Objective
This project will carry out comprehensive research and set up a semi-pilot plant for production of adsorbents for the purification of industrial wastes and drinking water from heavy metal ions, radionuclides and organic toxic substances. Novel catalysts for decontamination of exhaust gases from H2S, CO and NO will be studied.
The project will combine the latest achievements in the field of development and application of new adsorbents (inorganic ionites) and catalysts (mainly based on synthetic and fruit shell and stone carbons as well as different composition oxides). Methods of synthesis have already been developed and a technology for the production of inorganic ionites worked out, based on insoluble titanium and zirconium hydroxides and phosphates in the form of spherical granules which possess a high mechanical strength and a regulated surface chemistry. These materials were shown to have much better properties than most ion-exchange resins industrially produced in many countries. Hence this project aims at determining the optimum conditions for decontamination of typical sewage waters from Cd2+, Cr3+, As3+, Zn2+, Al3+, Fe3+ and Hg2+ ions. The application of these ionites, combined with activated and oxidised carbons, is found to be very beneficial in the elaboration of cartridges for domestic use to purify drinking water from a great number of organic contaminants, radionuclides (which polluted the environment after the Chernobyl accident), and heavy metal ions, particularly microquantities of lead which are found in drinking water in some countries, e.g. Great Britain and Germany. The project can be divided into the following research activities: preparation of adsorbent materials; characterisation of materials such as surface properties, morphology and mechanical properties; ion exchanges; catalytic behaviour; optimisation.
The expected level of achievement of the two objectives is quite different. Concerning the activated carbonaceous materials (including adsorption and catalysis), the preliminary works carried out by the different participants and the existence of a semi-pilot plant of production will enable pre-industrialisation of the materials to be attained. The probability of success is higher for ion adsorptions than for the catalysis of destruction of gaseous pollutants. The utilisation of inorganic ionites as adsorbents is more prospective. It is expected that the potential of the new materials will be verified and their efficiency compared with that of carbonaceous materials.
Call for proposal
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68200 Mulhouse
France