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SITE TECHNOLOGY CAPSULE: METAL-ENHANCED DECHLORI- NATION OF VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS USING AN ABOVE-GROUND REACTOR - ENVIROMETAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Citation:
U.S. EPA. SITE TECHNOLOGY CAPSULE: METAL-ENHANCED DECHLORI- NATION OF VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS USING AN ABOVE-GROUND REACTOR - ENVIROMETAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC. EPA/540/R-96/503a, 1997.
Impact/Purpose:
information
Description:
In 1980 the U.S. Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as Superfund, to protect human health and the environment from uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. CERCLA was amended by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) in 1986. SARA mandates implementing permanent solutions and using alternative treatment technologies or resource recovery technologies to the maxi- mum extent possible to clean up hazardous waste sites. The more than 1,200 sites on the National Priorities List involve a broad spectrum of physical, chemical, and environmental conditions requiring diverse remedial approaches. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has focused on policy, technical, and informational issues related to exploring and applying new technologies to Superfund site remediation. One EPA initiative to accelerate the development, demonstration, and use of innovative remediation technologies is the Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation (SITE) Program. State and federal agencies and private organizations are exploring a growing number of innovative technologies for treating hazardous wastes. The SITE Program provides a forum for demonstrating the effectiveness of innovative technologies at hazardous waste sites. The SITE Program evaluates technology performance through collection of independent data and publishes the results of these studies. EPA Site Technology Capsules summarize the latest information available on innovative treatment and site remediation technologies selected for demonstration in the SITE Program. The Technology Capsules assist EPA remedial project managers, EPA on-scene coordinators, contractors, and other decision-makers in the evaluation of site-specific chemical and physical characteristics to determine a technology's applicability for site remediation. This Technology Capsule provides the latest available information on the EnviroMetal Technologies, Inc. (ETI), process for metal-enhanced dechlorination of chlorinated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in aqueous media. The EPA SITE Program evaluated the process in an aboveground reactor at the SQL Printed Circuits (SQL) site in Wayne, Passaic County, NJ. Groundwater at the site contains the chlorinated VOCs tetrachloroethene (PCE), trichloroethene (TCE), and cis-1,2- dichloroethene (cDCE). ETI claims that, when properly designed and constructed, the technology can completely dechlorinate certain chlorinated aliphatic VOCs in water after one pass through a reactive, zero-valent, iron medium.