Journal of Microwave Power and Electromagnetic Energy (JMPEE)
TITLE	Microwave Treatment of Hazardous Wastes: Remediation of Soils Contaminated by Non-Volatile Organic Chemicals Like Dioxins [PDF]
AUTHORS	N. Zhu, L. Dauerman, H. Gu and G. Windgasse 1992 27 1 54-61
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Abstract Dioxins are a class of organic chemicals which are insoluble, non-volatile, chemically and physically non-reactive. Studies have been carried out on a surrogate, namely 9,10-anthraquinone (anthraquinone), because it has similar chemical and physical properties but it is not toxic. It was found in microwave treatment studies that, at temperatures attainable in-situ, anthraquinone did not volatilize or diffuse but did become non-extractable. A model was then proposed which postulated that as water was removed from soil aggregates, anthrquinone absorbed directly on the humus and clay fractions, and then reacted chemically. This led to spectroscopic studies to determine directly whether or not anthraquinone did undergo a chemical reaction. Those studies were carried out using DRIFT (diffuse reflectance Fourier transform spectroscopy). Band shifts indicative of possible chemical reactions were found after microwave treatment of anthraquinone adsorbed on humus and kaolin clay, respectively. Key Words: Dioxins, Hazardous wastes, Microwave, DRIFT, Contaminated soil, Remediation, Industrial waste.