Grantee Research Project Results

2018 Progress Report: Beneficial reuse of PCBs (poly-chlorinated biphenyls) as new materials through a low cost process

EPA Grant Number: SV839354
Title: Beneficial reuse of PCBs (poly-chlorinated biphenyls) as new materials through a low cost process
Investigators: Lu, Mingming , Khopade, Akshay , Xu, Juan , Zhou, Keiyi , Novak, Maria , Omoyosi, Kolawole , Gooch, Jasmine , Dinh, Tien
Current Investigators: Lu, Mingming
Institution: University of Cincinnati
EPA Project Officer: Page, Angela
Phase: II
Project Period: March 1, 2018 through February 29, 2020 (Extended to February 28, 2021)
Project Period Covered by this Report: March 1, 2018 through February 28,2019
Project Amount: $74,958
RFA: P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity and the Planet - Phase 2 (2017) Recipients Lists
Research Category: P3 Awards , P3 Challenge Area - Chemical Safety , Sustainable and Healthy Communities

Objective:

The goal of this research is to validate in laboratory a low-cost technology for PCB decontamination. This technology is promising, as it can be carried out with high dechlorination rates at atmospheric conditions and does not require high temperatures (below 80C). The objective remains unchanged. The Phase II project will continue the Phase I effort in evaluating a low-cost technology for the reduction of select PCB congeners. Phase I tested the feasibility of catalytic hydrodechlorination by converting two simple PCBs compounds, 3 chloronbiphenyl (3-PCB) and 2,3-dichloronbiphenyl (2,3-PCB), into nonchlorine containing chemicals. In Phase II, the team plans test with more complex PCBs compounds as the research aim, and the other aim is student mentoring, education and outreach.

Progress Summary:

The progress of proposed tasks are evaluated as follows.

Task 1, Student recruitment, team update, and safety and sustainability training (2 months). Since the grant was funded in March, it was already half way of the Spring semester. The recruitment was slow in the summer, as graduate students generally come in the fall. Maria only worked for part time, while taking courses. We recruited an excellent minority student Kolawole in the fall of 2018. After that, we were able to recruit and train students without problems. In Spring 2019, a graduate student, Juan Xu, was recruited. She will work on this project as her MS thesis, to be finished by summer 2020. Tien Dinh and Jasmine were recruited for summer 2019, and Keiyi in Fall 2019, all working with Juan. We hope to continue recruit students for Spring 2020. Up to now, 7 students have worked on this project, out of which 5 are female and 2 are minority (Jasmine and Kolawole).

Task 2 Hydrodecholorination of PCBs with increased chlorine contents than 2,3-PCB. (9 months)

Wole helped finish up phase I work as part of his training, created documentation for many how-tos in the lab, and also reviewed EPA/NIH study of “PCBs in Schools”, to identify the next PCBs to study. We carefully selected a representative PCB compound with three chlorines, 2,4,4’trichlorobiphenyl (2,4,4’-PCB, or PCB 28 based on the congener list). Dr. Y Zhou, a visiting scholar from Beijing Jiaotong University, also helped with compound selection. This compound is a great selection. It is one (out of 6) of the WHO-indicator congers, as well as a PCB indicator by the Stockholm Convention. It’s found in high qualities in schools, houses, in the environment (sediment), in food, or in human fluids/tissues. Juan and her team tested PCB 28, which breaks down by 90% in about 6 hours. We noted intermediate PCB products formed and then dechlorinated. This task is almost done, just waiting for analysis and may be a few repeats.

Task 3 Interim result summary and reporting (1 month). A project status report to EPA will be submitted. Completed.

Task 4 Hydrodecholorination of Aroclor compounds, at different concentrations.

Effecting parameters will also be investigated. (9 months)

Literature on Aroclor selection is being conducted now, and we also started to contact the vendor for costs. This task is on-going.

Future Activities:

The project is almost on schedule, while the delay is mainly on the limitations of student recruiting. We’ve developed standardized procedure to do experiments and analysis, which will be more streamlined later on. Next step: We will continue to work on Task 4, and select the right PCB compounds for tests.

Journal Articles:

No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 4 publications for this project

Supplemental Keywords:

PCBs, hydrodechlorination

Progress and Final Reports:

Original Abstract

2019 Progress Report

Final Report

P3 Phase I:

Beneficial Reuse of PCBs  | 2017 Progress Report  | Final Report