Organochlorine pesticides removal by pinus bark sorption

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.