SRI International is conducting experiments to develop and evaluate hydrothermal extraction technology for remediating petroleum-contaminated soils. Most current remediation practices generally fail (or are cost prohibitive) to remove the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) found in petroleum-contaminated sites or they require the use of organic solvents to achieve removal, at the expense of additional contamination and with the added cost of recycling solvents. Hydrothermal extraction offers the promise of efficiently extracting PAHs and other kinds of organics from contaminated soils at moderate temperatures and pressures, using only water and inorganic salts such as carbonate. Initial work is being conducted at SRI to measure the solubility and rate of solubilization of selected PAHs (anthracene, fluoranthene, pyrene, and chrysene) in water, using SRI's hydrothermal optical cell with the addition of varying amounts of sodium carbonate to evaluate the efficiency of the technology for removing PAHs from the soil. Preliminary results with pyrene and fluoranthene in water clearly indicate a significant enhancement of solubility with increase in temperature. During this quarter, we conducted experiments with pyrene in the temperature range 200 to 300 C and observed a great enhancement in solubility with an increase in temperature. We also started experiments with real-world soil samples purchased from the subcontractor.
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