified as the isocyanate compound. The P _ow value for each isocyanate compound was determined by fitting the capacity factor of the peak to the regression equation drawn from those of reference compounds. The hydrophobic substituent constants for the isocyanate group were calculated with each of the compounds. The value of this constant was strongly dependent on the type of carbon bound to the isocyanate group and the average values for the aromatic and aliphatic isocyanate groups were 0.35 and — 0.52, respectively. Because of the reactivity of those compounds in the aquatic environment, the P _ow has little relevance to calculation of their environmental fate and ecotoxicity.     

Influence of residual surfactants on DNAPL characterization using partitioning tracers

The partitioning tracer technique is among the DNAPL source-zone characterization methods being evaluated, while surfactant in-situ flushing is receiving attention as an innovative technology for enhanced source-zone cleanup. Here, we examine in batch and column experiments the magnitude of artifacts introduced in estimating DNAPL content when residual surfactants are present. The batch equilibrium tests, using residual surfactants ranging from 0.05 to 0.5 wt.%, showed that as the surfactant concentrations increased, the tracer partition coefficients decreased linearly for sodium hexadecyl diphenyl oxide disulfonate (DowFax 8390), increased linearly for polyoxyethylene (10) oleyl ether (Brij 97), and decreased slightly or exhibited no observable trend for sodium dihexyl sulfosuccinate (AMA 80). Results from column tests using clean sand with residual DowFax 8390 and Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) were consistent with those of batch tests. In the presence of DowFax 8390 (less than 0.5 wt.%), the PCE saturations were underestimated by up to 20%. Adsorbed surfactants on a loamy sand with positively charged oxides showed false indications of PCE saturation based on partitioning tracers in the absence of PCE. Using no surfactant (background soil) gave a false PCE saturation of 0.0004, while soil contacted by AMA 80, Brij 97, and DowFax 8390 gave false PCE saturations of 0.0024, 0.043, and 0.23, respectively.