Sorption characteristics of ethyl <Emphasis Type="Italic">tert</Emphasis>-butyl ether to Chinese reference soils

As a gasoline additive, ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE) has great market potential and its utilization might cause groundwater contamination problem. However, little research has been done on its sorption in soil. In this study, the sorption characteristics of ETBE to Chinese reference soils were studied in batch experiments. The results showed that the ETBE sorption to six soils can be described by linear sorption isotherm. The temperature influences the sorption process of ETBE to soils. The negative sorption enthalpy (ΔH < 0) indicated that the sorption process was exothermic. Furthermore, ΔH is in a range from −8 to −32 kJ/mol. This showed that van der Waals forces and other specific interactions happened simultaneously in the sorption process. With the increasing ionic strength, content of ETBE sorption to all soils decreased, which is probably also an indication of other sorption mechanisms besides ETBE partitioning into soil organic carbon.