Emissions to the environment of brominated and organophosphate flame retardants in the waste streams

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Ali Sakaroun, Salim (2019). Emissions to the environment of brominated and organophosphate flame retardants in the waste streams. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), “novel” brominated flame retardants (NBFRs) and organophospate flame retardants (PFRs) are industrial chemicals widely used in consumer products to enhance their ignition resistance. The toxicity of some BFRs has led to concern about human exposure. The work carried out for this PhD thesis, focuses on brominated and organophospate flame retardants (FRs) emissions to the environment in the waste streams. It divided into 2 parts. First part was about taken the field measurements of the brominated FRs (BFRs) contaminants in the air and soil surrounded vicinity of six Oman landfills. The second part was about examining the potential for emissions of FRs from an end-of-life polyurethane furniture foams (PUF) via leaching experiments.

The analyses of samples in this study were performed according to the methodology and QA/QC procedures in the chapter (2). Therefore, a substantial amount of PBDEs were found emitted into the environment from landfills in high concentrations in comparison to non-landfilled areas. The percent ratio of BDE-209 in ∑PBDEs for all sampling locations in this study was particularly high as well as same of some percentages of other places in worldwide. Furthermore, PBDEs affected by different periodical variation trends. These were possibly mainly because the various types of PBDEs emitted from different varieties of BFR-containing waste and also were affected by various landfilling processes. The concentrations of ΣPBDEs in air samples in the vicinity of Oman landfills ranged from 176.38 - 1803.13 pg m\(^{-3}\). Also, the concentrations of ΣPBDEs in soil ranged from 65 - 252 ng g\(^{-1}\) in Am landfill (mean 146 ng g\(^{-1}\)) and from 25 to 158 ng g\(^{-1}\) in Ra landfill (mean 91 ng g\(^{-1}\)). The average of other landfills was 199, 234, 246, and 174 ng g\(^{-1}\) for Ni, Ib, So, and Bu landfills, respectively. The ∑NBFR concentrations are lesser than that for PBDEs. They ranged in this study from 11 - 163 pg m\(^{-3}\) and from 4.5 - 13 pg m\(^{-3}\) at the vicinity of Oman landfills and reference sites, respectively. They ranged too from 20.5 – 47 ng g\(^{-1}\) and from nd – 1.29 ng g\(^{-1}\) in soil surrounded the landfills in Oman, respectiveley.

The leaching experiments of the FRs that were investigated in this study under the effect of a range of landfill relevant leaching fluids and parameters. The leaching concentrations of FRs from PUF wastes were determined. Thus, the most significant findings of these experiments are that large concentrations of FRs can be created in leachate from PUF wastes in spite of their physicochemical properties like comparatively excessive hydrophobicity and moderately little water solubility.

The levels for the ƩPBDEs in these experiments were ranged from 1389 - 975325 µg L\(^{-1}\), BEH-TEBP were ranged from 215 - 107800 µg L\(^{-1}\), EH-TBB were ranged from 75 – 37730 µg L\(^{-1}\), TCIPP was were covered from 6639 - 353326 µg L\(^{-1}\) and TPhP was range from 598 - 85608 µg L\(^{-1}\). The ƩPBDEs concentrations are higher than the results of leaching experiments that prepared by Stubbings (2015) of ƩPBDEs in CRT plastics (ranged from 14000 – 200000 ng L\(^{-1}\)) but were comparable to a high of his study of TCIPP leaching fluids (13 - 130 mg L\(^{-1}\)). Henceforth, The NBFRs and TPhP were studied for the first time in this study.

The leaching experiments consisted of sequences of standardized trials that were accomplished to examine of FR leaching out from a flame retarded PUF waste, containing PUF samples from USA and UK. The leaching examinations were performed by using a range of leaching solutions, with the viewpoint of emulating of the features of actual landfill leachates. A four number of diverse analysis factors were inspected, for instance as variety of dissolved humic matter (DHM) densities, the pHs of 5.8, 6.5 and 8.5 which is relevant of landfill leachate, landfill proper temperatures, the effect of agitation, contact periods and measured the mass to leachate ratio. It is evident from these tests that even with the comparatively hydrophobic physicochemical properties of BFRs, they are capable of leaching out from waste materials at considerable concentrations.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):