HOUSTON, Sept. 16, 1998 -- The Department of Defense (DOD) should consider applying several new technologies to cleaning up hazardous wastes, researchers recommend in a report summarizing the results of a four-year project. In some cases the technologies are faster, cheaper and more effective than current methods.
Technologies studied in the project were aimed at soil and ground water cleanup, difficult cleanups, and lowering costs of cleanup. Evaluations were aimed at performance of 10 technologies for use at DOD sites and critical analyses of their commercialization potential.
The Advanced Applied Technology Demonstration Facility (AATDF), sponsored by the DOD and headquartered at Rice University, was funded in 1993 with a $19.3 million grant. Its goal was to demonstrate methods of hazardous waste cleanup. Research was conducted by a consortium of universities and supported by industry and government agencies.
Reports on the projects will be sent to the DOD. Several of the technologies are already being used, others are being recommended for use by the DOD, and others will continue to be tested.
Some of the projects focused on contaminants that are difficult to clean up, such as chemicals associated with the energy industry called heavy hydrocarbons, dense liquids called chlorinated solvents, and difficult soil conditions, such as tight clays.
"Most of the easy environmental remediation problems have been addressed
with readily available technology, frequently at great expense to industry,
government and the public at large," says Herb Ward, director of the AATDF and
the Foyt Family Professor in Environmental Science and Engineering at Rice.
"However, we have no technology that is affordable that can solve our most
difficult subsurface and ground water contamination problems. Our program has
changed that. Because of the AATDF program, we now have several new and
innovative technologies for hazardous
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Contact: Lia Unrau
unrau@rice.edu
(713) 831-4793
Rice University
16-Sep-1998