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

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

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.