Analysis of Chemical Kinetics Data from Dilute, Dispersed, Well‐mixed Flow‐through Systems

Flow‐through techniques for studying chemical kinetics in soils are gaining acceptance. Of these techniques, those resulting in dilute, dispersed, well‐mixed suspensions minimize the hydrologic control on effluent concentration. The increased understanding of chemical kinetics gained by minimizing hydrologic control can be lost by improper data analysis. The following research was performed to develop a procedure for analyzing the kinetics of chemical retention by soil in a dilute, dispersed well‐mixed flow‐through system. The results of the research demonstrate that data analysis must account for the mass of unreacted chemical in the reactor. Failure to do so results in systematic underestimation of rate coefficients. Data analysis based on measured effluent concentration, rather than on secondarily calculated chemical retained, is more versatile and minimizes propagation of errors.