Isolation of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons from sewage sludges using the extraction method

Determination of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH-s) in sewage sludges is necessary before utilizing the sludges in agriculture, especially in industrial regions. Separation of PAHs has been the most difficult step of analysis. In this work, PAHs were separated by extraction. The best extraction solvents were chosen after reviewing literature. A new method of determining the partition coefficient has been proposed and applied to check if the chosen solvents were good enough for the present purposes. The results have shown that in the case of methanol and dimethylfor- mamide, extraction was nearly complete but the problems of finding a better solvent and mixing the solvents remained.