(58i) Recycling of Expanded Polystyrene to Remove Organic Pollutants from Water

The alternative water remediation technology has received considerable attention in recent years, environmental and economic concerns about plastic waste problem have originated much interest as well. Polymers cause a serious problem because they are not usually biodegradable and they contribute to others source of pollution. This work presents the use of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) already used to obtain an adsorbent material which can be able to remove some organic pollutants from water such explosives and organic persistent pollutants (POPs). The experiments carried out were focused in characterization and modification of EPS as adsorbent. Analysis using EPS to remove TNT from water were done as well. The experiments performed in this study have shown physical and chemical modifications of polystyrene foam or EPS. Films, spheres and powder were obtained after those modifications. They were also characterized using TGA, Raman Spectroscopy, and Scanning electron microscopy. In addition analysis of surface area and pore size distribution were performed with the raw and modified material. Each EPS modification was tasted to remove Trinitrotoluene (TNT) from water. A High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) was used to determinate the TNT amount adsorbed for this new material. The result showed that powder obtained from EPS adsorbed TNT more than the other modification.