Wide-range and accurate modeling of linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS) adsorption/desorption on agricultural soil.

In this paper, rigorous data and adequate models about linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS) adsorption/desorption on agricultural soil are presented, contributing with a substantial improvement over available adsorption works. The kinetics of the adsorption/desorption phenomenon and the adsorption/desorption equilibrium isotherms were determined through batch studies for total LAS amount and also for each homologue series: C10, C11, C12 and C13. The proposed multiple pseudo-first order kinetic model provides the best fit to the kinetic data, indicating the presence of two adsorption/desorption processes in the general phenomenon. Equilibrium adsorption and desorption data have been properly fitted by a model consisting of a Langmuir plus quadratic term, which provides a good integrated description of the experimental data over a wide range of concentrations. At low concentrations, the Langmuir term explains the adsorption of LAS on soil sites which are highly selective of the n-alkyl groups and cover a very small fraction of the soil surface area, whereas the quadratic term describes adsorption on the much larger part of the soil surface and on LAS retained at moderate to high concentrations. Since adsorption/desorption phenomenon plays a major role in the LAS behavior in soils, relevant conclusions can be drawn from the obtained results.

Evaluation of Linear Alkylbenzene Sulfonate (LAS) behaviour in agricultural soil through laboratory continuous studies.

The behaviour of Linear Alkylbenzene Sulfonate (LAS) in agricultural soil is investigated in the laboratory using continuous-flow soil column studies in order to simultaneously analyze the three main underlying phenomena (adsorption/desorption, degradation and transport). The continuous-flow soil column experiments generated the breakthrough curves for each LAS homologue, C10, C11, C12 and C13, and by adding them up, for total LAS, from which the relevant retention, degradation and transport parameters could be estimated, after proposing adequate models. Several transport equations were considered, including the degradation of the sorbate in solution and its retention by soil, under equilibrium and non-equilibrium conditions between the sorbent and the sorbate. In general, the results obtained for the estimates of those parameters that were common to the various models studied (such as the isotherm slope, first order degradation rate coefficient and the hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient) were rather consistent, meaning that mass transfer limitations are not playing a major role in the experiments. These three parameters increase with the length of the LAS homologue chain. The study will provide the underlying conceptual framework and fundamental parameters to understand, simulate and predict the environmental behaviour of LAS compounds in agricultural soils.