Isolation of Metals from Liquid Wastes: Reactive Scavenging in Turbulent Thermal Reactors
A large portion of the Department of Energy (DOE) radioactive waste inventory is composed of metal-bearing liquid wastes, which may or may not also contain organics. It is highly desirable to concentrate the metals in order to reduce the volume of these wastes and to render them into an environmentally benign form. One method for doing this is to exploit high-temperatures to reactively capture metals by sorbents, and thus to isolate them from the environment. The objective of this research is to provide the background information necessary to design a process that accomplishes this on a large scale, namely in hot turbulent flows, into which are injected the wastes to be treated and, also the sorbents that scavenge the metals. The current work focuses on cesium and strontium, which are present in the DOE inventory as radioactive isotopes. The project involves five investigators at three institutions, and is comprised of the following parts: (1) Experimental research at the University of Arizona focuses on the chemistry of cesium and strontium sorption on kaolinite and lime sorbents in a laminar flow environment. (2) Theoretical research pursued jointly by the University of Arizona and Sandia Laboratories, Livermore, focuses on prediction of droplet trajectories in a turbulent flow environment. (3) Experimental research at the Air Pollution Technology Branch of the US Environmental Protection Agency, to investigate the process in turbulent flows. (4) Experimental research at the University of Illinois focuses on design, construction, and application of a laser based LIBS system for measuring droplet size, metal concentration in the gas phase, and metal concentration in the vapor phase. This analysis procedure will be used both at the University Of Arizona laminar flow reactor and the EPA turbulent flow reactor. (5) Theoretical research at the University of Illinois to provide input into the drag model to be used to predict droplet trajectories in hot turbulent flows.
- Research Organization:
- University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona (US); Air Pollution Technology Branch, Research Triangle Park , North Carolina; Sandia National Labs., Livermore, CA; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois; (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- A107-97ER14839; FG07-97ER14837; FG07-97ER14831
- OSTI ID:
- 829928
- Report Number(s):
- EMSP-60326-1999; R&D Project: EMSP 60326; TRN: US0404815
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 1 Jun 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
AIR POLLUTION
CESIUM
CHEMISTRY
FORECASTING
KAOLINITE
LAMINAR FLOW
LIQUID WASTES
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
SANDIA LABORATORIES
SCAVENGING
SORPTION
STRONTIUM
THERMAL REACTORS
TURBULENT FLOW
US EPA
WASTES