Electron Beam Irradiation of Aqueous Systems at Large Scale

该奖项旨在为之前在美国国家科学基金会第87-14640号拨款下开展的一个项目提供续签支持，在该项目中，位于迈阿密弗吉尼亚关键污水处理厂的现有1.5兆电子伏特、50毫安电子加速器被用于研究电子束在环境工程实践中的应用。结果证实了电子束对水中悬浮液中微生物的灭活、水溶液中有机物污染物的破坏以及与水中有机污染物破坏有关的反应速率常数的有效性。该项目的研究包括扩大多环芳烃剂量-破坏关系的研究，确定电子束照射产生的反应机理和副产品，探索将流体更有效地呈现给电子束的方法，研究自由基清除剂和增强剂以提高电子束的效率，以及开发成本模型，以确定在环境工程实践中使用电子束的经济可行性。这项研究的结果在足够大的范围内进行，以获得工程设计参数，很可能被用于环境工程实践。潜在的应用包括设计净化地表水和地下水的工艺和系统，销毁危险废物，处理废水处理产生的淤泥，以改善其脱水能力和适应稳定过程，对污泥和加工副产品进行消毒，并提高其生物降解性或通过其他物理或化学过程从水溶液中去除。

This is an award to provide renewal support for a project previously conducted under NSF Grant No. 87-14640 in which an existing 1.5 Mev, 50 ma, electron accelerator located at the Virginia Key Wastewater Treatment Plant in Miami was used to study electron-beam applications in environmental engineering practice. Results confirmed the effectiveness of the electron beam for inactivation of microorganisms in aqueous suspension, destruction of organics contaminants in aqueous solution, and defined reaction rate constants associated with destruction of organic contaminants in water. Research in this project includes expanding studies of dose-destruction relationships for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, identification of reaction mechanisms and byproducts produced by electron beam irradiation, exploring methods for more efficient presentation of the fluid to the beam, study of radical scavengers and enhancers to improve the beam's efficiency, and development of cost models for determination of economic feasibility of electron beam use in environmental engineering practice. Results of this research conducted at a sufficiently large scale to obtain engineering design parameters are likely to be utilized in environmental engineering practice. Potential applications include design of processes and systems for decontamination of surface and groundwaters, destruction of hazardous wastes, treatment of sludges derived from treatment of wastewater to improve their dewaterability and amenability to stabilization processes, disinfection of sludges and processing byproducts and to improve their biodegradability or removal from aqueous solution by other physical or chemical processes.