HIGH-ENERGY ELECTRONS FOR THE TREATMENT OF WASTEWATER

IRRADIATION WITH IONIZING RADIATION, SUCH AS HIGH-ENERGY ELECTRONS, IS THE MOST POWERFUL MEANS AVAILABLE FOR THE DISINFECTION OF WASTEWATER. THE EFFECTIVENESS OF E-BEAMS FOR THIS PURPOSE HAS BEEN DEMONSTRATED, AND PARTICULARLY IN A LANDMARK INVESTIGATION COMPLETED IN 1980. HOWEVER, ALTHOUGH SOME EXPERIMENTATION HAS CONTINUED, IONIZING RADIATION STILL HAS NOT BEEN WIDELY ADOPTED AS A MEANS OF TREATING WASTEWATER. PRACTICAL PROBLEMS REMAIN, SUCH AS THEENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RELIABILITY OF THE E-BEAM EQUIPMENT, AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROCESSES INVOLVED IS NOT COMPLETE. THE PROPOSED WORK ADDRESSES THESE PROBLEMS BY: (1) A STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF TEMPERATURE OF THE TARGET MATERIAL ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE E-BEAM RADIATION. (2) A COMPARISONOF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A DOSE DELIVERED IN PULSED FORM WITHTHE SAME DOSE DELIVERED IN A CONSTANT (DC) BEAM. (3) A DESIGN STUDY OF A RELIABLE E-BEAM EQUIPMENT EMBODYING NEEDEDINNOVATIONS IN ACCELERATION TUBE AND EXIT WINDOW. APPLICATION OF HIGH-ENERGY ELECTRON BEAMS TO THE PROCESSING OF WASTEWATER WOULD BE MADE MORE EFFECTIVE, RELIABLE, AND EFFICIENT BY THE PROPOSED PHASE I AND PHASE II WORK. THIS SHOULD RESULT IN THE DEPLOYMENT OF THIS VALUABLE TECHNOLOGY FOR LARGE-SCALE TREATMENT OF WASTEWATER.