Control of Cyclohexane Atmospheric Emissions During Soil Remediation

Gaseous effluent from the treatment of contaminated soils must becontrolled to avoid atmospheric emissions of volatile organiccompounds during remediation. The combination of carbonadsorption with catalytic deep oxidation for control ofcyclohexane emissions is analysed in this paper. The activitiesof activated carbons prepared with almond shells and impregnatedwith CoO, Co₃O₄ and CrO₃ were compared, inrelation with carbon structure, catalyst content and catalystspecies. The microcatalytic-chromatographic technique developedwas very suitable for rapid comparison of the catalyticactivities. Carbons with a better development of surface areaand pore volumes showed higher catalytic activities. Theincreasing of catalyst content also increased catalyticactivity. Cobalt is better than chromium to catalyse the deepoxidation of cyclohexane, the oxidation state of cobalt inCo₃O₄ being better than in CoO.