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Updated: Jul 13, 2026

Production and Measurement of Organic Particulate Matter in a Flow Tube Reactor
Published on: December 15, 2018
Behavior and stability of organic contaminant droplets in aqueous solutions
Dana Yaron-Marcovich1, Ishai Dror, Brian Berkowitz
1Department of Environmental Sciences and Energy Research, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
Abstract:
The behavior of several hydrophobic organic compounds (HOCs) in water at concentrations close to and above their maximum solubility values was studied. For this purpose, solutions of benzene, toluene, xylene, trichloroethylene (TCE) and a mixture of them were prepared in excess in freshwater and in saltwater, and solution stability was examined. High organic concentrations were found to remain stable in both freshwater and saltwater. In saltwater, for example, toluene and xylene concentrations remained as high as 14 and 26 times their solubilities, respectively, over a period of 6 days, while in freshwater, their concentrations remained 8 and 30 times their solubilities over the same period. This phenomenon is attributed to the presence of stable organic droplets, which were observed using optical microscopy. In addition, the transport of HOC droplets through sand is demonstrated, using an experimental system consisting of a saltwater source reservoir connected by a porous inactive sand layer to a freshwater collector reservoir.
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