Stevens environmental engineers apply new process for eliminating depleted uranium from water

The team at the Center for Environmental Engineering (CEE) at Stevens Institute of Technology and engineers from the US Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command - Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (TACOM-ARDEC) at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., have successfully tested a process for removing depleted uranium from wastewater generated at military testing sites. The process also eliminates the need for what had been a standard, costly disposal and long-term storage system for the residual radioactive waste.

The demonstrated process can also be applied to a wide variety of other heavy metals found to occur naturally or as a result of pollution in groundwater that may be hazardous to the general public.

"The success of this project can be directly attributed to the cooperative approach taken by the US Army, academia and high-tech small business to address the common needs of government and the private sector," commented Mr. James Frankovic, Chief of the Army Heavy Metals Office. This project is being accomplished under the Army's RangeSafe Program which is a Congressionally directed program established to provide solutions to environmental challenges associated with the life-cycle management of armament systems.

In the course of the tests, Dr. Xiaoguang Meng, an associate professor of environmental engineering at Stevens and a researcher at the CEE, applied a chemical filtration process to several thousand gallons of contaminated wastewater at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. Mahmoud Wazne, a research assistant and doctoral candidate at Stevens, assembled the filtration system and conducted the treatment at the Aberdeen site. Confirming preliminary pilot tests conducted at Picatinny Arsenal, the removal results came in well below the federally regulated parts-per-billion standard.

Meng used a removal process developed at the CEE and commercialized by the Stevens Technogenesis® spin-out company, HydroGlobe LLC. The process is called MetSorbT, which uses a powdered or granular form of engineered filtration chemicals. MetSorb is also used in systems for removal of a wide variety of heavy metals from contaminated water, including arsenic, cadmium, copper, chromium, lead, mercury and zinc.

"HydroGlobe is delighted at the success of the Stevens depleted uranium removal tests," said John Schroeder, the president of HydroGlobe and a Stevens alumnus. "This represents another arrow in the quiver for attacking toxic heavy metal contamination in the water supply."

The contaminated water is the result of depleted uranium projectiles test-fired at military tanks in sealed, domed enclosures at the testing ground. While air-borne radioactive particles are captured by air-filtration, particles that cling to the walls of the enclosure are washed down, drained and stored in subterranean tanks, creating a disposal problem.

"Depleted uranium is a very hard material, used to make high velocity projectiles," said Dr. George Korfiatis, dean of Stevens' Schaefer School of Engineering and former director of the CEE. "It is an excellent armor-piercing metal, and it is used by the military especially as a means to kill enemy tanks. However, because of its toxicity and because it is a low-level radioactive agent, regulated by the NRC [Nuclear Regulatory Commission], it presents a variety of environmental disposal issues for military testing facilities."

The standard means of disposal has been to mix the tainted water into concrete blocks for safe transportation to hazardous waste burial sites. It is a time-consuming and costly method, with the solidified blocks occupying huge areas of cubic space at the disposal sites.

The MetSorb process, on the other hand, results in a filtered waste product about the volume of a one-gallon milk container per several thousand gallons of water processed.

John Beckman, Radiation Health Officer/Health Physics at Aberdeen, is particularly impressed with the efficiency of the MetSorb process for depleted uranium removal.

"Over 54 hours, about 2,300 gallons of contaminated water was filtered," he said. "Enough active filtering material was left in the three-column system to filter another couple of thousand gallons.

"Once we receive the OK from the NRC, we can actually dispose of the filtered water via sanitary sewage - it is that completely free of contamination."

Beckman is also impressed by the cost efficiencies of the process.

"Compared to the standard means of disposal," he said, "this represents a cost-saving of about $50,000 per 800 gallons of water."

Among those who observed the Aberdeen tests were Mr. Darryl Chew, legislative assistant for national security and defense appropriations in the office of New Jersey Congressional Representative Rodney P. Frelinghuysen; and Maj. John A. Leggieri, congressional budget liaison officer, who works in the office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army at the Pentagon.

CEE researchers will proceed shortly with treating another 22,000 gallons of depleted uranium contaminated water at Aberdeen Proving Grounds.

The entire process represented by the CEE collaboration with Picatinny Arsenal, HydroGlobe and Aberdeen Proving Grounds is emblematic of the Stevens educational and research environment called "Technogenesis," in which Stevens students and faculty collaborate with partners in academia, government and industry, nurturing new technologies from research innovation to marketplace implementation.

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,150 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students, with about 250 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.  

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