Tribolysis : – Reaction of Aromatic Halides for Potential Dehalogenation

Abstract: Out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015, chemicals and waste management are obtainable under six. Improper and unsafe disposal of toxic chemicals into the environment affects life below water (SDG 14), human health and well-being (SDG 7), and clean water and sanitation (SDG 6). The twelfth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 12) focuses on chemical waste management to promote environmental sustainability as a specific target. Thus, in line with creating a safe environment, the last decades have seen the development of technologies and inventions for recycling and safe disposal of chemical wastes. Furthermore, there has been vast adoption of policies in countries worldwide restricting the production and use of toxic chemical wastes such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). For POPs like Polychlorinated Biphenyls, these policies play a significant role but are howbeit insufficient. The years of production and use of PCBs in the industry before adopting the policies have led to the build-up of large amounts of toxic fluids containing PCBs in storage, awaiting a safe disposal or remediation procedure. Although extensive work has been put into developing PCB remediation methods, most of this has been towards remediating contaminated soil. Therefore, this investigation is focused on a new remediation method for decomposing PCBs in toxic fluid wastes, especially from transformers. Mechanochemical processing has previously been applied for the dehalogenation of POPs. Thus, this study aimed at creating a dehalogenation chemical reaction of aromatic halides with a laboratory tribo-tester. The findings from this research provide valuable information about optimising the tribolysis process towards the development of the tribodevice under TriboREMEDY, a European Union Horizon 2020 project.