Festival for #Water: All the cool kids are doing it
Festival for #Water: All the cool kids are doing it
Stephen Colbert called the University of Massachusetts ‘nerds’. He’s not wrong. He would feel even more strongly about it if he could see our environmental engineering group. #nerdpride
WHEN I HAVE A GOOD DAY IN LAB
credit: Sam
Right now, science and I are not BFFs. I need to have one of these days soon. Yogi Berra said “you can’t think and hit at the same time”. At some point, and in some ways I think this can be said of lab work, too.
One of these things is not like the other. Both are engineered ceramic media; however, the one of the left has been coated with manganese oxide, giving it a black color. Coating the ceramic media in this way allows the media to serve as a form of dissolved manganese treatment from drinking water through a process sometimes called “greensand filtration”. However, unlike typical filtration, the objective here will not be on particle removal but on the removal of a dissolved metal.
To coat this media, we copied a procedure at the lab scale that is proposed to be used at the full scale at a water treatment plant in Connecticut. Based on our results, we expect a significant amount of manganese oxide coating on the ceramic media, and thus we also expect the coated media to effectively remove dissolved manganese to below the treatment goal.
A path to smarter sanitation: Mathew Lippincott
tedx:
In an ever-changing world, the basic design of the toilet remains unchanged. Through a humorous critique of this “antique device”, Mathew Lippincott asks us to think a little harder about how society deals with the problems of sanitation. (Filmed at TEDxConcordiaUPortland)
Each week, we choose four of our favorite talks, highlighting just a few of the enlightening speakers from the TEDx community, and its diverse constellation of ideas worth spreading. Browse all TEDxTalks here »
Green Latrine Wins Business Innovation Award
Last night, our research team won first prize in the MinutePitch competition component of the UMass Innovation Challenge. We pitched our Green Latrine technology and sanitation-as-a-business model to a panel of judges, in competition with 33 other teams from the university. I am proud of our team for their hard work on this. I think I speak for all of them when I say that it feels encouraging to have positive reinforcement for our idea and research. Clearly, there is significant potential to develop our technology in a way that provides sanitation access to those that currently lack it.
The Green Latrine treats waste, protects health, and generates electricity with microbial fuel cells
Office Space (Late Night)
ABTS calibration curve for low level ferrate measurement.
Bench-Scale Assessment of Ferrate Pre-Oxidation
Many small drinking water systems are at a comparative disadvantage due to their size (e.g., limited financial and human resources), and sometimes due to their remote location. The challenge in meeting emerging regulations can be a formidable one. The objective of this research is to test the ability of ferrate oxidation to solve a wide range of water quality and treatment problems faced by small systems. The general working hypothesis is that ferrate is: (1) more effective and less prone to unwanted side effects than conventional technologies such as chlorination, chloramination, and permanganate oxidation, and that it is (2) comparable in performance to advanced technologies such as ozonation or chlorine dioxide oxidation that are more costly, more hazardous or require specialized expertise to operate.
Bench-scale experiments were conducted using raw water from numerous drinking water systems representing a wide range of quality characteristics and treatment needs. In general, primary treatment goals included the oxidation and removal of inorganic contaminants such as iron or manganese in the presence of dissolved organic material (3-5 mg/L TOC). In this way, the ability of ferrate to oxidize various contaminants while producing lower levels of regulated disinfection by-products than other common oxidants was assessed. In addition, some samples were spiked with wastewater contaminants, in an effort to understand the ability of ferrate to control such trace contaminants under conditions typical of water treatment. Conditions (e.g., ferrate dose, pH, etc.) were established to achieve a range of treatment goals.
Results from the bench-scale experiments indicate that ferrate is a powerful oxidant that rapidly oxidizes inorganic contaminants such as iron and manganese. However, fractionation of oxidized metals shows that oxidation with ferrate often yields colloidal particles that may challenge subsequent treatment processes. These particles could be effectively destabilized through charge neutralization.
In the presence of naturally occurring organic matter, oxidation of inorganic contaminants was negatively affected. Complete oxidation of iron and manganese in waters with elevated TOC required many times the estimated stoichiometric dose for complete oxidation and removal. Analysis of chlorine demand and disinfection by-product (DBP) formation following ferrate addition showed slightly decreased chlorine demand and lower amounts of DBPs.
Data from the bench-scale experiments will be presented and conclusions will be drawn regarding implications for treatment at the full scale. We will provide guidance for the beneficial use of ferrate in small systems and highlight the ways it can be used to improve water quality, lower cost and provide a more sustainable treatment alternative to other technologies.
