Bozeman, Montana ­ Environmental managers at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and researchers at CHA Corporation, a remediation research and development company in Laramie, Wyo., have formed a partnership to evaluate CHA's novel approach for removing contaminants from air and water using microwave technology.

The MSU TechLink Center, a technology transfer assistance organization in Bozeman, Mont., and the Edwards AFB Technology Management Office, facilitated the partnership between CHA and the Air Force for an on-site demonstration of CHA's innovative technology.

CHA Corporation's technology involves a process of passing contaminated water and vapor through a bed of activated carbon to remove and concentrate target substances such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The VOCs that adhere to the carbon are then converted by microwaves to harmless carbon dioxide and water. The carbon is periodically regenerated using microwave energy and reused. In other systems, steam is used to regenerate the carbon, but the removal effectiveness of steam-regenerated carbon starts to decline after three to four regeneration cycles. With CHA's innovative use of microwave energy to regenerate the carbon, the carbon can be used multiple times, providing tremendous cost savings.

In conventional methods such as catalytic oxidation, a significant amount of natural gas is required for the destruction of VOCs in air. This method produces secondary pollutants including nitrogen oxides (NOx) and dioxins. "The use of CHA's microwave technology eliminates the natural gas requirement and secondary air pollutants, resulting in a large amount of energy savings," said Dr. Chang-Yul Cha, President of CHA Corporation.

Like most Department of Defense facilities, Edwards AFB has numerous environmental cleanup sites on its premises and is seeking innovative, cost-effective technologies to remediate these sites. CHA Corporation has demonstrated its cost-effective approach at other Air Force base cleanup sites where the technology has proven effective for removing harmful substances from air, water and soil. Most of the research and development funding for CHA's technology was provided by the Air Force under the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Program. In 1999, the company also received an award from Montana State University (MSU), Bozeman, to develop an air cleaning system for laboratory fume hoods for the new EpiCenter Building, which is intended to have near zero emissions.

TechLink is located at MSU and funded by the Department of Defense and NASA to link companies in Montana and the surrounding region with federal laboratories for joint research and technology transfer. Its overriding purpose is to contribute to the success of both technology-based companies and key resource-based industries in the state and region.

Contacts:
Dan Swanson
MSU TechLink
(406) 994-7736
dss@montana.edu

Dr. Chang-Yul Cha
CHA Corporation
(307) 742-2829
ccha@wyoming.com

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