LIPOPHILICITY OF A SYNTHETIC BLEACHED KRAFT EFFLUENT

Kraft pulp was bleached with chlorine tagged with Cl-36. The octanol-water partition coefficient (K(ow)) of the collective labeled organic products in the spent solution was 0.03, which is identical to the K(ow) of water. This unusually low value is believed to arise from a low activity coefficient in water combined with a corresponding high value in octanol. To the extent that K(ow) is an index of environmental mobility, it follows that the bulk of the chlorinated organic constituents of bleach mill effluents will be strongly associated with the water column. Chlorinated materials formed in the pulp matrix did not leach significantly into octanol.