Electrochemical Treatment for PAHs Degradation in Virgin and Recycled Non-Ionic Surfactant Solutions

The removal of carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from soils presents a challenge to scientists and engineers. The high hydrophobic nature of PAHs enables their strong sorption onto soil particles. Thus, the application of surfactant washing systems may be a favorable option to release these pollutants from contaminated soils. One of the main limitations for the surfactants applications in soil remediation is the lack of knowledge about the environmental fate of the PAH-loaded surfactants. The investigation presented here focused on the electrochemical destruction of anthracene and pyrene extracted from contaminated soils by two non-ionic surfactants, Triton X-100 and Tween 80. The electrochemical treatment of these solutions was carried out in a glass cubic electrolytic cell of 0.4L working volume and graphite electrodes material. Nearly complete degradation of model PAHs was reached for all the experiments