Currently, the army uses water purification systems based on reverse osmosis (RO). RO is effective, but considerable energy is required to overcome the osmotic pressure of raw water. Also, elaborate pretreatment systems must be used to prolong the life of expensive ro elements. The army desires a system that is at least as effective as RO for water purification, yet is smaller, lighter, more economical, and longer-lived than the current systems. Such water purification must be able to treat a wide range of incoming waters including but not limited to seawater desalination, raw waters and nuclear, biological and chemical contaminated waters. Wet oxidation offers advantages over ro, one of the most widely used alternatives for water purification, in that the basic reagent, air (oxygen), is free and readily available and the system does not have fouling problems typically associated with RO. The proposed program is directed toward development of a suitable ultrasonic reactor design that will allow rapid oxidation of contaminant species under mild conditions thus reducing the capital cost for the equipment as well as the operating costs associated with the high temperature and pressure operations. S. R. Taylor and associates have been actively developing applications of ultrasonics to chemical and material processing problems and have recently begun development of a novel ultrasonic reactor that promotes bulk mixing via an ultrasonically induced high shear mechanism in addition to normal cavitation forces. We propose that this dual action reactor can dramatically reduce the overall process temperature and pressure requirements for wet oxidation.
