Kandasamy Thangavadivel (PhD Student)
University of South Australia
Project Title
Development
and application of high frequency ultrasound for persistent organic
remediation
Biography
Kandasamy
is a chemical engineer with over 12 years of experience in water
& waste water treatment plant design, installation ,
commissioning and operation. As a process engineer, he was
responsible for copper plating, gold plating and gold recovery
process of one of the world leading PCB company. He also worked for
a sulphuric acid and alum production plant and completed his MSc in
environmental technology. Kandasamy enjoys reading psychology books
and exploring nature.
Start Date
August
2006
Project Details
The
chemical which is very stable to the chemical and biological system
is known as persistent. There are a lot of persistent organic
contaminated sites in Australia, mainly located in New South Wales.
The cattle –dip sites have highly polluted with DDT which is
a one of the persistent organic pollutant. The plants grown in this
area too will have DDT contaminant. When the animal eats this
plant, the animal too will have DDT. Since the human is in the top
of the food chain and the DDT will accumulate in human and
transmitted to next generation and cause cancer and affect nervous
system.
The polluted sites are mainly located in rural area and require a
very low cost but effective solution to remediate it. Among the
existing technologies, thermal process is the most effective method
but very expensive. Secure land fill never eliminate the pollutant
but it will be a long term burden to society.
Ultrasound is an emerging technology and uses the pressure wave to
transmit the energy. It has a very high potential to remediate the
contaminated soil with the cost effective way. This study will
focus on the application of high frequency ultrasound to remediate
the persistent organic contaminated soil. The commercial software
will be used to optimise the reactor design.