Development of On-line Rapid Analysis Technology for Polychlorinated Biphenyls and Social Implementation into Detoxification Plant

Abstract

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a group of industrial chemicals with excellent electrical insulation and chemical stability and have been used in various fields. However, PCBs were found to have toxic properties and were identified as a kind of persistent organic pollutant (POP). A movement to eliminate its use began in the early 2000s. In this study, to determine the conditions necessary for the practical application of the PCB rapid analysis method, various analytical characteristics were evaluated, and PCB rapid analysis methods showing unique and excellent characteristics were proposed by applying chromatography from the analytical chemistry approach. As a rapid analysis method for PCBs in organic washing solvents, a method for efficiently separating PCBs from other insulating oil components was proposed, and as a rapid analysis method for PCBs in wastewater, an efficient concentration method for extremely trace amounts of PCBs was proposed, focusing on an on-line solid-phase adsorption method. It was demonstrated that the proposed system could exhibit high sensitivity and rapid PCB analysis technology allowing for an analysis time of two hours, lower measurement limit of less than 0.1 mg kg⁻¹ and 0.5 μg L⁻¹, respectively, and a variation coefficient of less than 5 %. Thus, it can be concluded that this rapid PCB analysis technology has not only good correlativity (R² > 0.98) with the standard analysis method but also high durability and can be fully applied to actual PCB-treatment plants. By implementing the proposed technology for monitoring the PCB treatment system, it is considered that safe and secure detoxification treatment of PCBs was supported for about 17 years from 2005, and it contributed to solve the environmental problem of PCBs.