Develops process to purify drinking water
Chemical engineer Raman Venkatesh of Pittsburgh, Pa., will be honored on August 20 by the world's largest scientific society for developing the first cost-effective process to remove the toxic contaminants perchlorate and nitrate from drinking water. He will be designated one of 12 Heroes of Chemistry by the American Chemical Society at its 220th national meeting in Washington, D.C.
"The whole thing started in 1997, when the state of California detected potentially unsafe levels of perchlorate in well water," said Venkatesh, who is now director of business development at Calgon Carbon Corp. Ammonium perchlorate, a key ingredient of rocket fuels and explosives, was seeping into the groundwater because of early testing at government installations.
Medical studies indicate perchlorate interferes with the thyroid's ability to use iodine, which allows the gland to make hormones that control body metabolism. Ingesting more than 18 parts per billion could be harmful to children, fetuses and people with hypothyroidism. But no commercial technology existed to remove perchlorate, and communities whose wells were above the limit - some as high as 1,000 ppb - were forced to purchase water. The company also aimed to remove excess nitrate, which can cause conditions like "blue-baby" syndrome.
The chemical engineer's team went from the drawing board to successful pilot tests in less then a year. It developed a self-contained system called ISEP, for Ionic separation. For half the cost of buying outside water, it captures perchlorate and nitrate on beads of resin, regenerates itself, and produces just 0.2 percent harmless waste. Using a catalyst Venkatesh designed, the ISEP-plus version of the system can destroy the contaminants as well.
"We recognized that we were trying to make drinking water safe, so we avoided using exotic chemicals or processes that could produce their own problems," explained Venkatesh. "And ISEP gives a tremendous safety margin - final concentrations are below 4 ppb - and it fits into existing water-treatment plants."
ISEP is the only such technology approved by California's department of health services, he said.
The Heroes of Chemistry program, started in 1996, honors industrial chemists and chemical engineers who create commercially successful products that improve the quality of life.
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A nonprofit organization with a membership of 161,000 chemists and chemical engineers, the American Chemical Society publishes scientific journals and databases, convenes major research conferences, and provides educational, science policy and career programs in chemistry. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.