This is an award to support Phase II of a project initiated in response to NSF 88-8, Program Solicitation for Small Business Innovation Research. The objective of Phase I, conducted under NSF Grant No. 87-60690, was to determine the feasibility of using electrochemically generated superoxide to dechlorinate organic compounds such as the polychlorinated biphenyls, trihalomethanes, chlorinated phenols, benzoic acids and chlorinated polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons that are contained in wastewater and are also found as contaminants of surface and groundwater. The feasibility of the concept was demonstrated during Phase I. The objective of Phase II is to determine its technical and economic feasibility. The contamination of ground and surface waters by organic compounds that are the target of this research is a matter of great National concern. The novel concept being developed in this project is expected to result in a process that can be used in fracturing organic compounds into innocuous substances or into fragments that may be more readily removed by a secondary or tertiary physical, chemical or biological process.
