SBIR Phase I: An Innovative Treatment Process for Nitrate Removal from Water

The broader impact of this SBIR Phase I project is the development of a low-cost process to mitigating nitrate, a ubiquitous pollutant that is steadily eroding the quality and availability of safe potable water all around the world. This novel process combines and sequences electrochemistry, aqueous chemical reactions, solid oxide formation and surface adsorption processes into a simple continuous-flow unit to achieve high levels of nitrate removal; optimization will be guided by computational techniques that lend themselves to discovery of new materials that may also demonstrate breakthrough potential for other critical fields such as fuel treatment and large scale energy storage. The project offers an opportunity to apply interdisciplinary solutions to complex societal problems and will yield a self-contained unit, inexpensive to build and operate, scalable, modular and reliable. The technical objectives in this Phase I research project are to develop an inexpensive water treatment module for selective removal of nitrate from aqueous media. The module employs a novel sequence of electrochemically controlled processes to promote in situ formation and ripening of metal hydrous oxide crystals, with documented adsorptive effectiveness, readily separating them from continuously flowing water. The primary objectives of this project are refining and addressing the high risk aspects of this methodology, merging field experience with concepts from published papers, sequencing processes and regulating conditions in novel ways, enhancing adsorption properties while mitigating interferences by oxyanions. The technology will advance understanding of metal hydrous oxides and the kinetics of their formation, which may well inform creation of other inexpensive processes for simultaneous removal of multiple problematic pollutants, potentially recovering them for commercial re-use.