Grafénoksid for rensing av radioaktivt forurenset vann

Abalonyx´researchers have in this project developed a graphene oxide based adsorbent/scavenger for heavy radionuclides that can be used for both aqueous and organic solutions applying ordinary industrial methods and equipments. Abalonyx appears to be the only supplier capable of producing larger amounts of graphene oxide (GO). In this project we have both scaled up the production process with focus on safety and further optimized a special grade of GO for the intended water treatment use. We have developed fitrable GO-particles, that facilitates the industrial implementation of the water treatment process tremendously. Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) in Kjeller, Norway has participated in the prosject measuring the amounts of radioactive nuclides adsorbed under different conditions. They have verified that the method is applicable for a range of important radionuclides, and specifically heavy multivalent ions of elements such as Pu, Pb, Ra, U etc in both aqueous and organic solutions. On the other hand, we found that GO is not very efficiant in adsorbing lighter mono- and divalent ions such as e.g. Cs+ and Sr2+ in aqueous systems whereas the efficiency increases considerably in organic systems. IFE has also found that GO can be used to remediate a "historical nuclear waste" that has been stored since the 1960s. As a result, we now follow up on marketing our technology towards the nuclear industry, North Sea industry and ?fracking?, whereas we see that we have little to offer to Fukushima where the main problem is Cs, Sr, tritium and other relatively light isotopes. Furthermore, Skaland Graphit AS has participated in the project. Skaland is Europes only graphite mine, and in addition produces a high quality graphite very suitable as raw material for production of GO and in this project we have successfully adjusted our process to take advantage of this opportunity. Skaland has provided material that gives an improved GO that we now foresee to use in the future. Dada AS has helped us optimise the process control, so that it is now half-automated. They have also provided a set of alarms to help detect any abnormal function in the process. The process gives dilute acids as waste, and for this purpose we have established contact with OMYA in Molde who provides us with limestone slurry for neutralization of this waste. We established in 2012 a relation to Instituto de Nanotecnologia de Aragón, Spain, who are specialists in the characterisation of GO and other graphene derivatives helping us with advanced characterization of our materials. Our goal is to practically contribute to the remediation of liquid nuclear waste in installations like Sellafield, and we are in conversations with a Spanish company engaged in service towards the nuclear industry. We have established a relation to SafeClean AS engaged in rinsing of equipment from North Sea activities. The washing water at SafeClean contains radionuclides and we have planned a medium scale trial "on site" at their facility. We have in the last period worked with optimization and characterization of GO aiming at the development of an optimized system for water treatment in general and liquid nuclear waste in particular, and three different patentapplications are planned based on these developments. One important activity in this project has been related to the safety of GO-production. The original process is infamous for risk of thermal runaway. We have succeeded to modify the process so that we have eliminated this risk. This was verified in a field trial in an explosion-lab operated by an oil- and gas service company in western Norway. We simulated the five «worst case» events that we could foresee having potential to result in thermal runaway. None of these resulted in explosion. The conclusion is that we have established a safe method for production that can be further scaled towards industrialization.

Grafénoksid (GO) har nylig funnet anvendelse for rensing av vann forurenset med radioaktive nuklider. Vi solgte våren 2014 ett kilo GO til en leverandør av slik teknologi og fikk tilbakemelding om at de ønsket tilbud på minimum ett tonn per måned i 2015 (Dette er senere blitt forsinket og behovet ser nå ut til å være maksimalt 1 tonn i 2015). Abalonyx ser ut til å være det eneste selskapet som kan være istand til å klare dette. Vi ønsker å maksimere vår posisjon ved å dels oppskalere produksjons-prosessen og dels tune vår GOs egenskaper for dette formålet. Før oppskaleringen igangsettes skal sikkerheten ved prosessen evalueres og godkjennes av GexCon. Vi skal videre forsøke å fremstille filtrerbare "beads" av GO. Vi involverer IFE for å måle adsorpsjon av utvalgte radionuklider på våre prøver. Videre deltar Skaland Graphite AS som er Europas eneste produsent av den typen grafitt som kan brukes som råmateriale for fremstilling av GO, og vi vil i prosjektet tune prosessen til å være tilpasset dette råstoffet. Prosessen gir en del avfall i form av fortynnet syre som vi ønsker å resirkulere, og for dette formålet involverer vi NIVA. Vi etablerte i 2012 et samarbeid med Instituto de Nanotecnologia de Aragón i Zaragoza som er spesialister på karakterisering av grafén og GO og de vil forestå kjemiske og fysiske analyser av våre prøver.