PFI-TT: Development of a New Technology for Removing Perchlorate from Water

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project will address one of the key societal issues of potable water. Perchlorate is highly toxic and is present in contaminated groundwater of at least 75 known sites nationwide due to past manufacture of propellants, explosives, and fertilizers.

This project seeks to develop a promising new technology for removing the perchlorate from water. Scale-up work is needed in order to treat large volumes of contaminated underground water. The materials are sustainable and the technology limits will be determined with regard to treating large volumes of groundwater pumped from the extraction wells.

The commercial impact could be significant, saving companies and state governments the expense of the single-use resins currently in use for removal of perchlorate from water. The determination of the limits of the materials will confirm the cost-effectiveness of the technology for cleaning bodies of water polluted by this toxic compound. The researchers involved in the project will gain practical knowledge of regulated water treatment in an end-user environment.

The undergraduate students from two NSF summer research programs(NSF REU and NIH ACCESS) will continue to participate in the project.

The proposed project will continue to develop a perchlorate removal technology, which began with model solutions and progressed to actual contaminated underground water from an industrial site. With small volumes (50 to 500 mL) at a time, the prototype cationic materials the team has developed release environmentally-friendly species upon uptake of the perchlorate in record speed, amount and selectivity over other species in the water such as chloride.

In addition, the team can reuse the material by driving the perchlorate back out with excess of the original species, giving a highly concentrated waste form for disposal (but more likely reuse as perchlorate source for industry). The team will set up a flow column where the water is pumped or cycled through/past the ion exchange material. Once optimized in the lab, larger volumes will be pilot tested directly at the industrial extraction wells.

The treated water will be probed by a suite of instrumentation available in the lab. The goal is to establish a low-cost treatment for entire bodies of contaminated underground water at polluted industrial sites.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.