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

Abstract

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.

The Effect of High-Energy Ball Milling of Montmorillonite for Adsorptive Removal of Cesium, Strontium, and Uranium Ions from Aqueous Solution

“…The noted fixation of radionuclides on the surface of mechanoactivated montmorillonite makes it possible to use it as a matrix for burying radioactive waste during heat treatment. The mechanochemically activated clays can be applied to the environmental protection technology in the engineered clay barriers in multibarrier systems for the control of radioactive contamination [18,19].…”

“…The using of the sorption method is one of them. Natural sorbents are usually used to create permeable reactive barriers or as filling materials in storage facilities for the long-term disposal of radioactive waste [18,19]. Clay materials have all the necessary qualities for this, including sufficient resistance to radiation exposure [20,21].…”

Mitigation of Uranium Mining Impacts—A Review on Groundwater Remediation Technologies

“…The results from the adsorption studies allowed the authors to conclude that biochar could be used as an effective adsorbent in PRB medium for U(VI), with potentially competitive low cost. Florez et al [80] studied the applicability of clay ceramic pellets as PRBs material for the treatment of uraniumcontaminated groundwater. The results suggest that clay ceramic pellets can effectively intercept and remove uranium from contaminated groundwater (89% was removed in the first hour with smectite minerals).…”

“…A summary of these case studies is presented in Table 3. Clay ceramic pellets 89% Adsorption (i) [80] (a) Field demonstration at Fry Canyon site. Three walls, each using different types of materials: funnel and gate design.…”

Bioelectrochemical Systems for Groundwater Remediation: The Development Trend and Research Front Revealed by Bibliometric Analysis

“…Microbial fuel cell [49,128,129]; 7 Wang H.Y. and Yang K. Autohydrogenotrophic denitrification [130,131]; Bioelectrochemical denitrification [54,132,133]; According to the results mentioned above, the research groups on BESs for groundwater remediation can be divided into two classes according to the research themes: (1) The research originating from microorganisms in groundwater/aquifer sediments that can obtain energy for growth by electron transport [96], as well as further related research including sulfate/dissimilatory Fe(III) reducing bacteria [94,99,[134][135][136][137]; the bioremediation of radioactive contaminants such as uranium, strontium, and technetium [80,123,125,138]; extracellular electron transfer [139,140]; microbial biocathodes [141,142]; microbial community and geochemical conditions [113,143]. The representative researchers are clustered into groups as shown in Table 2 and are numbered 1, 2, 3 and 5.…”