Quantitative Performance Assessment and Rational Design of Reducing Materials for Water Treatment

Oregon Health & Science University, Portland OR

Investigators

Abstract

CBET 1333476 Paul G. Tratnyek Oregon Health & Science University There are many established and emerging water treatment technologies based on granular materials that remove contaminants by reduction. These technologies range from reactive barriers of iron metal that degrade chlorinated solvents in groundwater to filters containing iron oxides that remove arsenic from drinking water. Ongoing efforts are advancing these technologies on all fronts, mostly through ad hoc testing of novel reducing materials on common contaminants or testing of novel contaminants with common reducing materials. However, there are not yet any general metrics or models that can be used to advance these technologies by taking advantage of their common characteristics. Such tools would facilitate process optimization and enable quantitative performance assessment for comparison of competing alternatives or rational design of novel reducing materials. This project aims to fill this gap by developing a flexible, quantitative, and powerful diagnostic approach to characterizing the reactivity of all types of granular reducing materials used in water treatment systems. Part of the project will involve measuring contaminant degradation in conventional bench-scale reactors using a wide variety of potentially useful reducing particulate materials (granular metals, metal oxides, metal sulfides, etc.). However, most of the experimental work will focus on developing advanced electrochemical methods for characterizing the materials based on a newly developed method for forming the particles into electrodes. The results obtained by this electrochemical approach will be applied to better understand the fundamental processes controlling the performance of reducing materials for water treatment and to provide data for quantitative models that can be used to predict the performance of new, as yet untested, materials. Preliminary predictions made using these models will be tested experimentally to validate the models and demonstrate their practical utility. Access to clean water requires methods to remove a variety of contaminants, and this project aims to improve on the water treatment methods that are currently available. The focus of this project is on chemical contaminants, but the treatment methods under investigation can also serve to control other types of contaminants, such as pathogenic bacteria, viruses, etc. In addition to the identification of new/better reducing materials for water treatment, and the development of systematic methods for identification and optimization of materials for water treatment, this project also will initiate a novel partnership with training programs for water treatment industry professionals to maximize the impacts of this and future research and development projects. This award is being co-funded by NSF?s Office of International and Integrative Activities.