Abstract
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in cooperation with E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Company, Inc. (DuPont) and the Oberlin Filter Company (Oberlin), undertook a field demonstration project to evaluate microfiltration technology for removal of zinc and suspended solids from wastewater. The microfiltration system utilized DuPont's Tyvek T-980 membrane filter media in conjunction with the Oberlin automatic pressure filter. The project was undertaken at the Palmerton Zinc Superfund site in April 1990 to verify the ability of the technology to remove dissolved zinc from the site's shallow groundwater. Pretreatment of the groundwater with lime for pH adjustment to precipitate dissolved zinc and other metals was included as part of the technology demonstration program. Analysis of the treated filtrate indicated that the system removed precipitated zinc and other suspended solids at an efficiency greater than 99.9 percent. The filter cake produced during the study passed both the Extraction Procedure (EP) Toxicity and the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) tests.