Materials & Chemistry Laboratory, Inc.

Home Company Overview Services Areas of Expertise Projects Applications Instrumentation & Resources Technical Staff Affiliates Contact Information	Treatment of Wastewater Using Apatite C
	Background In the winter of 2001, a fire sprinkler system froze and accidentally discharged significant amounts of water into the basements of two former process buildings at a Department of Energy (DOE) site. The facility manager had the wastewater sampled and discovered that it contained cadmium (Cd), uranium (U), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), technicium (Tc), and detectable amounts of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Because of the elevated amounts of Cd present, the water was designated RCRA waste and, thus, could not be taken to the site’s normal process water treatment system. A DOE subcontractor was assigned the task of treating the contaminated wastewater and discharging it at a permitted outfall subject to strict DOE and state discharge criteria. Materials and Chemistry Laboratory, Inc. (MCLinc) under contract to Florida International University Hemispheric Center for Environmental Technologies Oak Ridge Regional Services Office provided technical assistance to the DOE subcontractor by first conducting treatability studies on wastewater samples and then designing and building a mobile wastewater treatment system for deployment at the DOE site. Based upon the levels of RCRA metals and uranium present, MCLinc was interested in evaluating the use of phosphate-induced metals stabilization (PIMS) technology for the remediation of the wastewater. A particularly effective material for this purpose is Apatite C, a calcium-phosphate substance derived form fish bones that have been processed using a proprietary technique. The reaction of certain metals of concern with Apatite C yields a very stable phosphate salt precipitate that can be easily separated from the wastewater.
	Technical Approach HCET teamed with Materials and Chemistry Laboratory, Inc. (MCLinc) in Oak Ridge to design a treatment system using Apatite C that would remove the contaminants of concern to the DOE-mandated discharge levels (that is, 10% of applicable discharge limits mandated by the state). The treatment system consisted of parallel columns charged with coal carbon and Apatite C along with the required pumping and flow control mechanisms to maintain a prescribed flow rate and contact time within the columns and the appropriate filtration systems.
	Results To date, HCET and MCLinc have treated over 80,000 gallons of RCRA metal and radioisotope-contaminated wastewater, and all of the treated water has met DOE-prescribed discharge limits. This innovated treatment system using Apatite C technology has proved considerable more cost-effective and efficient than competing technologies, such as ion exchange, reverse osmosis, or ultra-filtration. Average removal efficiencies obtained using Apatite C were >99.7% for U, >99.5% for Cd, and >99.7% for Zn. A secondary benefit of using Apatite C technology has been significantly less secondary waste generation.
	Materials and Chemistry Laboratory, Inc. East Tennessee Technology Park, Bldg. K-1006 • Oak Ridge, TN 37830-1702 Voice: (865) 576-4138 • FAX: (865) 576-8558 Contact: Barry A. Stephenson, President © Copyright 1999-2004 Materials and Chemistry Laboratory, Inc. All rights reserved.

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