A FEASIBILITY STUDY ON SULFOLANE DEGRADATION IN GROUNDWATER USING NEUTRAL FENTON CATALYSTS

摘要

In this paper, degradation of sufolane in an acidic or near neutral pH using Fenton or modified Fenton catalysts was investigated. The catalysts included nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) iron complex and several commercially available products marketed as neutral pH catalysts. The experiments were conducted both in lab synthetic water and sulfolane contaminated groundwater. Our results showed that more than 99% of sulfolane can be removed by the classic Fenton-like reagent in acidic condition. At near neutral pH, 60% of sulfolane reduction in groundwater was achieved by adding NTA/Fe(III)/H_2O_2. Among the four commercially available products investigated, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) chelated iron showed the most positive result in sulfolane degradation in the groundwater. Fifty percent of sulfolane in groundwater degraded when EDTA chelated iron was used with hydrogen peroxide. The decomplexation of chelated iron during reaction caused iron to precipitate and led to the cessation of the reaction.