Low Energy, Zero Liquid Discharge Adsorption Technology to Remove Contaminants and Recover Source Water
Use of Hydrogel Media: A Low Energy Method to Remove Heavy Metal Contaminants from Ground Water
ES Engineering Services, LLC
Recipient
Irvine, CA
Recipient Location
37th
Senate District
73rd
Assembly District
$961,437
Amount Spent
Completed
Project Status
Project Result
The demonstration was completed and the technology successfully removed arsenic and some other contaminants from ground water. The technology is most suited for continuous flow applications. Due to inconsistent flow rates, the demonstration site, City of Cerritos, did not continue to use the technology following the end of the project. The recipient is working to adapt their technology to handle other contaminants including selenium.
The Issue
In California, many groundwater sources cannot be used for drinking water because of arsenic, chromium and other contaminants. Current technologies to treat contaminated drinking water, such as reverse osmosis, are expensive, complex, and energy intensive. Other factors driving costs higher for conventional treatment include the need for expensive chemicals, daily management of high volume of waste laden with contaminants, and active process control, monitoring and adjustment. An alternative treatment system is needed that can effectively remove heavy metal contaminants from water, minimize energy, operation and waste disposal costs and meet California drinking water standards.
Project Innovation
The project tested an innovative, low energy, zero liquid discharge water treatment system that uses an adsorption process to remove arsenic and other contaminants from a groundwater reservoir. A demonstration-scale water treatment system was developed and tested to determine operational costs, energy and water savings of the single use adsorption system. The demonstration validated the reduction in spent adsorption media through natural dehydration to further save energy and water associated with residual solid waste handling.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
The hydrogel adsorption process offers benefits of being simple, with its minimal amount of equipment required and can save water that would normally be too difficult to treat. This technology is an innovative approach to treat water with high amounts of metal contaminants using a low energy treatment method to restore impaired drinking water sources. This treatment method is especially suitable for small inland treatment systems, where liquid backwash and brine disposal may be cost prohibitive or infeasible.
Affordability
This adsorption technology could lower the cost of treating water contaminated with heavy metals and allowing it to be reused. The energy reduction compared to conventional technologies is estimated to be 20-30 percent when applying this new, low energy technology.
Environmental Sustainability
Resurrecting groundwater wells that have been removed from operation due to contamination offers energy and cost savings by avoiding the need for additional drilling and construction of new wells. Additionally,this project can improve water resources by removing heavy metal contaminants from water.
Key Project Members
Ryan Brokamp
Joon Min
Subrecipients
khalil kairouz consulting, LLC
Enova Water LLC
AQUAlity Engineering, Inc.
Municipal Management Group, Inc.
Match Partners
ES Engineering Services, LLC
khalil kairouz consulting, LLC
Enova Water LLC
AQUAlity Engineering, Inc.
Municipal Management Group, Inc.
