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Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a halogenated aliphatic organic compound frequently detected as pollutant in soils and ground water. To study the fate of TCE in water and to devise effective remediation strategies, a series of advection‐diffusion (dispersion) models, where the diffusion coefficient of TCE (DTCE) is an important parameter, have been developed. However, DTCE in water has never been experimentally determined and only theoretical values ( ≃1×10−5 cm2 s−1 at 25°C) are present in the literature. A new method based on the Taylor dispersion technique, which allows to measure DTCE in a broad range of temperature and, in principle, in any solvent is presented. At 25°C DTCE =  8.16±0.06×10−6 cm2 s−1 and the value increases almost linearly with the temperature, while, in the limit of the experimental error, is independent from [TCE] for dilute solutions. From the temperature dependence of DTCE, it was possible to calculate the specific TCE fitting constant in the well‐known Wilke and Chang theoretical relation and the activation energy of the diffusion process through the Arrhenius plot. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 61: 3511–3515, 2015

Catalytic oxidation of trichloroethylene (TCE) in heterogeneous phase (gas-solid) is an effective strategy for the conversion of this pollutant in less harmful compounds, namely CO2, CO and HCl. In this work, we have studied the use of mayenite, a cost-effective material, as an active catalyst for the TCE conversion. In particular, we have assessed the influence of the mayenite synthesis method (hydrothermal, sol-gel and ceramic) on the reaction performance. The materials have been characterized by different techniques, such as XRD, N2-sorption (BET), TPR, Raman spectroscopy, FESEM-EDX and TEM. The analysis of the light-off curves and product distribution, has shown that the use of the hydrothermal method for the mayenite synthesis results in the most active and selective catalyst. This has been related with a higher surface area and with a higher concentration of oxygen anions in the mayenite prepared by this method. It has been found that the presence of water in the stream do not influence the catalytic performance of the material. A mechanism for the reaction and for the partial deactivation of the catalyst has been proposed.

Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a chlorinated aliphatic organic compound often detected as pollutant in soils and ground water. "Green technologies" based on phytoremediation were proven to be effective to reclaim organic pollutants (e.g. TCE) and heavy metals from different environmental matrices. In this work, we use Zea mays L. for the removal of high TCE concentrations from medium cultures. In particular, we investigated a sealed bioreactor where the growth medium was contaminated with an increasing amount of TCE, in the range 55-280 mg/L; the removal capability of the maize plants was assessed by means of GC-MS and LC-MS analyses. An accurate mass balance of the system revealed that the plants were able to remove and metabolise TCE with an efficiency up to 20 %, depending on the total amount of TCE delivered in the bioreactor. Morphometric data showed that the growth of Z. mays is not significantly affected by the presence of the pollutant up to a concentration of 280 mg/L, while plants show significant alterations at higher TCE concentrations until the growth is completely inhibited for [TCE] ≃ 2000 mg/L. Finally, the presence of several TCE metabolites, including dichloroacetic and trichloroacetic acids, was detected in the roots and in the aerial part of the plants, revealing that Z. mays follows the green liver metabolic model. These results encourage further studies for the employment of this plant species in phytoremediation processes of soils and waters contaminated by TCE and, potentially, by many other chlorinated solvents.

Mayenite (Ca12Al14O33) was synthesized by a novel route based on the use of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) as a soft templating agent. The material was tested for the total oxidation of trichloroethylene in the gas phase and the catalytic performance was analysed when using different initial amounts of PMMA in the catalyst synthesis. The results were compared with those obtained with a mayenite synthetized by a classical hydrothermal method. The highest activity in terms of TCE conversion was achieved in the presence of mayenite prepared using 10% w/w of PMMA; its activity was also higher than that of the hydrothermal mayenite. The surface area and the number of superoxide anions (O2−) seem to be the main properties determining the catalytic activity of the material.

When two microemulsions are put in contact in the gravity field along a horizontal contact line, cross-diffusion can trigger the transport of one species in the presence of a gradient in concentration of another species. We show here theoretically that such cross-diffusion effects can induce buoyancy-driven convective instabilities at the interface between two solutions of different compositions even when initially the less dense solution lies on top of the denser one. Two different sources of convective modes are identified depending whether positive or negative cross-diffusion is involved. We evidence the two predicted cross-diffusion driven instabilities experimentally using a two-layer stratification of Aerosol-OT (AOT) water-in-oil microemulsions solutions with different water or AOT composition.

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BACKGROUND: Although certain pollutants are prohibited or heavily regulated, particularly in Europe and the USA, contaminated sites still represent a serious threat to the environment and health. The physical and chemical properties of 'dense non-aqueous phase liquid' (DNAPL) pollutants such as trichloroethylene (TCE), including their low solubility, high specific density and tendency to remain adsorbed to organic materials, make their removal from polluted sites extremely difficult. RESULTS:This study tested the ability of a series of commercial fatty alcohol ethoxylated surfactants of C i E j type (i = number of carbons in the alkyl chain; j = number of ethylene oxide (EO) units), known to be biodegradable and low-cost, to improve the solubility of TCE in water; this would make its removal from contaminated sites more effective. The solubility of TCE in Synperonic™ 91/5 (C 10 E 5 ), 91/6 (C 10 E 6 ), 91/8 (C 10 E 8 ), 91/10 (C 10 E 10 ) and 13/8 (C 13 E 8 ) aqueous solutions was evaluated and the solubilization performances were reported as molar and weight solubilization ratios (MSR and WSR). Solubility was measured above the critical micelle concentration (CMC) up to 0.7 mol L −1 at 5, 20 and 30 ∘ C to assess the feasibility of the approach for TCE removal from sites located in different climatic areas. Increasing EO units contributed to improved TCE solubility (at constant alkyl chain length). CONCLUSION: The best surfactant was Synperonic™ 91/10 with an MSR of 3.54 at 19 ∘ C. The results show that an optimal combination of EO units and alkyl chain length, and not only the hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) value, is key for the design of effective TCE remediation systems from groundwater.