Project Summary/Abstract AxNano, LLC SBIR Fasttrack 2019 The EPA estimates that one out of every four Americans lives within three miles of a hazardous waste site. To meet the growing need for remediating these contaminated sites, the US remediation market has been increasing steadily since 2009, averaging 2-3% increases per year. The global environmental remediation technology market is forecasted to expand to $80.5 billion in 2019. Remediation of contaminated sites can cost upwards of millions of dollars and can last for decades, especially in challenging geological settings such as low permeability (low-k) zones (e.g., clay and bedrock). Sites where contaminants are concentrated in low permeability zones are a particular industry headache as these areas can serve as sub-surface “source zones” providing slow release of contaminants into transmissive zones for decades of longer. Traditional, liquid-phase remediation injections that are successfully used in more permeable areas, when applied to low-k zones often result in only partial clean-up followed by chronic site management. Costly re-applications to address rebounding (increases in contaminant concentration following remediation) and tailings (persistent non-zero contaminant levels) are one of the biggest pain-points for environmental engineers. These rebounding and tailings lead to increase liability, increased remediation cost, and long drawn-out remediation schemes. AxNano, in collaboration with North Carolina A&T, has specially formulated their patented controlled release technology to address these persistent low-k zones. RemRx® CRI, controlled release injectant, can be emplaced into low k zones by hydraulic fracturing and provide sustained levels of ISCO reagents directly into the trapped contaminated area with one/few applications to address these issues of rebounding and tailings. AxNano has established prototypes and preliminary studies to support a Fasttrack SBIR program. Phase I of the program will support the development RemRx® CRI, through bench-scale testing of prototypes in low- k zone 2-D flow chambers and radius of influence estimation by computational modeling. Phase II aims to pilot- scale demonstrate manufacturing the Phase I-validated MVP and field test at two sites in the Piedmont Region. Field demonstrations will include comparison to straight oxidant performance. Data from pilot-scale demonstration and computational modeling will be used to design full-scale deployments. AxNano will design a full scale manufacturing process to support transition of the RemRxTM CRI technology to future large scale deployment. This technology development program leverages a unique intellectual property position to develop this new RemRxTM family of products. The remediation and broader water/wastewater markets are complex, making market uptake of new remediation technologies difficult. However, controlled release ISCO agents are of strong interest. The AxNano Team is committed to achie...