ADSORPTION CHARACTERISTICS OF TRICHLOROETHENE ON POLYMERIC RESINS

Polymeric resins successfully adsorb trichloroethene (TCE) and other small halogenated hydrocarbons from contaminated groundwater. This comparative study investigates the uptake of TCE from water samples for three different commercially available polymeric adsorbents: Ambersorb 563, Dowex L493, and Dowex L503. Initial experiments indicate that all three resins have about the same adsorption coefficient for TCE, approximately 1590 mg/kg. However, the rate of adsorption is different, with Dowex L493 being almost twice as fast as Ambersorb 563 and Dowex L503 in the first 20 seconds of exposure. All three resins show equal levels of stability with less than a 2% variation in adsorbance when subjected to regeneration under laboratory conditions which involved exposing the resins to 24 1-hour cycles in an autoclave set at 280 ^oF at 35 psi.