Pesticides belong to a chemical family that calls our attention because of
its hazardous effects in the environment. The organochlorine pesticides wer
e strongly used in the past, but their persistency and bioaccumulation make
them an actual problem. Common wastewater treatment methods, like activate
d carbon sorption, mean expensive investment and operating costs. Pine bark
is a wood industry byproduct and has a high affinity with hydrophobic comp
ounds because of its organic composition. The aim of this work is to test t
he capability of this material to remove organochlorine pesticides from wat
er solutions. This capability was quantified by studying the best operating
conditions for pine bark fixed bed mini-columns, the yield of removal from
spiked water solutions, and the saturation parameters. The yield of remova
l from spiked organochlorine water solutions ranging from 1 to 10 mu g/l, w
as 97% on average, for heptachlor, aldrin, endrin, dieldrin, DDD, DDT, and
DDE. Lindane could not be efficiently adsorbed by this methodology (38% for
yield of removal). Saturation studies, performed until 60.00 L of spiked s
olution/g of adsorbent was reached, did not reveal system rupture. When com
pared with activated carbon, pine bark displays analogous response, suggest
ing that for compounds with similar physicochemical characteristics pine ba
rk will play a significant role.