• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.18-28
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• 2009

Both feasibility and accuracy of lumped approach to group 12 organic compounds in mixtures into a fewer number of pseudocompounds in sorption processes were evaluated using mixtures containing organic compounds with various physicochemical properties and low-surface-area mineral sorbents. The lumped approach for sorption to simulated mineral sorbents was developed by cluster analysis from statistics. Using the lumped approach, the sorption estimated from both reduced number of pseudocompounds and their sorption parameters (i.e., $K_f$, n) can approximate sorption behavior of complex organic mixtures. Additionally, the pseudocompounds for various mixtures to different types of low-surface-area mineral sorbents can be estimated a priori from the physicochemical properties of organic compound (i.e., ${\gamma_w}^{sat}$). Therefore, the lumped approach may help to simplify the complex fate and transport model of organic contaminant mixtures, reduce experimental efforts, and yet provide results that are statistically identical for practical purposes. Further research is warranted to enhance the accuracy of lumped approach using the multiple regression analysis considering the H-bonding capacity, site concentrations, functional groups for mineral sorbents.