Polychlorinated biphenyl radiolysis for the treatment contaminated oils

This paper demonstrates the potential of gamma-ray irradiation as a means for selectively decomposing polychlorinated biphenyls in oil solution. It is shown that individual congeners and commercial Aroclor polychlorinated biphenyl mixtures are removed from oils by dechlorination resulting from electron capture reaction. The reaction observes pseudo-first order kinetics. The results of a treatability study using waste hydraulic oils are reported and it is shown that the presence of impurities in the oils markedly affects the decomposition efficiencies observed. A method of improving the polychlorinated biphenyl decomposition efficiency with an alkaline isopropanol additive is reported. A further benefit of the additive is that the chlorine produced by dechlorination is quantitatively precipitated by the reaction