New innovative electrocoagulation (EC) treatment technology for BWR colloidal iron utilizing the seeding and filtration electronically (SAFET{sup TM}) system
- CHMM, CET, REP, RWE Nukem Corporation, 800 Oak Ridge Tpke., Suite A701, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830 (United States)
- Materials and Chemistry Laboratory, Inc. (MCL), East Tennessee Technology Park, Building K-1006, 2010 Highway 58, Suite 1000 Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830-1702 (United States)
The presence of iron (iron oxide from carbon steel piping) buildup in Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) circuits and wastewaters is decades old. In, perhaps the last decade, the advent of precoatless filters for condensate blow down has compounded this problem due to the lack of a solid substrate (e.g., Powdex resin pre-coat) to help drop the iron out of solution. The presence and buildup of this iron in condensate phase separators (CPS) further confounds the problem when the tank is decanted back to the plant. Iron carryover here is unavoidable without further treatment steps. The form of iron in these tanks, which partially settles and is pumped to a de-waterable high integrity container (HIC), is particularly difficult and time consuming to de-water (low shear strength, high water content). The addition upstream from the condensate phase separator (CPS) of chemicals, such as polymers, to carry out the iron, only produces an iron form even more difficult to filter and de-water (even less shear strength, higher water content, and a gel/slime consistency). Typical, untreated colloidal material contains both sub-micron particles up to, let's say 100 micron. It is believed that the sub-micron particles penetrate filters, or sheet filters, thus plugging the pores for what should have been the successful filtration of the larger micron particles. Like BWR iron wastewaters, fuel pools/storage basins (especially in the decon. phase) often contain colloids which make clarity and the resulting visibility nearly impossible. Likewise, miscellaneous, often high conductivity, waste streams at various plants contain such colloids, iron, salts (sometimes seawater intrusion and referred to as Salt Water Collection Tanks), dirt/clay, surfactants, waxes, chelants, etc. Such waste streams are not ideally suited for standard dead-end (cartridges) or cross-flow filtration (UF/RO) followed even by demineralizers. Filter and bed plugging are almost assured. The key to solving these dilemmas is 1) to break the colloid (i.e., break the outer radius repulsive charges of the similar charged colloidal particles), 2) allow these particles to now flocculate (floc), and 3) form a type of floc that is more readily filterable, and, thus, de-waterable. This task has been carried out with the innovative application of electronically seeding the feed stream with the metal of choice, and without the addition of chemicals common to ferri-flocking, or polymer addition. This patent-pending new system and technique is called Seeding And Filtration Electronically, or the SAFE{sup TM} System. Once the colloid has been broken and flocking has begun, removal of the resultant floc can be carried out by standard, back-washable (or, in simple cases, dead-end) filters; or simply in de-waterable HICs or liners. Such applications include low level radwaste (LLW) from both PWRs and BWRs, fuel pools, storage basins, salt water collection tanks, etc. For the removal of magnetic materials, such as some BWR irons, an Electro Magnetic Filter (EMF) was developed to couple with the Electro Coagulation (EC), (or metal-Flocking) Unit. In the advent that the waste stream primarily contains magnetic materials (e.g., boiler condensates and magnetite, and he-magnetite from BWRs), the material was simply filtered using the EMF. Bench-, pilot- and full-scale systems have been assembled and applied on actual plant waste samples quite successfully. The effects of initial feed pH and conductivity, as well as flocculation retention times was examined prior to applying the production equipment into the field. Since the initial studies (Denton, et al, EPRI, 2006), the ultimate success of field applications is now being demonstrated as the next development phase. For such portable field demonstrations and demand systems, a fully self enclosed (secondary containment) EC system was first developed and assembled in a modified B 25 Box (Floc-In-A-Box) and is being deployed to a number of NPP sites. Finally, a full-scale SAFE{sup TM} System has been deployed to Exelon's Dresden NPP as a vault cleanup demand system. This is a 30 gpm EC system to convert vault solids/sludges to a form capable of being collected and dewatered in a High Integrity Container (HIC). This initial vault work will be on-going for approximately three months, before being moved to additional vaults. During the past year, additional refinements to the patent pending SAFE{sup TM} System have included the SAFER{sup TM} System (Sealant and Foulant Electronic Removal) for the removal by EC of silica, calcium and magnesium. This has proven to be an effective enabler for RO, NF and UF as a pretreatment system. Advantages here include smaller, more efficiently designed systems and allowed lower removal efficiencies with the removal of the limiting factor of scalants. Similarly, the SAFE{sup TM} System has been applied in the form of a BAC-UP{sup TM} System (Boric Acid Clean-Up) as an alternative to more complex RO or boric acid recycle systems. Lastly, samples were received from two different DOE sites for the removal of totally soluable, TDS, species (e.g., cesium, Cs, Sr, Tc, etc.). For these applications, an ion-specific seed (an element of the SMART{sup TM} System) was coupled with the Cs prior to EC and subsequent filtration and dewatering, for the effective removal of the cesium complex and the segregation of low level and high level waste (LLW and HLW) streams. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Three Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016-5990 (United States); Technological Institute of the Royal Flemish Society of Engineers (TI-K VIV), Het Ingenieurshuis, Desguinlei 214, 2018 Antwerp (Belgium); Belgian Nuclear Society (BNS) - ASBL-VZW, c/o SCK-CEN, Avenue Hermann Debrouxlaan, 40 - B-1160 Brussels (Belgium)
- OSTI ID:
- 21156365
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ICEM'07: 11. International Conference on Environmental Remediation and Radioactive Waste Management, Bruges (Belgium), 2-6 Sep 2007; Other Information: Country of input: France; Proceedings may be ordered from ASME Order Department, 22 Law Drive, P.O. Box 2300, Fairfield, NJ 07007-2300 (United States)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
BORIC ACID
BWR TYPE REACTORS
CALCIUM
CARBON STEELS
CESIUM
CESIUM COMPLEXES
FILTRATION
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
IRON
IRON OXIDES
MAGNESIUM
MAGNETIC FILTERS
MAGNETIC MATERIALS
MAGNETITE
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
PWR TYPE REACTORS
RESINS
SHEAR PROPERTIES
WASTE WATER
WATER REMOVAL