Desorption kinetics studies on PAH-contaminated soil under varying temperatures

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of temperature on the release of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from aged contaminated soil. The release of fluorene, phenanthrene, anthracene, fluoranthene and pyrene at 7, 15, 18 and 23 °C was studied using a column leaching method with a hydraulic retention time of 0.5 h. As the temperature declined from 23 to 7 °C the concentrations decreased by a factor of 11-12 for all the studied compounds except for anthracene, which only decreased by a factor 7. Rate constants at maximum release rate at the four studied temperatures were assessed. From temperature dependence studies, apparent activation energies of desorption, Edes∗, were calculated. Edes∗-values appeared to be in the range of 105-137 kJ mol−1 for the studied PAHs and increased with the LeBas molar volume of the compounds. The increase of Edes∗ with increased molecular size indicates stronger sorption with increased hydrophobicity of the compounds.