Dan Elliott (New Jersey) co-authored an article entitled "Remediation of Hexachlorocyclohexanes by Electrochemically Activated Persulfates" in the Environmental Science and Pollution Research Journal, Volume 23, Issue 1, pages 765-773, January 2016.

According to the article, the hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCH) are a family of formerly widely-used classical organochlorine pesticides that are persistent in the environment, capable of undergoing long-range transport, and that tend to bioaccumulate in human and animal tissue. Their widespread global utilization, coupled with a propensity to adversely impact human health and the environment, translates into an urgent need to develop feasible methodologies to treat HCH-impacted soils and groundwater. The HCHs and other persistent organochlorine pesticides are encountered in dump sites, especially throughout eastern Europe. The article discusses work conducted to evaluate the efficacy of two persulfate-based oxidants, peroxydisulfate and peroxymonosulfate, activated by electrochemical processes to treat HCH-impacted environmental media.

Additional co-authors of the article were Stanisław Wacławek, Vojtech Antoš, Pavel Hrabák, and Miroslav Černík of the Technical University of Liberec in the Czech Republic. The work that Dan and his team conducted for this article grew out of relationships they formed during their ongoing NanoRem project, a €14 million FT7 European research project, aimed at evaluating the potential of environmental nanotechnology-based solutions in European environmental restoration markets that is entering its final year.

Abstract

Hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) isomers represent a family of formerly widely utilized pesticides that are persistent, capable of undergoing long-range transport and tend to bioaccumulate in human and animal tissue. Their widespread global utilization coupled with a propensity to adversely impact human health and the environment translates into an urgent need to develop feasible methodologies by which to treat HCH-impacted groundwater and soil. The present study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of two persulfate-based oxidants: peroxydisulfate (S2O8 2−, PDS) and peroxymonosulfate (HSO5 −, PMS) activated by electrochemical processes (EC) to treat HCH-impacted environmental media. This research demonstrated that the optimal experimental conditions (oxidant dose and electrical current) were 2 mM PDS and 20 mA for an aqueous solution of 4 μM of summed HCHs (ΣHCH). GC/MS full scan analysis revealed the presence of 2,4,6–trichlorophenol as the only detectable intermediate formed during electro-activated PDS treatment of ΣHCH. The investigated method was tested on leachate from a known HCHs-impacted site in Hajek, Czech Republic which contained 106 μg/l of ΣHCH and 129 μg/l of chlorobenzenes. Results from batch treatment showed positive results for electro-activated PDS but only negligible effectiveness for electro-activated PMS. In addition to explaining the efficacy of the electro-activated PDS, this research also explored the basis for the differing reactivities of these two persulfates.

More Information

For more information regarding the article, please visit: Environmental Science and Pollution Research
For more information on Hexachlorocyclohexanes, contact Dan Elliott at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..