SBIR Phase I: An Innovative Treatment Process for Nitrate Removal from Water

SBIR第一期项目的更广泛影响是开发了一种低成本的工艺来缓解硝酸盐，硝酸盐是一种普遍存在的污染物，正在稳步侵蚀世界各地安全饮用水的质量和可获得性。这一新工艺将电化学、水化学反应、固体氧化物形成和表面吸附过程结合并排序到一个简单的连续流动单元中，以实现高水平的硝酸盐去除；优化将由有助于发现新材料的计算技术指导，这些新材料也可能展示出其他关键领域的突破潜力，如燃料处理和大规模能量存储。该项目提供了将跨学科解决方案应用于复杂社会问题的机会，并将产生一个自给自足的单元，建造和运营成本低廉，可扩展，模块化和可靠性。该第一阶段研究项目的技术目标是开发一种廉价的水处理模块，用于选择性地去除水介质中的硝酸盐。该模块采用了一系列新的电化学控制过程来促进金属水合氧化物晶体的原位形成和成熟，具有有案可查的吸附效果，很容易将它们从连续流动的水中分离出来。该项目的主要目标是改进和解决这一方法的高风险方面，将现场经验与已发表论文中的概念结合起来，以新的方式对过程进行排序和调节条件，增强吸附性能，同时减少氧离子的干扰。这项技术将促进对金属水合氧化物及其形成动力学的了解，这很可能为创建其他廉价的同时去除多种有问题的污染物的工艺提供信息，有可能将它们回收用于商业再利用。

The broader impact of this SBIR Phase I project is the development of a low-cost process to mitigating nitrate, a ubiquitous pollutant that is steadily eroding the quality and availability of safe potable water all around the world. This novel process combines and sequences electrochemistry, aqueous chemical reactions, solid oxide formation and surface adsorption processes into a simple continuous-flow unit to achieve high levels of nitrate removal; optimization will be guided by computational techniques that lend themselves to discovery of new materials that may also demonstrate breakthrough potential for other critical fields such as fuel treatment and large scale energy storage. The project offers an opportunity to apply interdisciplinary solutions to complex societal problems and will yield a self-contained unit, inexpensive to build and operate, scalable, modular and reliable.The technical objectives in this Phase I research project are to develop an inexpensive water treatment module for selective removal of nitrate from aqueous media. The module employs a novel sequence of electrochemically controlled processes to promote in situ formation and ripening of metal hydrous oxide crystals, with documented adsorptive effectiveness, readily separating them from continuously flowing water. The primary objectives of this project are refining and addressing the high risk aspects of this methodology, merging field experience with concepts from published papers, sequencing processes and regulating conditions in novel ways, enhancing adsorption properties while mitigating interferences by oxyanions. The technology will advance understanding of metal hydrous oxides and the kinetics of their formation, which may well inform creation of other inexpensive processes for simultaneous removal of multiple problematic pollutants, potentially recovering them for commercial re-use.