Practical remediation of the PCB-contaminated soils

Akiko Ido; Miki Niikawa; Shinji Ishihara; Yoshinari Sawama; Tsuyoshi Nakanishi; Yasunari Monguchi; Hironao Sajiki; Hisamitsu Nagase

doi:10.1186/s40201-015-0158-2

Practical remediation of the PCB-contaminated soils

J Environ Health Sci Eng. 2015 Feb 10:13:9. doi: 10.1186/s40201-015-0158-2. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Akiko Ido¹, Miki Niikawa², Shinji Ishihara³, Yoshinari Sawama³, Tsuyoshi Nakanishi¹, Yasunari Monguchi³, Hironao Sajiki³, Hisamitsu Nagase¹

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Hygienic Chemistry and Molecular Toxicology, Gifu Pharmaceutical University, 1-25-4 Daigaku-nishi, Gifu, 501-1196 Japan.
² Laboratory of Hygienic Chemistry and Molecular Toxicology, Gifu Pharmaceutical University, 1-25-4 Daigaku-nishi, Gifu, 501-1196 Japan ; Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, Gifu Pharmaceutical University, 1-25-4 Daigaku-nishi, Gifu, 501-1196 Japan.
³ Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, Gifu Pharmaceutical University, 1-25-4 Daigaku-nishi, Gifu, 501-1196 Japan.

Abstract

A practical method for the elimination of PCBs from PCB-contaminated soil has been developed by the combination of Soxhlet extraction using a newly-developed modified Soxhlet extractor possessing an outlet valve on the extraction chamber with the chemical degradation. Various types of PCBs contaminated in soils could be completely extracted in refluxing hexane, and the subsequent hydrodechlorination could also be completed within 1 h in a hexane-MeOH (1 : 5) solution in the presence of Pd/C and Et3N under ordinary hydrogen pressure and temperature without the transfer of the extracted PCBs to other reaction container (a complete one-pot procedure). The present system is quite useful as a simple, safe, mild and reliable remediation method of PCB-contaminated soil.

Keywords: Hydrodechlorination; PCB-contaminated soil; Palladium on activated carbon (Pd/C); Remediation; Soxhlet extraction.