Removal of Ionic Copper Contamination from the Marine Environment
Abstract
A major source of trace metal contamination in the marine environment comes from the copper-containing anti-fouling coatings on ship hulls. In a shipyard, these hulls release ionic copper into confined spaces such as dry docks. The releases can come from the coatings on the hill, or the debris and waste fines produced in the hull cleaning operation. The unified national discharge standards (UNDS) wilt eventually restrict releases of ionic copper. Therefore, it is important to develop an inexpensive but useful technology to remove the ionic contaminant from the water. To make this removal possible, a technology based on absorption and recovery of the ionic copper is considered. A set of nine materials with trace metal absorption capability were investigated (cellulose, live plankton, dead plankton, live algae, chitin, zeolite, milled chitosan, flake chitosan, and algin). The analyses used flaked chitosan as the comparison base. It is assumed that flaked chitosan prepared from seafood waste chitin would be the most cost effective. In addition, there would be a cost in developing a filter system to clean the ionic copper containing waste, recycle the cleaned water, and recover the copper. The conclusions from this study are: (1) chitosan is a good absorber of ionic copper; (2) chitosan can be developed from seafood waste through a relatively simple chemical process; (3) chitosan can be used after recovery of the copper contamination; and (4) the process will not harm the marine environment.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 29, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA400638
Entities
People
- John W. Foerster
- Robert A. Lamontagne
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory