Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2003PA11B

Using Crumb Rubber Filtraton for Ballast Water Treatment

Institute: Pennsylvania
Year Established: 2003 Start Date: 2003-03-01 End Date: 2004-02-29
Total Federal Funds: $15,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $30,221

Principal Investigators: Yuefeng Xie, Hsin-hsin Tung

Project Summary: Discharging ballast water from ships causes many water resource problems in Pennsylvania, especially in Lake Erie, Susquehanna River, Delaware River, and their tributaries. When non-indigenous species (e.g., Zebra mussel) transported from a foreign environment are introduced to a new water body, the water quality could be significantly impacted. A cost effective treatment technology is needed to remove or inactivate these invasive species in ballast water. Water filtration is an effective process to remove microorganisms in water and wastewater. However, due to its heavy weight and low production efficiency, conventional sand/anthracite filtration is not economically feasible for ballast water treatment. An innovative crumb rubber filtration technology has been developed at Penn State Harrisburg. The crumb rubber filter allows greater depth filtration and it then allows a greater filtration rate. The significant light weight of crumb rubber filters could be an advantage to be used in mobile and in-vessel treatment facilities for ballast water filtration. The objective of this research is to investigate the application of crumb rubber filtration for ballast water treatment. The invasive species removal efficiency in ballast water will be used to evaluate the technology. The research will be conducted in two phases. Phase I consists of laboratory studies to evaluate the effects of size and depth of crumb rubber on the filter performance using water from Susquehanna River. The results from our current wastewater filtration study will be evaluated and modified for ballast water filtration. Phase II consists of field studies to evaluate the filter performance using ballast water or water from the ports of Baltimore or Philadelphia. The filter performance will be evaluated using the removal of invasive species and water production. The success of the proposed project will provide a cost effective ballast water treatment technology. The technology also reduces scrap tire problems in the nation. The highly efficient and light weight crumb rubber filter could be installed as in-vessel treatment units, mobile treatment facilities, and shore based treatment facilities. This project is significantly different from our current project, Water Reuse: Using Crumb Rubber for Wastewater Filtration. The current project is to evaluate the crumb rubber filtration for the removal of organics and suspended solids in wastewater and explore a new water resource, reclaimed water. The goal of the proposed project is to remove invasive biological species from ballast water and protect the ecosystem in coastal waters, major rivers and their tributaries. Because of the crumb rubber filtration is used in both studies, the results from the current project will benefit the proposed project.