By – Abigail Holmquist
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UOP is expanding its focus to include the removal of radioactive contaminants from water streams. For nearly 100 years, Honeywell’s UOP has been the leading international supplier and licensor of technologies in the petroleum refining, gas processing, petrochemical production and major manufacturing industries. UOP has a strong history in contaminant removal and technology development that extends beyond the petroleum industry. The first success for UOP in this market has been cleaning up radioactive water at the Fukushima nuclear power plant site following the natural disasters in 2011.
UOP historically partnered with Savannah River and Sandia National Laboratories for the development of an engineered zeolite, IONSIV™, for removal of radioactive cesium (Cs) and strontium (Sr) from highly saline streams. Although IONSIV products have been validated for Cs & Sr removal on small scale applications, use of IONSIV products at the Fukushima site was the first large-scale application of these media. IONSIV was designed into the Simplified Active Water Retrieve and Recovery System (SARRY) to remove cesium from contaminated wastewater after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year. The SARRY system, developed by Toshiba Corporation, Shaw Global Services LLC, and AVANTech, Inc., has reduced cesium to below detectable levels in more than 60 million gallons of water with clean-up factors for cesium of more than 500,000. IONSIV has outperformed its competitors by factors of 50-100 times. UOP is continuing to partner with stakeholders on site to remove additional radioactive contaminants from the water before it can be returned to the ocean.
UOP is also pursuing opportunities at Savannah River Site and Hanford Site to treat stored wastes. These opportunities would also incorporate IONSIV products into the water treatment process.
A dedicated team of experienced water professionals and technical experts has been assembled to drive success in the water business. The team members bring nearly 100 years of combined experience in the water industry from across the public and private sectors.
UOP’s IONSIV products have been rebranded to allow UOP additional flexibility in bringing new products to market and naming products to reflect customer and market segments across various water treatment applications.The new and historical names are as follows:
- UOP IONSIV™ R9120-B Selective Media (formerly IONSIV IE-911) and UOP IONSIV™ R9120-P Selective Media (IONSIV IE-910) for selective removal of Cs from highly saline aqueous streams
- UOP IONSIV™ R9160-G Selective Media (IONSIV IE-96) and UOP IONSIV™ R9150-G Selective Media (IONSIV IE-95) for bulk removal of Cs from aqueous streams
“We are proud of our contribution to the cleanup efforts in Fukushima and are looking forward to growing our business to continue offering innovative contaminant removal solutions in challenging applications in the nuclear industry” – Alan Greenberg, Strategic Marketing Manager.
