Premium
Combined Treatment of Perchlorate and RDX in Ground Water Using a Fluidized Bed Reactor
Author(s) -
Fuller Mark E.,
Hatzinger Paul B.,
Condee Charles W.,
Togna A. Paul
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
groundwater monitoring and remediation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1745-6592
pISSN - 1069-3629
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-6592.2007.00157.x
Subject(s) - perchlorate , acetic acid , chemistry , fluidized bed , sorption , nuclear chemistry , organic chemistry , ion , adsorption
A bench‐scale study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of biological treatment of comingled perchlorate and hexahydro‐1,3,5‐trinitro‐1,3,5‐triazine (RDX) in ground water using fluidized bed reactors (FBRs). In addition, the ability of FBRs to treat low concentrations of perchlorate was examined. Pilot‐scale FBRs were fed either acetic acid or molasses as an electron donor to facilitate simultaneous perchlorate and RDX reduction. The acetic acid‐fed FBR consistently removed perchlorate from an influent level of 100 μg/L to below 6 μg/L, and values below the method detection limit of 1 μg/L occurred approximately 70% of the time. RDX breakthrough from all FBRs was minimal due to sorption of the explosive on the granulated activated carbon media, but mass balance calculations indicated that more than 99.5% of the total RDX entering the acetic acid‐fed FBR was biologically degraded. Approximately 80% of the RDX fed to the control FBR (i.e., no substrate addition) was accounted for at the end of the study; the remainder was assumed to have been degraded. Molasses was much less effective than acetic acid as an electron donor for treatment of perchlorate and RDX. This work demonstrates that combined treatment of perchlorate and RDX is feasible using FBR technology, and that very low levels of perchlorate (less than 100 μg/L) can be effectively treated in an FBR.