Resumo

FINOTTI, Alexandra Rodrigues et al. Evaluation of the ethanol influence over the volatilization grade of BTEX in soil impacted by gasoline/ethanol spills. Eng. Sanit. Ambient. [online]. 2009, vol.14, n.4, pp. 443-448. ISSN 1413-4152.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1413-41522009000400003.

The main objective of this paper was the quantitative evaluation of the ethanol's influence about the volatilization of BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes) in a mixture of gasoline and anhydrous ethanol 25% (v/v) in experimental columns that simulated soil contamination with gasoline/ethanol. All the BTEX presented expressive increase of volatilization rates in the gasoline-ethanol column. However, in terms of percentage, the highest and lowest volatilization grades were observed for toluene and benzene, respectively. In batch tests (control samples), with mixtures of gasoline ethanol with 0 and 25% (v/v) in ethanol, no increase of the volatilization grade was observed for ethylbenzene and the volatilization grade for xylenes was reduced. Matrix effects seem to be, besides the intermolecular interaction forces, important contributions for the volatilization grade of BTEX in this kind of sample.

Palavras-chave : ethanol; BTEX; chromatography; GC [FID]; volatilization; soil contamination.