CAREER: Assessing the Potential for Natural and Enhanced Abiotic Transformation of Organic Pollutants in Natural Systems

巴特勒国家研究理事会估计，在美国有30万到40万个土壤和地下水污染的地方，在未来30年内，将花费1万亿美元来清理这些地方。为了有效，这种清理工作将需要各种补救技术。虽然自然衰减是一种经证实的修复某些污染场地的“技术”，但构成自然衰减的过程，包括吸附、生物降解和非生物转化，只是得到了普遍的了解。这些过程中研究最少的可能是矿物对有机污染物的非生物转化，无论是单独的还是在天然有机物存在的情况下-这是本拟议研究的重点。在不适宜微生物生长的条件下，如高污染物浓度和低温，非生物转化可能特别重要。由于这些条件在许多污染场地普遍存在，因此必须尽可能充分地量化矿物介导的转化对污染物自然衰减的贡献。本研究的具体目标是：（1）确定在矿物和代表天然有机物（NOM）的化合物存在下可能发生显著非生物转化的污染物和污染物类别;（2）反应速率与污染物和NOM模型化合物的分子性质的相关性;（3）确定和评价增强非生物污染物自然衰减的技术。虽然国际上认识到有必要对污染物自然衰减等复杂环境问题进行跨学科研究，在如何最好地培训科学家和工程师进行跨学科研究方面没有达成共识。本建议中所述的教育活动旨在培训学生掌握这些战略，并确定有效的做法，使环境科学家和工程师成为跨学科的人才。具体目标包括：（1）实施跨学科本科生研究计划，其中化学和环境科学与工程系的学生在彼此的实验室担任访问研究员;（2）开发跨学科研究生课程，解决污染物自然衰减问题。将采用一套技术来评估这些教育活动的有效性，包括学生档案袋和书面自我评估，学生问卷调查，以及跨学科的同行和教师对学生报告和演示文稿的审查。

0093332ButlerThe National Research Council estimates that between 300,000 and 400,000 sites with soil andground-water contamination exist in the United States, and that up to $1 trillion will be spent toclean up these sites over the next 30 years ( 1 ). To be effective, this cleanup effort will require avariety of remedial technologies. While natural attenuation is a demonstrated "technology" forthe remediation of certain contaminated sites, the processes that constitute natural attenuation,including sorption, biodegradation, and abiotic transformation, are only generally understood.The least studied of these processes is probably abiotic transformation of organic pollutants byminerals, both alone and in the presence of natural organic matter--the focus of this proposedresearch. Abiotic transformations are likely to be particularly important under conditionsinhospitable to microbial growth, such as high pollutant concentrations and low temperatures.Since these conditions prevail at many contaminated sites, it is important to quantify to thefullest extent possible the contribution of mineral mediated transformations to pollutant naturalattenuation.The specific objectives of this research are: (1) identification of the pollutants and pollutant classes likely to undergo significant abiotic transformation in the presence of mineralsand compounds representative of natural organic matter (NOM), (2) correlation of reaction rateswith the molecular properties of the pollutant and NOM model compound, and with solutionconditions such as pH, ionic strength, and temperature, and (3) identification and evaluation oftechniques for enhancing abiotic pollutant natural attenuation.While there is international recognition of the need for interdisciplinary research on complex environmental problems such as pollutant natural attenuation, there is no consensus onhow best to train scientists and engineers to conduct interdisciplinary research. The educational activities described in this proposal seek to train students in these strategies, and to identify effective practices for teaching environmental scientists and engineers to be interdisciplinary. Specific objectives include (1) implementation of an interdisciplinary undergraduate research program in which students from chemistry and environmental science and engineering departments serve as visiting researchers in each others' laboratories and (2) development of an interdisciplinary graduate course addressing pollutant natural attenuation. A suite of techniques will be employed to assess the effectiveness of these educational activities, including student portfolios and written self-assessments, student questionnaires, and interdisciplinary peer and faculty review of student reports and presentations.***