HR: 1340h
AN: H33E-1678    [Abstracts]
TI: Highly-selective and Regenerable Ion Exchange for Perchlorate Remediation, Recovery, and Environmental Forensics
AU: * Gu, B
EM: gub1@ornl.gov
AF: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P. O. Box 2008, MS-6036, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, United States
AU: Brown, G
EM: browngm@ornl.gov
AB: Perchlorate (ClO4-) has recently emerged as a widespread contaminant found in drinking water and groundwater supplies in the United States and is known to disrupt thyroid function by inhibiting iodide uptake. Among various treatment technologies, the highly-selective and regenerable ion-exchange technology has recently been developed at ORNL for removing ClO4- from contaminated water. The selective ion exchange technology relies on a unique, highly specific resin to trap ClO4- from contaminated water. The treatment system is then regenerated and perchlorate is destroyed. The reaction that destroys ClO4- produces Cl- and Fe(III) that are used to regenerate the resin, resulting in practically zero secondary waste production. In comparison with conventional non-selective ion-exchange technology, this new treatment process is expected to result in not only a reduced O&M cost but also the elimination of the disposal of hazardous wastes containing perchlorate. Additionally, the selective and regenerable ion exchange technology has allowed the quantitative recovery of perchlorate from contaminated water for reuse, or from other environmental matrices such as sediment, groundwater, and salt deposits for perchlorate isotopic and source identification. Naturally-forming perchlorate has been found to contain distinct oxygen and chlorine isotope signatures or anomalies as compared with anthropogenic perchlorate and can thus provide unambiguous identification of the sources of perchlorate contamination as a powerful tool for the forensics of perchlorate in the environment.
DE: 1806 Chemistry of fresh water
DE: 4825 Geochemistry
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting