ELECTRON-BEAM DEGRADATION OF CHLORINATED HYDROCARBONS IN AIR

Using a low-energy electron accelerator (180 keV, 3 kW) synthetic air polluted with chlorinated hydrocarbons such as cis-dichloro-, trichloro- and perchloroethene was irradiated in a flow system. Already at doses of 2.5 kGy, more than 90 vol% of the initial pollutant concentration (2 - 50 ppm) could be removed. As main products HCl, CO, chloromethanes, chloroacetyl chlorides and phosgene were identified. After hydrolysis of phosgene and chloroacteyl chlorides in a wet scrubbing system, the chlorine balance shows nearly complete mineralization of the pollutants to HCl, CO and CO2. Less than 5 vol% of chloromethanes and about 0.1 vol% chloroacetic acids were detected after irradiation and hydrolysis. An attempt is made to describe the degradation mechanism as OH radical induced chain reaction. The OH radical adds to the ethene double bond. The resulting adduct releases a chlorine radical. In presence of oxygen a chain reaction is initiated by this radical, which leads to decomposition of the chloroethenes.