SBIR Phase I: Removal of Viruses from Drinking Water Using Granular and Nano-Scale Zero-Valent Iron

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目旨在展示零价铁技术在去除水中生物污染物方面的有效性。第一阶段研究的结果预计将证明这项技术的潜在可行性，并将作为在商业化之前进行第二阶段研究的基础。特拉华大学2003年的一项最新研究(You等人，2004年)表明，零价铁可能会去除和灭活水中的病毒和其他微生物。这一发现为开发创新的安全技术提供了可能性。这种从饮用水中去除病毒的过程简单、经济，可以很容易地改装到现有饮用水处理厂的砂滤装置中，或采用来满足流动饮用水的需求，从而减少人们对饮用水受到恐怖活动病毒污染的担忧。国土安全部最近的一份报告表明，饮用水和用于消毒的废水处理设施中存在氯罐也可能招致恐怖袭击，从而构成安全风险。在饮用水处理厂使用零价和纳米铁颗粒可以减少或可能消除目前用于消毒的氯，从而减轻这一潜在的恐怖主义威胁。这项技术还可以用于开发移动饮用水装置，供美军或其他偏远地区的野战使用。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of the zero-valent iron technology for removing biological contaminants from water. Results of the Phase I study are expected to demonstrate the potential feasibility of this technology and will serve as a basis for conducting a Phase II study before commercialization. A recent study by the University of Delaware in 2003 (You, et al., 2004) demonstrated that zero-valent iron could potentially remove and inactivate viral and other microbial agents in water. This discovery suggests the possibility for the development of an innovative security technology. This process for virus removal from drinking water is straight forward, economic and can be readily retrofitted to the sand filter units of the existing drinking water treatment plants or adopted to meet mobile drinking water needs, thus reducing concerns of drinking water contaminated with viruses by terrorist activities.A recent report by the Department of Homeland Security suggests that the presence of chlorine tanks in drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities for disinfection use also may attract terrorist attacks thereby presenting a security risk. The use of zero-valent and nano-iron particles in drinking water treatment plants could reduce or possibly eliminate the current chlorine use for disinfection thereby mitigating this potential terrorist threat. This technology could also be used in developing mobile drinking water units for use by the US military or other field operations in remote regions.