The Highly Selective, Regenerable Perchlorate Treatment System,
developed by Baohua Gu, Gilbert Brown, Bruce Moyer, Peter Bonnesen, and
Paul Schiff of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Spiro Alexandratos
of the University of Tennessee has won a 2004 R&D 100 Award. These
awards are presented annually by R&D Magazine in recognition of the
year's most significant technological innovations.
Perchlorate (ClO
-4), a primary ingredient in solid rocket
propellant, is being detected in soil and water with increasing frequency. The
chemical disrupts function of the human thyroid gland, which regulates metabolism
in adults and physical development in children, and is thus emerging as an environmental
contaminant of concern.
Conventional water-treatment methods use ion exchange resins to trap the perchlorate,
but the capacity of the resin to hold perchlorate is limited, and disposal of
the contaminated "spent"
resin is costly and inconvenient. The new ORNL approach uses a unique, highly
selective resin to trap the perchlorate and converts it to harmless chloride
ion and water. The reaction that destroys the perchlorate also produces a chemical
that regenerates the resin, allowing its reuse. The result is an 80% reduction
in costs over other ion exchange procedures and elimination of the problem of
secondary waste.
The initial research leading to this development was funded by the
Environmental
Management Science Program.
For additional information see the
ORNL
website.
Back to ERSD News
7/20/04