FYI - some of you will have interest in attending: Seminar: "Development of Sustainable Catalytic Treatment Technologies for Perchlorate" Timothy J. Strathmann, Ph.D. (Purdue Alum) Associate Professor and Snoeyink Faculty Scholar Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Tuesday, April 17, 2012 Time: 11:30am-12:30 pm Location: Fu Room - Potter 234 Development of Sustainable Catalytic Treatment Technologies for Perchlorate One of the major challenges facing water utilities is meeting increasingly stringent regulations for emerging classes of contaminants. The USEPA recently announced plans to set a stringent regulatory standard for perchlorate (ClO4-), an endocrine disrupting compound (EDC) widely detected in drinking water sources due to improper disposal of ammonium perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel and munitions. This has prompted renewed interest in the development of economical and sustainable technologies for treating perchlorate-contaminated water. This presentation will highlight recent efforts to develop novel heterogeneous catalysts (supported bimetallic Re/Pd) for reducing perchlorate to harmless chloride, and their application for water treatment. Measurements of catalyst activity and stability are combined with spectroscopic studies of the structure and redox cycling of catalyst metals to elucidate the controlling reaction mechanisms and improve catalyst activity. Recent work describing the application of catalysts for treating and recycling waste ion exchange regenerant brines will also be described together with results from a life cycle analysis (LCA) comparing the environmental sustainability of ion exchange and hybrid ion exchange/catalyst treatment processes for oxyanion contaminants like perchlorate. Biosketch Biographical Sketch for Timothy Strathmann: Timm is an Associate Professor and the Snoeyink Faculty Scholar in the Department Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he is also a member of the Center of Advanced Materials for the Purification of Water with Systems (WaterCAMPWS). His research examines redox transformations of aquatic contaminants and the development sustainable catalytic processes for water treatment and bioenergy applications. Dr. Strathmann is the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and his research has been sponsored by NSF, the U.S. EPA, the Water Research Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy. Dr. Strathmann earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in civil engineering from Purdue University and his Ph.D. in environmental engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 2001. He also conducted postdoctoral work at Princeton University prior to joining the UIUC faculty in 2003. Linda S. Lee Ecological Science & Engineering Interdisciplinary Graduate Program, Program Head http://www.purdue.edu/ese/<http://www.purdue.edu/dp/ese/> Professor, Environmental Chemistry, http://www.agry.purdue.edu/staffbio/lslbio.htm Associate Head, Purdue University, Department of Agronomy Crop Soil & Environmental Sciences 915 W. State Street, 3-363 Lilly Hall West Lafayette, IN 47907-2054 Office: (765) 494-8612; Cell (765) 414-3086 Fax (765) 496-2926