Interactions between dissolved petroleum hydrocarbons and pure and humic acid-coated mineral surfaces in artificial seawater

The adsorption of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) on suspended particles in the marine environment is an important process affecting the fate of oils spilled in the ocean. Adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherms of the water-soluble fraction of Fuel Oil No. 6 were performed on pure and humic acid-modified montmorillonite, alumina and kaolinite. The rates of adsorption on all sorbents are very fast and a pseudo-equilibrium is reached within 0.5 h. Linear adsorption isotherms were obtained for TPH and individual aromatic hydrocarbons on all sorbents. Higher sorption coefficients (Kd) were obtained for the humic acid-coated clays compared to the pure clays. However, a great contribution of mineral surface to overall adsorption was found on humic acid-modified particles in this study. A linear relationship between the log K and log Kow was also found for individual compounds on both pure alumina (log Km) and humic acid-coated alumina (log Koc).