Application of a compartment model to predict the sorption of organic pollutants in sediment

Compartment model was applied to predict the sorption behavior of phenanthrene and pentachlorophenol (PCP) in eight sediments. Time-dependent interaction of phenanthrene with PCP was operationally described regarding to the reversible and irreversible sediment fractions in sediment. The results showed that the sorption behaviors of both phenanthrene and PCP were similar, i.e., the reversible fraction increased rapidly in the first 10 days, then decreased after 10 days, while irreversible fraction increased during the total sorption course. However, the percentage of irreversible sorption to the total for phenanthrene was higher than that for PCP. The predicted irreversible sorption was lower than the experimental ones, because of the deviations in experiments. The extraction efficiency using methanol ranged from 36% to 103% for phenanthrene and 65% to 101% for PCP, decreased with sorption time and increased with content of organic carbon.