Removal of Organic Pollutants from Soil: The Ozonation of Clofibric Acid in Aqueous Slurries

Ozonation is particularly suited for the treatment of recalcitrant soil contaminants. Clofibric acid, an active metabolite of some blood lipid regulators, was used as a model organic contaminant, and quartzite as a model soil. The measurements performed at different pHs, both in slurries of contaminated soil and in clofibric acid aqueous solutions, indicate that a markedly higher TOC removal can be obtained in the slurry mode. Ozonation kinetics in aqueous slurries was also studied in a well-mixed reactor. Suitable mathematical models were used to describe the experiments and to estimate the best values of the unknown parameters.