Bruce E. Rittmann, John Evans Professor of Environmental Engineering at the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, received U.S. Patent No. 6,387,262 for a hollow-fiber membrane biofilm reactor that, through a natural biochemical process of electron transfer, turns perchlorate into innocuous chloride.
The cost-effective and environmentally friendly system also works on nitrate, a contaminant from agricultural fertilizers that can cause methemoglobinemia, or blue-baby syndrome, in infants, and is expected to be successful with other oxidized pollutants, such as bromate, selenate, heavy metals, radionuclides, and a range of chlorinated solvents, including trichloroethylene, a problem in the semiconductor industry.