Announcing SourceKill™
DNAPL SOURCE DESTROYER
Emulsified Zero-Valent Iron (EZVI; aka SourceKill™) is a groundwater treatment technology developed at NASA Kennedy Space Center and patented in 2001. EZVI has won NASA's Government Invention of the Year and Commercial Invention of the Year awards and the inventor of EZVI, Dr. Jacqueline Quinn, was inducted into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame in Washington, DC in 2018. Toxicological & Environmental Associates, Inc. (TEA) worked with NASA to license the technology in 2003 in an effort to bring it into the remediation marketplace and developed a process to manufacture large quantities of reactive and stable product. Subsequently, the first full-scale implementation of SourceKill™ (65,000 gallons) was then successfully conducted at Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, FL in 2005. Since that time, TEA has continued their quest to ensure that each batch of EZVI is produced in strict accordance with the NASA patent and over the years has continued to upgrade and improve the SourceKill™ manufacturing process.
SourceKill™ is designed to treat solvent source areas in soils and groundwater that are classified as Dense Nonaqueous Phase Liquids (DNAPLs). Left untreated in the ground, DNAPLs can provide continuing sources of contamination to air (vadose zone vapor intrusion), groundwater, soil and surface water. DNAPLs are a common cause of environmental contamination at thousands of DOE, DOD, NASA, private industry facilities, dry cleaners and brownfield sites. SourceKill™ technology provides a method to remove the contaminant that is quick, effective, and cost-competitive. The technology involves placing nano/micro-scale zero-valent iron particles into a surfactant-stabilized, biodegradable water-in-oil emulsion. This emulsion, which is heavier than water, is injected into the DNAPL-contaminated zones of the subsurface or used in soil mixing applications. Unlike a plain ZVI-carbon slurry, the DNAPL is then pulled into the emulsion micellar structure where the contaminant reacts abiotically with the zero-valent iron (ZVI) through a process known as reductive dehalogenation. As a “water in oil” emulsion containing a proprietary blend of nano- and micro-sized ZVI, SourceKill™ reductively dehalogenates halogenated hydrocarbons (e.g. PCE, TCE, CFC, VC) within the patented micellular structure. The DNAPL and its daughter products are then degraded into ethane and other nontoxic by-products that are finally broken down through biological activities in the subsurface.
Dr. Brad Droy at bdroy@teainconline.com.