• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.37-44
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• 2003

Fuel oxygenates, such as Methyl tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) is additive in gasoline used to reduce air pollution. Gasoline components and fuel additives can leak: form underground storage tanks. MTBE is far more water soluble than gasoline hydrocarbons like BTEX then it travels at essentially the same velocity as groundwater. MTBE in drinking water causes taste and odor problems. Therefore, the purpose of the this study is to examine the ability of ground tire to sorb MTBE in water. The study consisted of running both batch and column tests to determine the sorption capacity, the required sorption equilibration time, and the flow through utilization efficiency of ground tire. The batch test result indicated that ground tire can attain equilibrium sorption capacities about 0.5 mg of MTBE. The result of column test indicate that ground tire has on the 36% utilization rate. Finally, it is clear that ground tire represented an attractive and relatively inexpensive sorption medium for a MTBE. Authors thought that to determine the economic costs of ground tire utilization, the cost to sorb a given mass of contaminant by ground tire will have to be compared to currently accepted sorption media. The cost comparison will also have to include regeneration and disposal cost.