Expanding the water safety toolbox for small and decentralized drinking water systems using risk analysis, photocatalytic technologies, and pilot scale equipment

分散式饮用水系统(DDWS)为包括加拿大在内的全球数百万人提供饮用水。DDWS往往缺乏先进的水处理，而且由DDWS提供服务的许多社区的财政和业务能力有限。研究表明，与管道分配系统服务的社区相比，这些社区更有可能被置于沸水警告之下，并经历不利的水质事件。市政饮用水处理工艺的设计不能像DDWS那样在低流量和间歇性流量下运行。在较小规模下有效且材料和能量投入有限的新型处理技术是最大限度地提高DDWS水安全的关键。光催化技术利用了某些材料在适当波长的光照射下会产生高度氧化自由基的事实，在DDWS中很有希望，因为它们可以同时提供消毒和化学污染物去除，而且需要的化学投入很少。我建议使用先进的水质分析和建模方法探索DDWS中的水安全挑战，并开发和演示光催化技术，这些技术可以补救这些挑战，并根据DDWS服务的社区的需要进行量身定做。我的研究团队将在加拿大四个具有代表性的DDW中记录从源头到水龙头的饮用水安全。结果将被用于识别水安全危害，并利用机器学习原理建立基于风险的预测水安全模型。他们还将介绍模块化飞行员设备的设计和建造，该设备可以准确地模拟DDWS中不同点的条件。该单元试点将为扩大和演示光催化技术以改善DDWS的饮用水安全提供场所。它还将很容易重新配置和重新用于与DDWS有关的其他研究，包括腐蚀实验以及对使用点和入口点技术的评估。这项研究计划将改善小型和分散式饮用水系统的水安全，并使社区能够利用具有成本效益的水技术来识别和管理其系统中的水安全危害。参与这一研究项目的学生将深入了解加拿大的水化学、光催化、饮用水处理和管理，以及与水采样和分析、实验设计、实验设备的设计和操作以及社区参与相关的技能。

Decentralized drinking water systems (DDWS) provide drinking water to millions of people around the world, including in Canada. DDWS often lack advanced water treatment and many communities that are served by DDWS have limited financial and operational capacity. Research suggests that these communities are more likely to be placed under boil water advisories and experience adverse water quality events than those served by piped distribution systems. Municipal drinking water treatment processes are not designed to operate at the low and intermittent flows that occur in DDWS. Novel treatment technologies that are effective at smaller scales and have limited material and energy inputs are key to maximizing water safety in DDWS. Photocatalytic technologies, which exploit the fact that some materials generate highly oxidative radicals when exposed to light of the correct wavelength, are promising for DDWS because they can provide concurrent disinfection and chemical contaminant removal and require few chemical inputs. I propose to explore water safety challenges in DDWS using advanced water quality analysis and modelling methods and to develop and demonstrate photocatalytic technologies that can remediate these challenges and are tailored to the needs of communities served by DDWS. My research team will document drinking water safety from source to tap in four representative DDWS in Canada. The results will be used to identify water safety hazards and build a risk-based predictive water safety model using machine learning principles. They will also inform the design and construction of a modular pilot apparatus that accurately simulates conditions at different points in DDWS. The modular pilot will provide a venue for the scale up and demonstration of photocatalytic technologies to improve drinking water safety in DDWS. It will also be easy to reconfigure and repurpose for other studies related to DDWS, including corrosion experiments and the evaluation of point of use and point of entry technologies. This research program will improve water safety in small and decentralized drinking water systems and empower communities to recognize and manage water safety hazards in their systems using cost-effective water technology. The students that participate in this research program will acquire in-depth understanding of water chemistry, photocatalysis, and drinking water treatment and management in Canada along with skills related to water sampling and analysis, experimental design, the design and operation of pilot equipment, and community engagement.