Characterization of contaminated suspended solids, soils and sediment

激光衍射分析仪在本拨款申请中被要求，并将用于支持NSERC发现拨款的研究，以及最近来自MDEIE和SRO计划的赠款，用于在日本和加拿大开发原位水系统。该治疗系统可以很容易地移动到需要治疗的区域。这一概念是基于过滤，以去除水中的悬浮固体，这些固体具有很高的吸附重金属和其他有机污染物的能力。这些颗粒可能对生活在水中的生物和将水用于饮用目的的人类造成重大问题。此外，这一技术可与疏浚过程相结合，使藻类和细菌等有机固体和细小的污染沉积物重新悬浮。以这种方式，可以最大限度地减少昂贵和破坏性的疏浚过程。因此，为了完成这种类型的研究，需要确定颗粒的大小及其在水中悬浮的分布。使用筛子难以确定含水介质中的分布，尤其难以确定通过吸附作用积聚大部分污染物的较小粒径（低于75微米）。这些较小的颗粒由于其较低的比重也更具有移动的性，因此对环境构成很大的风险。因此，颗粒尺寸的分布和与污染物的关联是非常重要的。 建议为此目的使用激光粒度分析仪。使用该设备，可以测定0.01至2000微米的粒度分布。 目前，麦吉尔或Concordia大学还没有提供。样品必须送到一个认可的实验室，每个样品的费用为300美元，这对于我们想要分析的许多样品来说是非常昂贵的。其他研究项目涉及生物质对砷的吸附、采矿残渣中砷的解吸以及生物表面活性剂对土壤和沉积物中金属去除的影响，由于使用这种分析仪，这些研究项目的进展都将有所增加。

A laser diffraction analyser is requested in this grant proposal and is to be used to support the research in the NSERC Discovery Grant, and more recent grants from the MDEIE and the SRO programs for the development in Japan and Canada of an in situ water stystem. This treatment system can be easily moved to the area where the treatment is required. The concept is based on filtration to remove suspended solids from the water which have a high capacity for adsorbing heavy metals and other contaminants of organic nature. These particles can pose a significant problem to the organisms that live in the water and to the humans that use the water for drinking purposes. In addition, this technology could be combined with a dredging process which resuspends organic solids such as algae and bacteria and fine contaminated sediments. In this manner, the expensive and disruptive process of dredging could be minimized. To accomplish, therefore, this type of research, it is a requirement to determine the size of the particles and their distribution in suspension in the water. The use of sieves is difficult to determine the distribution in aqueous media and is particularly difficult for the smaller particle sizes (below 75 microns) that accumulate the majority of the contaminants by sorption. These smaller particles are also more mobile due to their lower specific gravity and thus pose a large risk to the environment. Therefore the distribution of the particle sizes and the association with the contaminants is highly important.  It is proposed to utilize a laser particle size analyzer for this purpose. With this equipment, the particle size distribution from 0.01 to 2000 microns can be determined.  It is not currently available at McGill or Concordia Universities. Samples must be sent to an accredited laboratory costing $300 per sample which is highly expensive for the many samples we would like to analyse. Other research projects related to sorption of arsenic by biomass, desorption of arsenic from mining residues, and the effect of biosurfactants on metal removal from soils and sediments would all have an increase in progress due to the use of this analyzer.