I-Corps: Water treatment technology to remove arsenic from contaminated groundwater

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是潜在的水处理技术的开发，该技术可能为小型低收入农村社区生产无砷饮用水。大约有2亿人通过饮用水接触到高水平的砷。砷是一种自然产生的地下水污染物，在任何受管制的致癌水污染物中，砷在其允许水平上会导致最多的癌症。拟议中的技术可能会使存在水质问题的小型社区受益，到目前为止，这些问题可能过于昂贵，无法小规模解决。尽管存在其他除砷技术，但它们的单位成本在小规模下迅速上升，导致许多社区可能无法负担此类工厂一旦建成后的运营和维护费用。此外，拟议中的技术还可能有助于减轻医疗保健系统因与砷相关的癌症而承担的负担，在美国，与砷相关的癌症的费用从每人7.5万美元到15万美元不等。这个i-Corps项目是基于水中砷污染修复技术的开发。这项拟议的电化学技术通过在水中释放铁锈来去除砷，铁锈首先与砷结合，然后通过过滤或沉淀去除。这项拟议的技术可能会将地下水中的高浓度砷去除到持续低于美国环保局批准的最高水平10ppb的水平。与当前的砷去除技术相比，拟议技术的优势包括可能更好的去除砷的效果，潜在地降低资本和运营维护成本，需要更少的劳动力，并可以消除任何液体废流的产生。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the potential development of a water treatment technology that may produce arsenic-free drinking water for small, low-income rural communities. About 200 million individuals are exposed to high levels of arsenic through their drinking water. Arsenic is a naturally occurring groundwater contaminant and causes the most excess cancers of any regulated carcinogenic water contaminant at its permitted level. The proposed technology may benefit small communities with a water quality problem that up until now may have been too expensive to address at small scale. Although other arsenic-removal technologies exist, their unit costs rise rapidly at small scale, leaving many communities potentially unable to afford operation and maintenance of such plants once they have been built. In addition, the proposed technology also may help alleviate the burden placed on health care systems for costs associated with arsenic-related cancers, which ranges between $75,000 to $150,000 per person in the United States. This I-Corps project is based on the development of technology for remediation of arsenic contamination of water. This proposed electrochemical technology removes arsenic by releasing in the water iron rust that first binds to arsenic and is subsequently removed through filtration or settling. The proposed technology may remove high concentrations of arsenic from groundwater down to levels consistently below the EPA-approved maximum level of 10 ppb. The advantages of the proposed technology over current arsenic removal technologies include possible better efficacy of arsenic removal, potentially lower capital and operating and maintenance costs, requires less labor, and could eliminate the production of any liquid waste stream.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.