Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Chinese coal: occurrence and sorption mechanism

Elevated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentrations were determined in different Chinese coals, with the highest concentrations in bituminous coals. Phenanthrene (Phen) was chosen as the probe compound for PAHs to study the sorption behavior of coal. No native Phen was detected in desorption experiments indicating irreversible sorption–desorption behavior of PAHs in raw coal samples. Sorption mechanism was further studied under varying conditions of pH value and ionic strength. Different ranks of coal showed different sorption behavior under acidic, neutral, and alkaline conditions. Batch experiments were further processed for the selected coals at pH values from 3 to 11 at a constant aqueous concentration. Sorption capacities of all coals decreased with increased pH except for YJ coal. Furthermore, although DOC-associated Phen mass contributed little to the total Phen mass under different pH values, the significant negative correlations between M_DOC and log K_OC values were observed for all coal samples, indicating a significant role played by DOC in the coal sorption. In addition, sorption experiments under varying ionic strength showed that the ionic strength influence was more obvious in sorption isotherms for higher rank coals with increasing ionic strength, and this effect was most significant when ionic strength increased from 0 to 0.15 M, especially at relatively low aqueous concentrations.