International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Research Applications and Utilization of Accelerators

4-8 May 2009, Vienna

SM/EB-20

Study of the Effects of Electron Beam on Heavy Metals in Presence of Scavengers for Decontamination and Purification of the Municipal and Industrial Wastewater

A. Behjat

Faculty of Physics, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran

Corresponding Author: abehjat@yazduni.ac.ir

Radiation processing technology has been proven to purify and decontaminate the textile industrial wastewater. The research work undertaken that has overall goal to better understand the EB processing of wastewater containing heavy metals. This research have conducted our study to examine the effects of Electron Beam on laboratory made samples and real samples containing heavy metals such as Pb and Cd in the presence or absence of rice bran as metal scavenger. A 10 MeV Rhodotron accelerator system of Yazd Radiation Processing Center with the beam power of 100 kW was used for irradiation. The concentration of metal ions in the samples before and after irradiation was measured by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. Samples of Lead and Cadmium in distilled water or in solution containing either Sodium acetate (0.01 M) or Ethylene diamine tetra- acetate (0.01 M) were prepared. It was found that, the capability of rice bran for sorption of metal ions in the presence of sodium acetate and ethylene diamine tetra-acetate is lowered. Then, the effect of electron beam irradiation with different doses of 1, 3, 6, and 9 kGy on the laboratory made samples, the wastewater samples taken from the Yazd municipal wastewater plant and textile industry was considered. Results showed that in the presence of scavengers, the concentration of metal ions in solutions irradiated by electron beam has significantly decreased.