Isolation of Metals from Liquid Wastes: Reactive Scavenging in Turbulent Thermal Reactors

The Overall project demonstrated that toxic metals (cesium Cs and strontium Sr) in aqueous and organic wastes can be isolated from the environment through reaction with kaolinite based sorbent substrates in high temperature reactor environments. In addition, a state-of-the art laser diagnostic tool to measure droplet characteristic in practical 'dirty' laboratory environments was developed, and was featured on the cover of a recent edition of the scientific journal ''applied Spectroscopy''. Furthermore, great strides have been made in developing a theoretical model that has the potential to allow prediction of the position and life history of every particle of waste in a high temperature, turbulent flow field, a very challenging problem involving as it does, the fundamentals of two phase turbulence and of particle drag physics

Commercialization of Analytical Technologies: Summary of a Symposium at SciX LI, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, October 2024

A symposium at SciX LI sought to demystify commercialization of academically developed technologies, focused on analytical and spectroscopic measurements. Speakers ranged from those with successful commercial products to those in the early stages of product development. Speakers sought to explain the challenges, motivations, excitement, and frustrations of moving beyond technical papers and patents to making saleable products and successful enterprises. Their insights are summarized

Isolation of Metals from Liquid Wastes: Reactive Scavenging by Sorbents in Turbulent Reactors

The objective of this work is to develop the fundamental knowledge base for the design of a broad class of high temperature reactive capture processes to treat metals-bearing liquid waste in the DOE inventory. The major thrust is devoted to understanding phenomena that govern process performance and are critical to achieving emission specifications

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

Isolation of Metals from Liquid Wastes: Reactive Scavenging by Sorbets in Turbulent Reactors

The objective of this work is to develop the fundamental knowledge base for the design of a broad class of high-temperature reactive capture processes to treat metals-bearing liquid waste in the DOE inventory. The major thrust is devoted to understanding phenomena that govern process performance and are critical to achieving emission specifications