THE MIAMI ELECTRON-BEAM RESEARCH FACILITY - A LARGE-SCALE WASTE-WATERTREATMENT APPLICATION

The Electron Beam Research Facility (EBRF) located in Miami, Florida h ouses a 1.5 MV, 50 mA electron accelerator. Extensive large scale (460 1 min-1) research on the use of electron beams for the treatment of w ater and wastewater has been conducted at this facility over the last several years. Initial research focused on determining the disinfectio n kinetics of bacteria in different wastewater streams at large scale. Our most recent experiments have focused on evaluating the effectiven ess of electron beam irradiation in treating industrial wastes and con taminated groundwaters. The latter has been accomplished by dissolving toxic organic compounds of interest in large quantities of potable wa ter (groundwater). The contaminated groundwater simulant is then treat ed with the electron beam. This paper provides a detailed description of the EBRF, including equipment and layout, experimental protocols us ed for the research, reliability and maintenance performance estimates based on our operational experience, and treatment cost estimates.