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Removal of Uranium from Contaminated Water by Clay Ceramics in Flow-Through Columns

2017; Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute; Volume: 9; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3390/w9100761

2073-4441

Charles Florez, Young Ho Park, Delia J. Valles-Rosales, Antonio Lara, Emilio Rivera,

Groundwater flow and contamination studies

Uranium contamination of groundwater increasingly concerns rural residents depending on home wells for their drinking water in communities where uranium is a source of contamination. Established technologies to clean up contaminated aquifers are ineffective in large contaminated areas or are prohibitively expensive. Permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) are a low-cost alternative to these methods. In this paper, the applicability of clay ceramic pellets was investigated as permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) material for the treatment of uranium-contaminated groundwater. Flow-through columns were fabricated and used to mimic the flow path of a contaminant plume through the reactive media. Experiment results show that clay ceramic pellets effectively remove uranium from uranium-contaminated water and also can be a cost-efficient technique for remediating uranium contaminated groundwater by a clay pellet barrier. Using clay ceramic pellets is also a practical treatment method for uranium removal from drinking water and can supply potable water for households in the affected areas.