A study on the materials of smart barrier for selectively blocked TCE and TPH

Abstract

Many barrier materials are used around industries, construction areas, livestock dump sites, waste landfills, and underground oil storage tanks. In the case of barriers, even if there is no inflow of contaminants, they do not provide selective permeability, develop water barrier properties, and hinder groundwater flow when contaminants encounter groundwater. Recently, contaminated sites that are difficult to resolve with current purification technologies continue to emerge. Pollutants flow into groundwater through the advection and diffusion by leaking. The pollutants introduced in this way cause pollution to the surrounding environment, and various types of severe underground environmental pollution problems occur depending on the type of pollutants leaked. Therefore, using a material that has the property of adsorbing organic contaminants and gelling them is harmless to the environment by penetrating groundwater under normal conditions. It has the property of selectively adsorbing the pollutant and gelling it upon contact with it underground. Therefore, the authors aim to study the applicability of polynorbornene and polyolefin as components of smart barrier materials that make barrier materials impermeable through the adsorption of pollutants, swelling, and coagulation behavior in this study. The components of smart barrier materials include Ottawa sand, organo-bentonite, polynorbornene, and polyolefin. Polynorbornene and polyolefin adsorb only organic pollutants selectively. Before applying polynorbornene and polyolefin to the barrier material, TCLP was performed to evaluate environmental hazards. As a result of heavy metal analysis, it was determined that there was no environmental hazard. The pH results are 7.27 for polynorbornene and 7.31 for polyolefin, indicating that both materials are slightly alkaline. In addition, as a result of testing with TCE (stock solution) and TPH (diesel crude oil) to confirm the swelling effect when in contact with organic pollutants, the efficiency of pollutant adsorption and swelling was found to be high when the ratio of polynorbornene: polyolefin = 6:4. Therefore, when using the material used in this study, it is expected that it can be applied as a component of a smart barrier material that selectively blocks pollutants.