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Brian Cornwell
Jason Freischlag
Longwood University
CHEM 351
Starlight Lane Tire Fire Superfund Site
Roanoke, VA
04/26/13
History
• This site has been used as a tire dump for over
40 years. There have been over 20 major fires.
The site contains roughly 5 million tires.
• According to superfund documents the site
has been run by Mr. W. Keeling whom picks up
tires from local businesses and burns them.
Background
• According to an EPA report from 2002 the site
would require 12 months of work and up to $2
million to clean up. (1)
• Site is located a quarter mile from an
elementary school, a mile from a high school,
and in the middle of neighborhoods.
Contaminants
• Some air pollutants released include SO2, CO,
toluene, styrene, and xylene.
Previous Techniques
• Carbon monoxide detectors have been
installed in nearby houses.
• Because CO is colorless, odorless, and toxic,
these detectors are important for early
detection.
Pyrolitic Oil
• Tar-like substance resulting from the burning
of tires
• Breaks down in soil into polyaromatic
hydrocarbons.
• Because these toxic polyaromatic
hydrocarbons can get into well water and
other water sources, these are the
compounds of interest (particularly
benzo(a)pyrene).
Characteristics of Benzo(a)pyrene (2)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Group 1 carcinogen
High boiling point and melting point
Non-volatile
Nonpolar
UV active
Solid
Organic
• Because of these characteristics, GC is not useful
for testing.
HPLC
• PAH can be best extracted in benzene and can be
analyzed with multiple techniques (GC, LC, mass
spec), but HPLC offers best results. (3)
• HPLC delivers quick, replicable quantitative and
qualitative results.
• This situation calls for NP-HPLC (normal phase)
because the analyte is nonpolar.
• The column should be long and thin for increased
number of theoretical plates and therefore better
resolution.
HPLC Diagram (4)
• 1) Solvent reservoirs, 2) Solvent degasser, 3) Gradient valve,
4) Mixing vessel for delivery of the mobile phase, 5) Highpressure pump, 6) Switching valve in "inject position", 6')
Switching valve in "load position", 7) Sample injection loop,
8) Pre-column (guard column), 9) Analytical column, 10)
Photodiode Array Detector (UV), 11) Data acquisition, 12)
Waste
Sample Preparation (5)
• Soil samples are dissolved in
benzene and solid phase
microextraction (SPME) is
used to remove analyte from
soil matrix.
• Benzene is an excellent
solvent because it is cheap,
nonpolar, and stable.
Detector
• Photodiode Array (PDA) is an ideal detector for
this situation because it is selective for analytes in
the UV range, is cheap, and the most common
detector for HPLC.
• The ideal wavelength to detect Benzo(a)pyrene is
254 nm, but at 295 nm, the interference peak is
decreased, giving better quantitative results.
• With this in mind, a D2 arc lamp or Xe arc lamp
would be an ideal source because of their
wavelength range (190-400 nm and 140-2,000
nm, respectively.)
Conclusion
• This technique offers quantitative results based
on the area under the peaks.
• It offers qualitative results based on standards
that are run under exact conditions.
• HPLC is a perfect technique to analyze this site
because of its sensitivity. The PAH is not found in
nature so any amounts of it are harmful.
• There are documented results of this technique
working with similar sites and all components of
the HPLC are standard practice.
References
• 1. United States Environmental Protection Agency.
"Approval of a Request for Funds for a Removal Action
at Starlight Lane Tire Fire Site." (2002): 1-12. Print.
• 2. Buha, Aleksandra. "Polycyclic Aromatic
Hydrocarbons." Toxipedia.org. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Polycyclic
Aromatic Hydrocarbons. 09 May 2011. Web. 26 Apr.
2013.
<http://toxipedia.org/display/toxipedia/Polycyclic%20
Aromatic%20Hydrocarbons>.
• 3. Khopar, S.M. Environmental Pollution: monitoring
and control. New Delhi: New Age International (P) Ltd,
2004. pg 179 Print.
References (cont’d)
• 4) "File: HPLC Apparatus.svg." Wikipedia.
Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Jan. 2009. Web. 26
Apr. 2013.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HPLC_apparat
us.svg>.
• 5) Vas, György, and Károly Vékey. "Solid-phase
Microextraction: A Powerful Sample Preparation
Tool Prior to Mass Spectrometric Analysis."
Journal of Mass Spectrometry 39.3 (2004): 23354