Demonstrating the feasibility of polyethylene passive samplers for quantitative assessment of volatile organic compounds in soil
Name
1003490613-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
6.07 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
cf204db190a583e6de5f6d7d3652dfc4
Author(s)
Saparbaiuly, Galym
Advisor(s)
Philip M. Gschwend.
Date Issued
2017
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
A quantitative assessment of the nature and extent of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in soil vapors is a valuable tool, as these chemicals are pervasive and a health concern at many contaminated sites. Motivated by the successful use of polyethylene (PE) passive samplers in sediments, this research focused on demonstrating the feasibility of PE samplers to accurately assess volatile organic compounds in soil vapors. Experimental values of PE-water partitioning coefficients (Kpew) for benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, and ortho-xylene (BTEX) were determined. A benchtop experiment in a controlled environment was performed, which consisted of a jar of sand with known amounts of trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE). The concentrations of the TCE and PCE were measured using the PE passive sampler and compared to mathematically estimated results. Finally, the PE passive samplers were tested in an actual site at the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) and showed consistent results with the available data. The results of this thesis demonstrated that the PE passive sampling is a promising technique to measure VOCs in soil vapors.
Description
Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2017.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 54-55).
Subjects
Civil and Environmental Engineering.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Terms of Use
MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.
Persistent DSpace Link
