Trichloroethene and Trichlorofluoroethene Equilibrium Competitive Sorption to Sedimentary Rock from the Newark Basin, New Jerse

The aim of this study was to evaluate and quantify the competitive effect in trichloroethylene (TCE) and trichlorofluoroethylene (TCFE) equilibrium sorption. In this experiment the two contaminants are injected in 10ml water vials with carbon rich sedimentary rock (foc 2.5%) from former NAWC (Naval Air Warfare Center) West Trenton, New Jersey and equilibrated for 7 days. NAWC has been active for 40 years and has been contaminated with TCE. A pump and treat system has been active since 1990 to help preventing TCE propagation. TCFE has been identified as an important TCE tracer with similar chemical properties and its use in laboratory and field experiment helps predict the fate and transport properties of TCE included sorption behaviour that affects the retardation factor. For this experiment have been collected data for isotherms to quantify TCFE single solute sorption and to quantify TCFE sorption in presence of TCE as a competitor. This experiment confirmed that the sorption from single solute solution was greater than sorption under multi-solute conditions due to competitive effect. IAST (ideal adsorption solution theory) and SIAS (simplified ideal adsorption solution) equations were used to combine the single solute isotherms to predict the competitive effect in multi-solute system. The isotherms obtained from theoretical models were in good agreement with observations. Identification of a tracer of TCE can assist in the quantification of site specific transport properties and facilitate a good remediation strategy in contaminated sites.