1 part Nano Ferrosoferric Oxide and 2 parts JELLO, a Recipe for Radioactive Wastewater Remediation and Contaminated Aquifer Clean Up

At present, billions of dollars are spent each year to remediate process waste-water, sewage, wastes that are radioactive, contaminated groundwater aquifers, and soil containing harmful contaminants. Remediation methods include above-ground methods and in-ground methods.  The twenty year cost to clean up 294,000 polluted sites is estimated in the mid-range at $209 billion by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but the cost could soar to more than $250 billion to clean up more than 350,000 sites.

A New York inventor has developed a recipe using JELLO iron nano-particles to clean up ground water, industrial waste and process water and sewage.  The JELLO and iron-nanoparticles form a semipermeable barrier that removes waste from the water, including radioactive waste, as it moves through the mix of JELLO and metal treated treated nanoparticles.

In U.S. Patent 20090314719, inventor Peter Papagianakis (Greenwood Lake, NY) details metal-treated nanoparticles for remediation of radioactive and chemically contaminated wastewater. Metal-treated ferrosoferric oxide particles impart advantageous performance in the removal of contaminants from, e.g., process waste-water, sewage, radioactive wastes, soil and groundwater.

A dispersion of metal-treated nanoparticles include a ferrosoferric oxide core and a metal supported on the core, where the average diameter or other largest transverse dimension of the core is from about 75 nm to about 990 nm and the amount of metal supported on the core is from about 8% to about 22% by weight, based on the weight of the metal-treated particle.  Iron-treated ferrosoferric oxide particles could provide a more effective nuclear waste remediation agent.

The dispersant is JELLO and sodium laurel sulfate, acacia, gelatine, poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone), saponified olive oil, methyl cellulose, or any mixture thereof. The amount of dispersant is from about 0.02 g to about 2.0 g per gram of metal-treated particles.  

Among their many uses, ferric trioxide and/or ferrosoferric oxide are presently used in applications such as magnetic ink coatings and recording media. Treating these substrates to form metal-treated ferric trioxide and/or ferrosoferric oxide particles enhance their properties compared to the corresponding untreated particles, thereby enhancing the applications in which the corresponding untreated particles are presently used. 

Contamination of groundwater, i.e., underground water, is a major problem affecting, for example, sources of drinking water. Many contaminants are known or potential threats to human health. Some contaminants were once widely used in industrial and commercial activities, and they entered the soil and/or groundwater through improper or illegal disposal practices. Some contaminants are present in sewage and/or process waste-water and must be remediated before they are discharged into the waterway system.

The U.S. EPA has estimated that it will cost more than $250 billion dollars over the next twenty years to remediate.  The following table presents an EPA estimate of the number of programs, and the number of sites under their jurisdiction and the price tag to clean up the sites.

The following table hows the EPA's mid-range cost estimate of $209 billion to clean 294,000 contaminated sites in the U.S. over a 20 year period.