Treatability studies of groundwater contaminated with bis(2-cloroethyl) ether

The groundwater aquifer underneath a chemical manufacturing plant in Southeast Texas has been contaminated with the leachate from its landfill. There are 17 major chlorinated hydrocarbon contaminants found in the groundwater with concentrations ranging from 1 ppm to 1200 ppm. An air‐stripping unit followed by a thermal catalytic oxidation unit is currently operating on‐site to remove all of the chlorinated compounds from the contaminated groundwater. One of the contaminants, bis(2‐chloroethyl)ether (DCEE), has a fairly low Henry's Law constant; therefore, a high airflow rate is employed in the stripping unit to improve the overall stripping efficiency. Nevertheless, the treated groundwater still contains a fair amount of DCEE. An UV‐peroxidation reactor is set up to study its feasibility for oxidizing DCEE. The treatability data indicate that DCEE at a concentration of 200 ppm can be oxidized effectively in the presence of H2O2. and the effective UV wavelengths lie between 200 and 280 nm. No noticeable reduction of the oxidation rate is observed at low temperature (∼11°C). Apparent oxidation rate equations of DCEE are determined and several process design parameters are discussed.