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Ultrapure water is becoming increasingly important to the semiconductor, pharmaceutical and power industries. Stricter industrial requirements concerning water purity can be realized from pilot scale research. Such a system was designed and operated to determine improved methods to characterize and remove organic contaminants in industrial scale ultrapure water systems. Theoretical modelling of the polishing loop was performed for variable order kinetics; intrinsic reaction parameters were developed, and are potentially scaleable to larger systems. Application of the population balance to the actions of process components on organic particle distributions generated novel oxidation and fragmentation parameters that are scaleable to larger systems. Optimization of bacterial growth media resulted in the increased detection of viable bacterial concentrations. A significant fraction of TOC in the polishing loop was found to exist as assimilable organic carbon; the action of process components, thought to remove contaminants, can generate bacteria nutrients from more complex organics. The situating of a polymeric filter before a UV unit resulted in increased removal of organic contaminants; reversing the sequence enhanced the removal of low molecular weight and low charge to mass ratio compounds. The combination of UV-185 and dissolved ozone resulted in synergistic removal of organic contaminants from ultrapure water. The invention of a novel catalytic filter designed to physically separate and then oxidize contaminants resulted in enhanced removal of organics from ultrapure water. A study of viruses in ultrapure water showed that UV-185 and ozone effectively removed viruses, yet ion exchange gave only two orders of magnitude removal in viable counts. This research may be used to augment present systems and/or design new systems. Continued research along the lines specified in this document will generate further understanding of ultrapure water and ultrapure water systems

The research reported herein was conducted to monitor the adsorbable organic halide (AOX) in wastewater from two Kraft mill facilities employing aerated stabilization basins (ASB) to treat the wastewater. Bulk water AOX across the ASB was characterized by apparent molecular weight (AMW) through ultrafiltration. Changes in the AMW fractions were evaluated to identify possible removal pathways for AOX. Seasonal variations such as temperature were explored to identify their influence on the ASBs ability to remove AOX. Benthal solids and interstitial water were utilized to estimate the partitioning of AOX between the water column and the benthic layer. The extent of organic halide partitioning between the overlying water and the benthal zone is indicative of the role biosorption plays in the transport of organic halide from the water column to the benthic layer. An attempt was made to ascertain apparent dehalogenation in the sediment layer of the ASB.

Saturated hydraulic conductivity and intrinsic permeabilities were evaluated for eight soils and five solvent combinations. The solvents were kerosine, isopropyl alcohol, ethylene glycol, xylene, and water. Two hundred eleven column tests were run to determine saturated conductivity. An analysis of variance was performed to evaluate differences between intrinsic permeability for the different soils and solvents. A multiple regression analysis provided a predictive model for intrinsic permeability as a function of soil properties with an R²-value of 0.81. Moisture retention curves were determined using a pressure retention procedure for three soils and two solvent combinations--water and kerosine. Kerosine results do not follow a general pattern, demonstrating changes in procedure will sometimes become necessary when working with organic solvents in soils.