NGWREF Funds Research on Electrochemically Enhanced Bioremediation of Groundwater

The National Ground Water Research and Educational Foundation has awarded a grant to Daqian Jiang, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota, for a research project on the bioremediation of groundwater.

Jiang will receive $8,000 for his project, “Electrochemically Enhanced Bioremediation for Attenuation of Arsenic, Nitrate and Emerging Contaminants in Groundwater,” which addresses a key priority area of NGWREF—the research of emerging contaminants and the development of remediation technologies that can be used to address current and new pollutants.

Further, the project integrates well with NGWREF’s mission to address public concerns about groundwater quality through “providing research that can result in sound, reliable science and innovative, effective, cost-saving technologies for improved use, management, protection and remediation of groundwater resources.”

Jiang’s proposed research aims to develop a “drop-and-treat” alternative for enhanced remediation of arsenic, nitrate and emerging contaminants in groundwater, and produce a prototype device that is an innovative solution to some long-standing and emerging challenges in groundwater remediation.

It is also among the first research to investigate the mechanisms of electro-biochemical remediation of arsenic, nitrate, and emerging contaminants with advanced molecular techniques, which will collect critical information needed to assess the scale-up potential of electrically enhanced bioremediation.

If successful, the proposed research will introduce a new category of technologies that has the potential of complementing existing technologies and addressing many emerging challenges in groundwater remediation.