Paper Details

Determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons adsorption on Tehran oil refinery contaminated soil and its modeling

Maryam Farahani, Azita Behbahaninia

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.12692/ijb/5.6.34-40

Int. J. Biosci. 5(6), 34-40. September, 2014. (PDF)

Abstract:

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are widely distributed contaminants which have drawn increasing public health concern because of their mutagenic and carcinogenic. This study was carried out to investigate the potential of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons adsorption on Tehran oil refinery soil. Also, the modeling of the petroleum adsorption process in soil column is among the crucial objectives of this study. So, we prepared a pilot plant, and after packing it with Tehran oil refinery contaminated soil in specific weight and 25 cm height, oily wastewater containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons influence on it. The column pressure head and its conditions have been stable during experiment. The adsorption of PAHs on soil was estimated by measuring the concentration of PAHs in effluences of the drainage every 15 min intervals up to 4 h, and the bed soil column at the end of experiment. The maximum adsorption capacity of Tehran oil refinery soil was 90.8%. Then, it has been compared the suitability of two predictive models Freundlich isotherm and Langmuir isotherm in analyzing the adsorption of PAHs on soil. The result showed that empirical Langmuir equation wasbetter than the Freundlich equation in describing the behavior of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons adsorption onto Tehran oil refinery soiland the adsorption coefficient was calculated as 0.184. Finally, HYDRUS -1Dsoftware was used to model the changing of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons adsorption in soil column and the results showed that the experimental data were well fitted by HYDRUS model.