Current literature values of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) solubility in
water vary widely from 100 to 200
mg/L at room temperature. We investigated the effects of
temperature and pH on the solubility of both
reference TNT and field neat TNT obtained from the Alabama Army
Ammunition Plant (AAAP),
Childersburg, AL. The TNT solubility determined from this study
was significantly lower than that of
Taylor and Rinkenbach, which was cited by several reference chemical
handbooks and articles. However,
the values reported by the Merck Index and the
Lange's
Handbook of Chemistry compared well with
our
values. TNT solubility dropped rapidly as the pH increased.
Three unknown HPLC peaks were observed
at high pH, indicating a possibility of forming unknown transformation
products. Both reference and
field neat TNT solubility agreed well. A semiempirical solubility
correlation was developed to predict
the solubility of TNT at a temperature range from 6 °C to 42
°C.
Municipal sludge handling is a major problem facing wastewater treatment plants due to the high costs of treatment and disposal. This issue is of special importance in Jordan because of the critical economic situation as well as the lack of ®nancial support for such nonpro®t projects. This study investigates the possibility of solving this problem by testing a method of sludge stabilization that requires minimum initial and operating costs. The method tested here is sludge stabilization by composting which is an attempt to transform sludge into a safe, nuisance free, humus like product that can be applied safely to land and can become a source of income that would recover the costs of processing.Two types of composting systems were tested in this study, aerated static pile and windrow. Results obtained indicate that composting of dried sludge was not possible due to the extremely low moisture content; which was overcome by sludge seeding and mixing with amendment and bulking agents. This resulted in ef®cient stabilization and reduction of the amount of organic matter in the ®nal compost. The experimental results obtained also indicate that both systems (aerated static pile and windrow) are ef®cient. The organic content of the sludge was reduced in the windrow system by 46% and in the aerated static pile by 66%. In addition, the total volatile solids had decreased in the windrow and the aerated pile by 26 and 73%, respectively. The heavy metals content of the ®nal compost was examined and found to comply with the international standards.
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