Environmental Remediation Capabilities
| Remediation is a process of removing chemical contaminants from a polluted area using physical, biological, chemical, or related methods. It is often the first step towards protecting the health of the environment. The Center for Irradiation of Materials at Alabama A&M University has a wealth of practical expertise in environmental remediation. The Center applies its expertise in physics, engineering, materials science, and the modification of materials using ion beams to help solve a variety of remediation problems, such the selection of sorbents to remove a low concentration of mercury from water to the measurement of pollutant concentrations in trees, sediments, and other carbon-based materials. | |
Sorbent Selection Program:
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Recently, the Center completed an engineering program to provide site specific scientific data on the best methods to remove small quantities of mercury from a small stream in the United States. This mercury was located in building sumps, soil, stream beds, and pipes, from which it reappears via groundwater infiltration of storm drains, flows from natural springs, and dissolution of mercury in pipes. The driver for these efforts has been the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for the site. This study was designed to determine if the nine tested sorbents could reduce the mercury concentration in the creek below the allowable NPDES permit limit. Testing procedures were developed to evaluate each sorbent candidate in a balanced way. |
Environmental Trace Element Analysis:
| Environmental air, water, and soil pollution results in increased exposure to hazardous concentrations of toxins. Recently, there has been interest in assessing environmental pollution using tree ring analysis. This method, developed in 1970, provides a historical snapshot of pollutant levels in the tree. Chemical analysis has been used with metals such as lead, zinc, nickel, and mercury. Traditional chemical detection methods, such as atomic fluorescence and laser ablation, are quite time consuming and expensive. Newer ion beam methods, such as Proton Induced X-Ray Emission (PIXE), Proton Induced Gamma Emission (PIGE), and Nuclear Reaction Analysis (NRA) have become popular for a variety of analytical purposes. With the availability of microbeam equipment, these methods allow the direct analysis of trace elements in tree ring core samples. With careful consideration of test geometry and electronics, Rutherford B ackscattering Spectroscopy (RBS) can obtain an absolute measure of the concentration of pollutants. The Center uses various ion microbeam techniques, such as PIXE, PIGE, NRA, and RBS to determine trace element concentrations in biological samples. Once the samples are characterized, this data can be compared with the levels in the surr ounding environment to develop a historical model of pollutant loading. |
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Professor Daryush Ila, Director
Professor Lawrence Rozier Holland
Dr. Andy Hollerman
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