Objective
A new method of biomagnetic and adsorptive decontamination of natural sea and river water and sludges from heavy metals and radionuclides will be developed. It will be based on the adsorption or pollutants onto the clay minerals modified with anionic clusters of ferrocyanides, inorganic ion exchangers and on magnetic iron sulphide. The latter are microbiologically synthesised by anaerobic sulphate-reducing bacteria in water and in sludges in situ. Highly disperse magnetic particles of iron sulphide will be separated from the bulk sludges by a high gradient magnetic separation process whereas other inorganic adsorbents will be removed from water by a flotation technique. The natural objects selected for this research are situated in Ukraine, which is heavily contaminated with industrial pollutants (the Danube and Dnieper rivers) and, in addition, after the Chernobyl accident, is contaminated with radionuclides (Kiev water reservoir, the Dnieper).
The results expected in the course of the project will be applicable to other contaminated sites in Europe like the Venice lagoon, Hamburg harbour, etc. To bring this method into life, the potential of the micro-organisms inhabiting the contaminated region for producing magnetosusceptible particles will be examined and the optimal conditions for this process will be found; the chemical and physical nature (especially magnetic properties) of the microbiologically synthesised adsorbents will be studied; the distribution of heavy metal pollutants between the polluted water and sludges will be investigated; and a technological scheme for lifting and concentrating of sludges until the high gradient magnetic separation (HGMS) is effective will be designed (preliminary estimation gives 5% of sludge to water ratio w/w to make the process effective). It will be necessary to amplify the separation efficiency by a flotation technique using modified natural clay minerals and inorganic oxides, and to develop methods of chemical treatment of the separated solid phase which contains concentrated pollutants.
Resulting from this project, a pilot technological scheme will be proposed and tested for purification of water and sludges from the Danube estuarine (polluted with heavy metals), Kiev water reservoir (radionuclides), and the estuarine of the river Dnieper (heavy metals + radionuclides). Preliminary estimates of the decontamination process give a very low cost, ca. 10-15 cents per 1 cubic metre that is far lower than can be achieved by other existing methods. It is, therefore, expected that this project will result in economic methods of treating environmental pollution on a large scale. A number of novel methods which can considerably reduce the cost of processing will be examined, and their area and conditions appropriate to their successful and economical application will be delineated. A clear picture will emerge of the range of pollutants, both radioactive and non-radioactive and their distribution. The occurrence of micro-organisms can be extremely important to the natural immobilisation of pollutants, and the extent to which these micro-organisms occur will be made much clearer than at present.
Call for proposal
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SO17 1BJ Southampton
United Kingdom