Adsorption of RDX and its Nitroso Metabolites onto Activated Carbon
Publication: Practice Periodical of Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste Management
Volume 14, Issue 2
Abstract
Groundwater contaminated with the high explosive Demolition eXplosive, or hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) may also contain the nitroso-RDX metabolites hexahydro-1-nitroso-3,5-dinitro-1,3,5-triazine (MNX), hexahydro-1,3-dinitroso-5-nitro-1,3,5-triazine (DNX), and hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitroso-1,3,5-triazine (TNX). Although adsorption to activated carbon effectively removes RDX from contaminated water, the treatability of the nitroso-RDX compounds by adsorption has not been previously reported. Single-component isotherms were completed and the Freundlich parameters ( and ) were calculated for adsorption of these compounds to Calgon F400 from unbuffered high purity water under aerobic and anoxic ( dissolved oxygen) conditions. Under both conditions, MNX was the most adsorbable, followed by RDX, DNX, and TNX. The presence of dissolved oxygen slightly increased the Freundlich parameters for all compounds except TNX. Under aerobic conditions, Freundlich capacity parameters ranged from for TNX to for MNX, while under anoxic conditions, ranged from for TNX to for MNX. Additional testing showed that 7 days were sufficient for adsorption equilibration in most cases. Simplified granular activated carbon (GAC) column modeling demonstrated that the presence of these compounds in groundwater can reduce GAC service life.
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Acknowledgments
This research was funded by a University of Nebraska—Lincoln Research Council Faculty Seed Grant and by the U.S. Geological Survey. The writers are grateful to Dr. Daniel D. Snow of the UNL Water Sciences Laboratory for donation of analytes and assistance with purification of the nitroso-RDX compounds. The writers would also like to thank Dr. Bruce Dvorak (UNL-Civil Engineering) and Dr. Steve Comfort (UNL-School of Natural Resources) for helpful discussions related to this research.
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Published In
Practice Periodical of Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste Management
Volume 14 • Issue 2 • April 2010
Pages: 90 - 97
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: Dec 28, 2005
Accepted: Oct 2, 2009
Published online: Mar 15, 2010
Published in print: Apr 2010
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