Abstract
Over 70 wood chemical plants operated in northern Pennsylvania between ca. 1890 and 1950, all located within 72 km of the New York state border. Their original purpose was to salvage the small unwanted hardwood trees left behind by the lumber mills, and to make charcoal, calcium acetate and methanol for a number of industrial uses via destructive distillation. At many old wood chemical plant sites, unknown quantities of wood tar remain as a residual contaminant and pose a pollution threat to aquatic life in nearby streams. Research on the composition and properties of residual wood tars from five abandoned industrial sites in Pennsylvania are described. Weathered wood tars were more viscous and contained fewer volatile and semivolatile organic compounds than did soil-buried tars. Phenol, 2-methylphenol (o-cresol), 4-methylphenol (p-cresol), and 2, 4-dimethylphenol were found in all sampled tars. These water-soluble phenolic compounds were released quasi-instantaneously in aqueous solution, followed by a slower rate of release, consistent with the behavior of similar compounds in other dense non-aqueous liquids. Air-exposed wood tar deposits developed a hard crust, which contained fewer volatiles and semivolatiles and had a higher softening point than other samples. These tars eroded to form a powdered soil colonized by lichens and mosses. Residual wood tar material found at one site was shown to be thermally altered, likely during the historical destruction of the chemical plant by fire. Recovered wood tar wastes have a relatively high heating value and may have use as a potential, but limited, alternate energy source.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Debbie Burse (NETL) for her excellent technical assistance in the laboratory and Emmett Rafferty for assistance with map production. Thanks to Katie Maley and Mary Puterbaugh Mulcahy (University of Pittsburgh – Bradford) for assistance with sample collection in the field. We thank the property owners of the abandoned wood chemical plant sites for giving us permission to access and sample the five locations.
Severn Trent Laboratories, Pittsburgh, PA, performed the GC/MS analysis of volatile and semivolatile organic compounds in wood tars and aqueous solutions. The University of Kentucky’s Center for Applied Energy Research, Lexington, KY carried out the proximate and ultimate analyses of wood tars. GrafTech International Ltd., Parma, OH, determined the quinoline-insoluble fractions and softening points.
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Edenborn, H.M., Severson, D. Characterization of Waste Tar Associated with Abandoned Wood Chemical Plant Sites in Northwest Pennsylvania, USA. Water Air Soil Pollut 183, 331–340 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-007-9382-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-007-9382-4