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.