This study was part of a joint research project between the University of Houston (UH)
and Montgomery Watson Harza (MWH). The ultimate goal of the project was to develop
a combined ion-exchange and biological treatment process for perchlorate removal from
drinking water. The discussion in this paper focuses on perchlorate reduction in ion-exchange
spent brine. The objectives were to: investigate perchlorate and nitrate
reduction in actual ion-exchange spent brine; and, to determine the required conditions
to stabilize rapid microbial perchlorate reduction in ion-exchange spent brine.
Actual ion-exchange spent brine (6% NaCl) was collected from the MWH pilot plant
located in La Puente in southern California. The spent brine was kept in the dark, at 4 degrees C
prior to use. The brine was
treated by sparging with oxygen-free nitrogen gas for 1 hour as well as an addition of 1.5
times the stoichiometric acetate requirement and adjustment of the pH to ~7.
A culture developed in previous research and maintained by feeding it perchlorate in a
synthetic medium with 3% NaCl was used as inoculum for this research. The culture was
fed spent brine diluted to 3% NaCl as a sequencing batch reactor (SBR): after the
perchlorate and nitrate were reduced, the culture was allowed to settle for 1-2 hours, 40-
60% of the supernatant was withdrawn and replaced with 3% diluted spent brine. Includes 7 references, table, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 330 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 9 |
| Published : | 06/17/2004 |
