PANI CLEAN INC — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase I: 8.4

Description

Nitrate is currently the most prevalent groundwater pollutant in Northern America primarily fromagricultural activities and changing nitrogen input to the land surface.State-of-the-art treatmenttechnologies such as reverse osmosis ion exchange and electrodialysis suffer from brinemanagement cost associated with nitrate removal. The core technology developed through thisSBIR project will be a hybrid electrodialysis (ED)/electrolysis (EL) unit to efficiently removenitrates from waste water and subsequently convert them to molecular nitrogen thereby eliminatingbrine management cost. The project objectives are: (1) To develop bi-functional electrodes thatoperate efficiently in both electrodialysis (nitrate removal) and electrolysis (nitrate conversion)mode; (2) Assemble and test 1 cm2 hybrid electrodialysis/electrolysis unit and evaluate theirperformance and durability for continuous removal and conversion of nitrates in different feedwater sources.The target is to achiever nitrate conversion efficiency >75% fresh water recovery efficiency >85%and energy efficiency >75%.If successful the proposed project will improve water recovery andreuse from agricultural return flows and improve nutrient management. An economical process oftreating nitrates with no brine generation can impact >1000 community drinking water systems thathave nitrate levels greater than maximum contaminant level of 45 mg/L.