Study of BTX degradation in seawater using Co-60 gamma radiation

The marine environment and costars of Brazil has taken contamination by anthropogenic organic compounds. This contamination causes a considerable process of environmental degradation, due to the limited capacity of those ecosystems absorb the resultant impacts.The organic compounds of interest are the aromatic hydrocarbons generated in the activities of petroleum exploration, such as benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX), because of their occurrence in effluents, groundwater and surface of the water. The inclusion of these hydrocarbons in marine environment is due to pipeline leak, washing of vessel and as much again accident of oil spill. This work presents some preliminary results of the evaluation of contamination mainly by BTX of seawater in Ubatuba, SP, and their degradation by exposure the gamma radiation. A comparative analysis was carried out using deionized water and seawater solutions with known concentration of BTX. (author)