Ion exchange technology in the remediation of uranium contaminated groundwater at Fernald [electronic resource].
- Published:
- Washington, D.C. : United States. Dept. of Energy, 2000.
Oak Ridge, Tenn. : Distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy. - Physical Description:
- 8 pages : digital, PDF file
- Additional Creators:
- Fernald Environmental Management Project (U.S.), United States. Department of Energy, and United States. Department of Energy. Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Access Online
- Restrictions on Access:
- Free-to-read Unrestricted online access
- Summary:
- Using pump and treat methodology, uranium contaminated groundwater is being removed from the Great Miami Aquifer at the Fernald Environmental Management Project (FEMP) per the FEMP Record of Decision (ROD) that defines groundwater cleanup. Standard extraction wells pump about 3900 gallons-per-minute (gpm) from the aquifer through five ion exchange treatment systems. The largest treatment system k the Advanced Wastewater Treatment (AWWT) Expansion System with a capacity of 1800 gpm, which consists of three trains of two vessels. The trains operate in parallel treating 600 gpm each, The two vessels in each train operate in series, one in lead and one in lag. Treated groundwater is either reinfected back into the aquifer to speed up the aquifer cleanup processor discharged to the Great Miami River. The uranium regulatory ROD limit for discharge to the river is 20 parts per billion (ppb), and the FEMP uranium administrative action level for reinfection is 10 ppb. Spent (i.e., a resin that no longer adsorbs uranium) ion exchange resins must either be replaced or regenerated. The regeneration of spent ion exchange resins is considerably more cost effective than their replacement. Therefore, a project was undertaken to learn how best to regenerate the resins in the groundwater vessels. At the outset of this project, considerable uncertainty existed as to whether a spent resin could be regenerated successfully enough so that it performed as well as new resin relative to achieving very low uranium concentrations in the effluent. A second major uncertain y was whether the operational lifetime of a regenerated resin would be similar to that of a new resin with respect to uranium loading capacity and effluent concentration behavior. The project was successful in that a method for regenerating resins has been developed that is operationally efficient, that results in regenerated resins yielding uranium concentrations much lower than regulatory limits, and that results in regenerated resins with operational lifetimes comparable to new resins.
- Report Numbers:
- E 1.99:femp-2577
femp-2577 - Subject(s):
- Other Subject(s):
- Note:
- Published through SciTech Connect.
09/29/2000.
"femp-2577"
Spectrum 2000 Conference, Chattanooga, TN (US), 09/24/2000--09/29/2000.
Chris Sutton; Cathy Glassmeyer; Steve Bozich. - Funding Information:
- AC24-92OR21972
View MARC record | catkey: 14415230