Catalytic Destruction of Chlorinated Solvents in Soil Vapor Student: Jagoda Vojvodic Mentor: Eric Betterton University of Arizona Space Grant

Superfund Federal government’s program to clean up hazardous waste sites from a priority list of 1246 Common contaminants: Trichloroethylene (TCE) Tetrachloroethylene (PCE)

Priority List of Hazardous Substances 1 Arsenic 2 Lead 3 Mercury 4 Vinyl Chloride 5 POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS 6 Benzene 7 Cadmium 8 POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS 9 BENZO(A)PYRENE 10 BENZO(B)FLUORANTHENE 11 CHLOROFORM 12 DDT, P,P'- 13 AROCLOR 1254 14 AROCLOR 1260 15 DIBENZO(A,H)ANTHRACENE 16 *TRICHLOROETHYLENE

Motivation Pose risk to the human and ecological health from groundwater contamination Current remedies with activated carbon are too expensive and do not destroy the contaminant

Propane as reductant Economic alternative to using Hydrogen in conversion of PCE Concentrated on experiments of propane conversion under various conditions

Lab Process Flow Diagram PCE + reductant + O2 CO2 + H20 + HCl

Cross section of reactor

Propane Conversion data Varying amount of oxygen from 5% to 40%

Varying propane concentration, oxygen concentration constant

Propane effect on PCE conversion

Conclusion Can destroy the chlorinated solvents using a Pt/Rh catalyst effectively Need 1.5% Propane to destroy 500ppm of PCE at 440 C

Price Comparison At >1% Propane, we can destroy 1lb of PCE using: Hydrogen: $100

Acknowledgements NASA Space Grant Susan Brew Eric Betterton, Eduardo Saez, Robert Arnold, Brian Barbaris Erik Rupp, Marty Willinger, Suzanne Richards, Desiree Polson