Laboratory Studies To Field Evaluation : Remediation Of Polychlorinated Biphenyl Contaminated Painted Surfaces Through The Use Of Activated Metal Treatment Systems

Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) are a group of 209 congeners that are regulated under the Toxic Substance Control Act. They enter the environment as a result of industrial processes and can travel long distances. PCBs are environmentally persistent and bioaccumulate in animal populations. Painted surfaces are a common point source for PCBs and there are few options for remediating structures painted with PCB-contaminated paint. Removal of the paint can often spread contamination and disposing or burning of large structures is expensive. Experiments employing reductive dehalogenation through the use of a bimetal have shown that PCBs can be degraded in mild laboratory conditions. This dissertation describes the process of developing an application media that will enable the degradation process reported in literature to be used in a field application. An environmentally friendly reaction environment had to be established as well as the treatment‟s operating parameters. In collaboration with researchers at the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA), Kenney Space Center (KSC), researchers at the University of Central Florida (UCF) developed a bimetallic treatment system (BTS) that can remove and degrade PCBs from painted surfaces. The technology was evaluated during a field demonstration at a decommissioned Department of Defense facility in Badger, Wisconsin. Samples of treatment paste, paint and concrete were analyzed over a three week period. The PCB concentrations in both the paint and concrete dropped dramatically as a result of the demonstration, and in many instances, were lowered below the EPA action limit of 50ppm. In the laboratory, additional studies were conducted to further the degradation in the treatment system. Through this process, a novel degradation system was established containing zero-valent magnesium and ethanol acidified with acetic acid. The use of acidified ethanol permitted the degradation to occur with iv just magnesium powder and eliminated the use of a bimetal and therefore palladium. The technology was incorporated into a modified treatment system termed Activate Metal Treatment System (AMTS). The AMTS was used on samples from a second field site where paint chips from an manufacturing warehouse in New York state were degraded to thousands of mg/kg (ppm) below their starting concentrations