Removal of pesticides from soil by supercritical extraction-a preliminary study

The aim of this research project is to study the applicability of supercritical extraction with carbon dioxide to the decontamination of soils containing pesticides. In this work, after a brief but important introduction to the subject, the results of a preliminary study of the extraction of atrazine from sand with supercritical carbon dioxide are reported. These results, which were obtained with an extractor operated in batch mode, seem very promising, as a recovery of atrazine higher than 96% was obtained.