U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Contracts Management Division, Cincinnati, OH 45268-7001

A -- PERVAPORATION PILOT UNIT SOL C500219T1 POC Contact Point, Raoul D. Scott Jr., (513)366-2071, Contracting Officer, Raoul D. Scott. Jr., (513)366-2071 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a need for a contractor to supply a Pervaporation Pilot Unit for the Office of Research and Development's Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory, located in Cincinnati, OH. The contamination of ground/surface waters by accidental, as well as intentional, releases of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) (e.g. toluene, benzene, and trichloroethylene) is a worldwide environmental dilemma. As a result, the development of efficient processes to remediate VOC- tainted groundwater and to remove VOCs from industrial wastewater is of paramount importance. Prevaporation is a membrane based process in which a water stream containing VOCs (1-500 ppm) is contacted with one side of VOC-permeable membrane while a vacuum or gas purge is applied to the other side. Since the membrane is VOC-selective, the material on the vapor side of the membrane will contain VOCs with concentrations in the weight % range (a concentration factor of approximately 1,000). This concentrated stream is commonly condensed and disposed of in a separate process or, preferably, recycled back into the process. Researchers at the Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory and other government/university/private facilities have investigated the use of pervaporation at the bench-scale, but relatively 1ittle research has been performed at the pilot-scale. In order to adequately evaluate this technology, a pilot-scale unit is required. The pervaporation shall be capable of removing VOCs from water and concentrating them 1,000 fold. The concentration factor and discharge concentration are functions of many parameters, including pressure (feed and permeate), temperature, flow rate, feed concentration, type of membrane, and membrane area. Many of these parameters can be studied at the bench-scale during preliminary screening studies. However, the performance of a specific membrane material/module for a particular VOC or set of VOCs under continuous operating conditions cannot be adequately quantified with a bench-scale unit. Instead, a pervaporation system which shall be capable of achieving over 95% VOC removal efficiency while operating continuously for at least 24 hours is required by the Government. The pilot-unit shall be able to accept currently available membrane modules as well as modules containing innovative membranes prepared at the Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory or by other researchers. The Government's minimum specifications/qualifications shall be provided in any resultant solicitation. The successful contractor shall install and providing training relative to the operation and maintenance of the pervaporation system at the Governments facility in Cincinnati. The Government anticipates awarding a Negotiated Firm-Fixed-Price completion type contract. All request for the solicitation must be in writing to the Contracting Officer (C.O.), Raoul D. Scott. Request may be faxed to the C.O. at 513-366-2004. (0030)

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