Photochemical and ion exchange processes for optimized water reuse strategies

水资源是我们文明存在的关键。随着人口增长、城市化和气候变化继续影响自然水资源，公共供水变得紧张和受损，因此有必要制定新的战略来满足未来的水需求。废水再利用是一种新兴的战略，其中社区的废水被回收并用于各种应用，包括饮用水源。考虑到大量的废水资源，有计划的再利用最近在世界一些地区引起了兴趣。然而，再利用应用，特别是饮用水再利用，需要先进的处理工艺，因为废水由一系列污染物组成，这些污染物必须被去除以用于再利用应用或当处理后的水被排放到环境敏感地区时。特别令人关切的是有机和无机微污染物的残留水平，其环境和健康影响才刚刚认识到。一个例子包括全氟烷基和多氟烷基物质（PFAS），它们来自食品容器、不粘锅和消防泡沫，在美国和加拿大根据不同的准则立即采取行动加以管制。 我的研究计划的长期目标是继续解决与水质相关的基本挑战，通过开发和实施先进的，强大的，操作简单的处理技术。在短期内，该计划旨在研究，开发和优化能够有效去除受损或回收水中的PFAS等新兴微污染物的工艺，用于再利用应用。更具体地说，该计划将侧重于扩展我们实验室中进行的开创性工作，进一步开发离子交换（IEX）以及使用新兴紫外线源的光化学辅助高级氧化/还原过程（例如，真空紫外线和微等离子体紫外线），以有效降解目标微污染物。 本研究的目标将通过广泛的实验室实验进行实验室规模的IEX和UV反应器，沿着建模和理论分析。结果将在真实的世界操作条件下的中试规模装置中进一步验证。试点研究将与当地公用事业和几个与我们有长期合作关系的工业伙伴合作进行。通过密切参与研究，该行业将在通过我们团队进行的工作获得的知识上领先一步。此外，研究生和本科生，通过参与这项变革性的研究，将获得必要的知识和技能，以解决新出现的水质和处理的挑战，保护环境和人类健康，以及在一个新兴领域的领导至关重要的水资源的可持续性。

Water sources are the key to existence of our civilization. As population growth, urbanization, and climate change continue to impact natural water resources, public water supplies are becoming stressed and impaired, necessitating the development of new strategies to meet future water demands. Wastewater reuse is one emerging strategy where the community's wastewater is recycled and used for various applications, including a source of drinking water. Considering the vast abundance of wastewater resources, planned reuse has recently gained interest in some parts of the world. However, reuse applications, especially potable reuse, require advanced treatment processes since the wastewater consists of a range of contaminants that must be removed for reuse applications or when the treated water is to be discharged to environmentally sensitive areas. Of particular concern are residual levels of organic and inorganic micropollutants, whose environmental and health impacts are just being realized. An example includes per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) which originate from food containers, non-stick pans, and firefighting foams, and are regulated with immediate action under different guidelines in the United States and in Canada. The long term goal of my research program is to continue addressing the fundamental challenges associated with water quality, through the development and implementation of advanced, robust, and simple to operate treatment technologies. In the short term, this program aims to research, develop and optimize processes capable of effectively removing emerging micropollutants such as PFASs from impaired or recycled water, intended for reuse applications. More specifically, this program will focus on extending the pioneering work conducted in our laboratory towards further developing ion exchange (IEX) as well as photochemically assisted advanced oxidation / reduction processes using emerging sources of UV (e.g., Vacuum UV and Microplasma UV) for effective degradation of the target micropollutants. The objectives of this research will be achieved through extensive laboratory experiments conducted using bench scale IEX and UV reactors, along with modeling and theoretical analyses. The results will be further validated in pilot scale setups under real world operating conditions. Pilot studies will be carried out in collaboration with local utilities and several industrial partners with whom we have had long collaboration. By being involved closely in the research, the industry will have a head start on the knowledge gained through the work conducted by our team. Besides, graduate and undergraduate students, through involvement in this transformative research, will gain the knowledge and skills essential to addressing emerging water quality and treatment challenges and to protecting the environment and human health, as well as leading in an emerging area of critical importance for the sustainability of water resources.