Thermal desorption of PCBs from contaminated soil using nano zerovalent iron

In this study, thermal desorption was combined with the addition of nano zerovalent iron (nZVI) to remediate polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-contaminated soil collected from a storage point for PCB-contaminated capacitors and transformers. The thermal desorption test conditions were varied from 300 to 600 °C, both with blank soil and with 100 mg of nZVI added. Next, the effect of the amount of nZVI added (0, 20, 40, 100, 200 mg) was investigated by thermal treatment at 400 °C. The test results show that thermal desorption eliminates most of the PCB load and that the presence of nZVI clearly enhances thermal desorption. After thermal treatment at 400 °C, a removal efficiency of 94.2 % was reached, with the use of 200 mg of nZVI. At 600 °C, the PCB removal efficiency after 1 h attained 98.35 % with 100 mg of nZVI and 97.40 % without nZVI. The presence of nZVI effectively decreased both the sum and the WHO-TEQ value of the 12 dl-PCBs.