Use of Organic Solvents to Extract Organochlorine Pesticides (OCPs) from Aged Contaminated Soils

Problems associated with organochlorine pesticide （OCP）-contaminated sites in China have received wide attention. To solve such problems, innovative ex-situ methods of site remediation are urgently needed. We investigated the feasibility of the extraction method with different organic solvents, ethanol, 1-propanol, and three fractions of petroleum ether, using a soil collected from Wujiang （W J）, China, a region with long-term contamination of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes （DDTs）. We evaluated different influential factors, including organic solvent concentration, washing time, mixing speed, solutiomto-soil ratio, and washing temperature, on the removal of DDTs from the WJ soil. A set of relatively better parameters were selected for extraction with 100 mL L-1 petroleum ether （60-90 ℃）： washing time of 180 min, mixing speed of 100 r min-I, solution-to-soil ratio of 10：1, and washing temperature of 50 ℃. These selected parameters were also applied on three other seriously OCP-polluted soils. Results demonstrated their broad-spectrum effectiveness and excellent OCP extraction performance on the contaminated soils with different characteristics.

Problems associated with organochlorine pesticide (OCP)-contaminated sites in China have received wide attention. To solve such problems, innovative ex-situ methods of site remediation are urgently needed. We investigated the feasibility of the extraction method with different organic solvents, ethanol, 1-propanol, and three fractions of petroleum ether, using a soil collected from Wujiang (WJ), China, a region with long-term contamination of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs). We evaluated different influential factors, including organic solvent concentration, washing time, mixing speed, solution-to-soil ratio, and washing temperature, on the removal of DDTs from the WJ soil. A set of relatively better parameters were selected for extraction with 100 mL L 1 petroleum ether (60-90℃): washing time of 180 min, mixing speed of 100 r min 1 , solution-to-soil ratio of 10:1, and washing temperature of 50℃. These selected parameters were also applied on three other seriously OCP-polluted soils. Results demonstrated their broad-spectrum effectiveness and excellent OCP extraction performance on the contaminated soils with different characteristics.