Abstract
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are harmful substances for which complete treatment inside Japan is mandated by 2016. For this study, we conducted PCB elution experiments using a high-concentration PCB contaminated capacitor and a high-voltage transformer. Simultaneously, we conducted dechlorination using a microwave-assisted catalytic reaction. The diffusion equation for PCBs in the internal core and the reaction rate equations of the dechlorination reaction for eluted PCBs were solved. Results show that this method can explain, quantitatively, the time change of PCB concentrations measured in these experiments. The calculated concentrations of PCBs accorded well with the measured values for indoor capacitor detoxification tests. Therefore, this simulation is regarded as effective for PCB concentration prediction. However, if the reaction rate constants were not changed for all reaction time zones, then the calculated values did not accord with the measured value in the case of the high-voltage transformer detoxification storehouse test, in which the IPA solution temperature was affected by outside air. The decrease in the reaction rate caused by insufficient KOH resulting from the lower solubility in the lower temperature, and other reasons were regarded as reasons for the disagreement.
