APPLICATION OF ELECTRON BEAM IRRADIATION FOR PCBs (POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS) DECHLORINATION FROM SPENT TRANSFORMER OIL

Abstract

To enable the reuse of spent transformer oil as an industrial fuel, it is necessary to remove hazardous
constituents, particularly polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a class of persistent organic pollutants
commonly used as additives. Gas chromatography analysis identified 13 out of 15 representative PCB
congeners in the tested oil sample. Treatment of the PCB-contaminated transformer oil using electron beam
irradiation demonstrated effective dechlorination of PCB compounds. Following irradiation at a dose of
150 kGy, the total chlorine content associated with PCBs was reduced by approximately 94,61%. The
dechlorination kinetics of several PCB homologs (tri-, tetra-, penta-, and hexa-chloro biphenyl) were also
investigated, indicating that homologs with varying degrees of chlorination followed distinct kinetic
pathways. These findings provided initial evidence supporting the feasibility of employing electron beam
irradiation as a viable method for the remediation of PCB-contaminated transformer oil.