Review of the environmental behavior and fate of methyl tert‐butyl ether

A review of pertinent equations and current research indicates that when gasoline oxygenated with methyl tert‐butyl ether (MTBE) comes into contact with water, large amounts of MTBE can dissolve. At 25°C, the water solubility of MTBE is about 5,000 mg/L for a gasoline that is 10% MTBE by weight, whereas for a nonoxygenated gasoline, the total hydrocarbon solubility in water is typically about 120 mg/L. Methyl tert‐butyl ether sorbs only weakly to subsurface solids; therefore, sorption does not substantially retard the transport of MTBE by ground water. In addition, MTBE generally resists biodegradation in ground water. The half‐life of MTBE in the atmosphere can be as short as 3 d in a regional airshed. In the air, MTBE tends to partition into atmospheric water, including precipitation. However, the washing out of gas‐phase MTBE by precipitation will not, by itself, greatly alter the gas‐phase concentration of the compound in the air. The partitioning of MTBE to precipitation can nevertheless result in concentrations as high as 3 μg/L or more in urban precipitation and can contribute to the presence of MTBE in surface and ground water.

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