[Applicability of an electronic nose for detection of volatile chlorinated hydrocarbons in soil]

An electronic nose principally composed of a photo ionization detector (PID) was developed for rapid detection of volatile chlorinated hydrocarbons (VCHs) in contaminated soil. Removal of interference gas such as benzene homologues with a pre-filtration tube was analyzed with gas chromatography (GC). A standard gas generator was applied to generate different concentrations of perchloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE) gas, with which the determine precision and reproducibility of the electronic nose were evaluated by comparison with GC. Finally, simulated contamination soil with three typical paddy soils in Yangtze river delta region were used for ventilation purification experiments, the change of VCHs concentrations in the ventilation gas was monitored, based on which the applicability of the electronic nose was evaluated for on-line detection of the on-going of the ventilation purification process. Results showed that a halogenated hydrocarbon RAE-SEP tube was effective to remove interference gas, with 80%-97% of benzene homologues such as benzene and ethyl benzene being removed while more than 90% of VCHs passed through. With PCE or TCE gas, a linear dependence was derived between the data determined with the electronic nose and GC, the linear slope being 1.012 and R2 > 0.99. The electronic nose showed data consistent with GC (R2 > 0.99, n = 47) when applied for monitoring the remediation progress in a soil ventilation process. The electronic nose is therefore possibly applicable for rapid determination of soil pollution by VCHs, improving the efficiency of pollution diagnosis and remediation.