9317842 Stone This is an award to provide support for a project the objective of which is to develop conceptual and quantitative bases for models that can be used in engineering design of adsorption processes for removing aromatic ligand pollutants from aqueous solution and in determining the fate of these pollutants when moving through soil and groundwater aquifers. The investigator plans on studying the physical and chemical factors that influence the relationship between the substance being adsorbed and the adsorbing medium. The research involves analyzing results of well-selected experiments designed to provide a good understanding of the underlying physical and chemical phenomena involved in the adsorption process and relating this understanding to models that will potentially displace the empirical, site-specific procedures that now characterize the design and characterization of adsorption processes. Results of this project are expected to provide a better basis than now exists for predicting the fate of water pollutants that move through soil and aquifers that are subject to adsorption on surfaces of the media through which the water flows. The results may also provide improvements in the ability of engineers to design soil remediation systems as well as water and wastewater treatment processes that are either fundamentally based on adsorption as the physical process for removal of the pollutants or in which adsorption occurs as a secondary benefit.
