Hindcasting volatile chemical emissions to air from ponded recycle oil

Because of weathering, while abandoned for over a decade, the floating oil at the site of a former oil recycling operation became depleted of numerous volatile and semi-volatile constituents. The chemical record preserved in the bottom sediment Provided the key information from which operating conditions over the period 1973-1982 could be reconstructed. Chemical concentrations in the oil could be determined and coupled with an environmental chemodynamic model to quantifying chemical release rates to air. The oil contained elevated levels of naphthalene. The oil, BTX fraction, several chlorinated solvents, and two PCB Aroclors were modeled. Annual average emission rates were 4000 kg for naphthalene, 840 for TCE, 300 for benzene and 14 for A-1248. Fundamental results obtained are: a) the criteria required for using historic, bed-sediment data to reconstruct key chemical processing information at a former plant site and b) field data on volatile and semi-volatile chemical emission kinetics from deep, floating oil pools.