Sonochemistry comes of age.

Caltech, with our participation, has tested the Pilotstation 4000C. The Keck Laboratory at Caltech's Pasadena campus, specializes in chemical remediation. Remediation is the removal or reduction of unwanted wastes. Caltech's Dr. Michael Hoffmann has published extensively in sonochemical remediation. The Pilotstation tests were conducted against several unwanted chemicals in water, and was found to provide, typically, 80% remediation within 18 minutes of ultrasonic exposure.

The Pilotstation has a vessel of about 7.2 liter volume. Thus, the "scaleup problem", Which has plagued Sonochemist for quite a while, appears to have been solved. Historically, sonochemistry seemed to be "lab bound", because it appeared that experiments performed in the laboratory ( in vessels of about ½ liter ) could not be "scaled up" to commercially meaningful treatment volumes. But now, with the tests from Caltech, it appears that sonochemistry is ready for the real world.

The highest use for the Pilotstation, of course, is not in remediation, but is in chemical synthesis. While remediation is important, to keep our environment clean, it is nevertheless a pretty thankless job. Chemical synthesis, on the other hand, is where a Pilotstation can actually become a "profit center" for business, by aiding in the production of many difficult chemicals and compounds.

Dr. Hoffmann's paper, documenting the Pilotstation tests, has been accepted for publication in a Chemical Engineering journal: Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. We hope this will help sonochemistry to become a useful tool for the world's Chemical Engineers. Look for the article:

Scale-up of sonochemical reactors for water treatment

by

Hugo Destaillats, Timothy M. Lesko,

Michael Knowlton#, Henry Wallace# and Michael R. Hoffmann*

W. M. Keck Laboratories

California Institute of Technology

Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.

# Ultrasonic Energy Systems Inc.

Panama City, FL 32406, USA.

Submitted to Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. January 2001

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * To whom correspondence should be addressed: California Institute of Technology, Phone (626) 395-4391 Fax (626) 395-3170, e-mail: mrh@cco.caltech.edu.