Gamma radiation process for destruction of toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (Pcbs) in transformer oils

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are synthetic organic chemicals commercially used worldwide in many applications. PCBs were used in oils because of their excellent properties such as good thermal stability, flame resistance, dielectric constant, high break down voltage, high boiling point and low volatility. However, because of their adverse affects on environment and human health, the use of PCBs has been banned now. PCBs are today considered among the widespread pollutants in the global system. PCBs sources still exist in various industrial products and in waste streams such as capacitor oils, lubricating oils, transformer oils, hydraulic oils, paints, rubbers, cables, etc. Several such materials containing PCBs emanating from various sources need to be detoxified before their reuse or before going to landfill for final disposal. Various remedial technologies have been developed in the world to destroy toxic PCBs. The radiolysis has been investigated as an environment-friendly process for waste oil treatment contaminated with PCBs, which may be a better alternative to the globally most widely accepted incineration method. A study was undertaken to detoxify PCBs in transformer oil by gamma radiation using Cobalt 60 source. Analysis of PCBs in transformer oils before and after radiation was carried out by GC-MS instrument. The effect of radiation dose and destruction of PCBs in transformer oils are discussed in details in the present paper. The method used was found to be highly effective and destruction was as high as 79 %. Further, the transformer oil samples were also evaluated before and after radiation to check their quality. The properties of oils were not significantly altered by gamma radiation treatment as evident from the results given in the paper.