SBIR Phase I: Compact, low-maintenance water treatment plant

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响和商业潜力将是开发一个低足迹饮用水处理厂（WTP），以促进急需的国家水基础设施升级。今天的饮用水处理系统受到大量产生的废物（每个典型工厂每年约10万吨污泥）和高维护要求和成本（每年4次为期一周的澄清池退役清洗）的困扰。美国许多水处理厂的基础设施老化，导致数百万美国人饮用水不足。这种情况，再加上供水工人的老龄化和萎缩，导致供水中断和不合规的威胁日益严重。由于其占地面积小，能源和维护需求低，拟议的技术将提供一个易于实施的解决方案，可以被世界各地的社区和供水系统采用，甚至在偏远地区。如果该计划得到成功开发，将为实现关键的全球可持续发展目标和促进人类健康和福利提供独特的经济机会。这项技术将降低升级国家水利基础设施的障碍，通过工厂实施引入拖延已久的升级，创造就业机会。拟议中的水处理厂正在开发的创新元素包括驱动自动混凝剂剂量的自调节反馈/前馈控制器，该控制器与高效水力絮凝器配对，该絮凝器利用湍流促进絮凝体的形成，同时保持无故障易发移动部件；配有沉降板和污泥毯系统的自清洁澄清器，可有效去除污染物；堆积式滤砂器，可降低给定流量和床层体积下的水力加载速率，从而提高沉积颗粒的稳定性（即减少剪切和颗粒突破）；一个连续污泥脱水和处理系统，减少产生污泥的体积，同时也为进一步处理提供了一个连续的废物流。虽然早期的努力已经建立了一个概念验证，证明与传统系统相比，该系统的能源需求减少了50%，但仍需要继续研究和开发，以提高系统的性能和自主性。根据这一努力，第一阶段的工作将集中在：1)开发精确混凝剂剂量的自动控制系统；2)设计修改，尽量减少废物流量；3)设计和建造一个每分钟15加仑的试验工厂，适合满足300人左右社区的水处理需求。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will be the development of a low footprint drinking water treatment plant (WTP) suited to facilitate much-needed upgrades to the nation’s water infrastructure. Today’s drinking water treatment systems are suffering from high volumes of generated waste (~100,000 tons sludge per typical plant per year) and high maintenance requirements and costs (4x/year week-long clarifier decommissioning for cleaning). The aging infrastructure of many of the nation’s water treatment plants has left millions of Americans with inadequate drinking water. This situation, paired with the aging and shrinking water operator workforce, translates into a growing threat of water supply interruptions and noncompliance. Owing to its small footprint and low energy and maintenance demands, the proposed technology would deliver an easily implementable solution that could be adopted by communities and water systems around the world, even in remote areas. Successfully developed, the WTP will offer a unique economic opportunity to meet critical global sustainable development goals and promote human health and welfare. This technology will lower the barriers to upgrading the nation’s water infrastructure, creating jobs through the introduction of long-delayed upgrades through plant implementation.Elements of the innovation under development for the proposed water treatment plant include a self-modulating feedback/feedforward controller driving automated coagulant dosing, which is paired with a high-efficiency hydraulic flocculator that leverages turbulent flow to promote floc formation while remaining free of failure-prone moving parts; a self-cleaning clarifier fitted with settling plates and a sludge blanket system for efficient contaminant removal; a stacked sand filter that decreases the hydraulic loading rate for a given flow and bed volume, resulting in improved stability of the deposited particles (i.e., reduced shear and particle breakthrough); and a continuous sludge dewatering and treatment system that decreases the volume of produced sludge while also providing a continuous waste stream for further processing. While early efforts have established a proof-of-concept demonstrating operations at 50% less energy demand than conventional systems, continued research and development to improve system performance and autonomy are needed. In line with this effort, the Phase I effort will focus on: 1) development of an automated control system for precise coagulant dosing; 2) design modification to minimize waste stream volume; and 3) design and construction of a pilot plant with 15 gallons per minute capacity, suitable to meet the water treatment needs of communities of ~300 people.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.