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HIGH ENERGY ELECTRON INJECTION (E-BEAM) TECHNOLOGY FOR THE EX-SITU TREATMENT OF MTBE-CONTAMINATED GROUNDWATER INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY EVALUATION REPORT
Citation:
Tetra Tech EM Inc. HIGH ENERGY ELECTRON INJECTION (E-BEAM) TECHNOLOGY FOR THE EX-SITU TREATMENT OF MTBE-CONTAMINATED GROUNDWATER INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY EVALUATION REPORT. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/R-02/066 (NTIS PB2003-102004), 2003.
Impact/Purpose:
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Description:
This Innovative Technology Evaluation Report documents the results of a demonstration of the high-energy electron injection (E-Beam) technology in application to groundwater contaminated with methyl t-butyl ether (MtBE) and with benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX). The E-beam technology destroys organic contaminants in groundwater through irradiation with a beam of high-energy electrons. The demonstration was conducted at the Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC) in Port Hueneme, California.
Results of two weeks of steady state operation at an E-beam dose of 1,200 kilorads (krads) indicated that MtBE and BTEX concentrations in the effluent were reduced by greater than 99.9 percent from influent concentrations that averaged over 1,700 ig/L MtBE and 2,800 ig/L BTEX. Further, the treatment goals for the demonstration, which were based on drinking water regulatory criteria, were met for all contaminants except for t-butyl alcohol (tBA), a degradation product of MtBE. Dose experiments indicated that tBA was not consistently reduced to below the treatment goal of 12 mg/L although the results indicated that tBA by-product formation decreased as dose increased. Thus, it is possible that, at increased energy input beyond that tested in the demonstration, the E-Beam technology might have met the prescribed treatment objectives for TBA. Acetone and formaldehyde were the two most prevalent organic by-products that were formed by E-beam treatment, with mean effluent concentrations during the two-week steady state testing of 160 and 125 ig/L, respectively. Bromate was not formed during E-beam treatment.