Sorption of phenanthrene (PHE) and pyrene (PYR) in several sorbents, i.e., natural soil, BionSoil^®, Pahokee peat, vermicompost and Devonian Ohio Shale and a surfactant (hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium chloride)-modified montmorillonite (HDTMA-M) were investigated. Pyrene exhibited higher sorption tendency than phenanthrene, as predicted by its higher octanol to water partition coefficient (K_ow). Several sorption models: linear, Freundlich, solubility-normalized Freundlich model, and Polanyi-Manes model (PMM) were used to analyze sorption isotherms. Linear isotherms were observed for natural soil, BionSoil^®, Pahokee peat, vermicompost, while nonlinear Freundlich isotherms fitted for Ohio shale and HDTMA-M. The relationship between sorption model parameters, organic carbon content ( f_oc), and elemental C/N ratio was studied. In the binary competitive sorption of phenanthrene and pyrene in natural soil, competition between the solutes caused reduction in the sorption of each solute compared with that in the single-solute system. The ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST) coupled with the single-solute Freundlich model was not successful in describing the binary competitive sorption equilibria. This was due to the inherent nature of linear sorption of phenanthrene and pyrene in natural soil. The result indicates that the applicability of IAST for the prediction of binary competitive sorption is limited when the sorption isotherms are inherently linear.

Keywords: Competition, Phenanthrene, Pyrene, Sorption, Sorbent