Grants and Contributions:

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Title:
Bench-Scale RO Systems for Potable Reuse
Agreement Number:
EGP
Agreement Value:
$25,000.00
Agreement Date:
Dec 13, 2017 -
Organization:
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Location:
Ontario, CA
Reference Number:
GC-2017-Q3-00628
Agreement Type:
Grant
Report Type:
Grants and Contributions
Additional Information:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

Recipient's Legal Name:
de Lannoy, Charles-François (McMaster University)
Program:
Engage Grants for universities
Program Purpose:

Water is the most important resource for humanity. Yet, abundant and safe drinking water is not available tox000D
over 60% of the world's population. The availability of potable water is under threat with growing globalx000D
populations, over-tapped ground water supplies, the continued contamination of fresh water sources, and thex000D
drought-inducing impacts of climate change. Potable reuse is the process of treating wastewater to the level atx000D
which it can be safely consumed as drinking water. This process is critical to address global drinking waterx000D
shortages, specifically in large municipal centers and/or drought-prone regions of the world. Treatment ofx000D
wastewater to produce drinking water must be done safely. In order to do this a combination of membranex000D
treatment and UV disinfection has been proposed. Membrane treatment using a process train of microfiltrationx000D
(MF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes removes all the contaminants in wastewater. UV disinfection is thex000D
final process and it inactivates all bacteria and viruses that may remain in the post-membrane treated water.x000D
During the membrane filtration steps the membranes can become fouled by the constituents of wastewater. Tox000D
prevent RO membrane fouling during operation anti-scalants and anti-foulants, such as chloramine, arex000D
periodically added to the feed water. These anti-scalants and anti-foulants, however, pass through thex000D
membrane and enter the final UV disinfection step. These anti-scalants and anti-foulants scavenge UV lightx000D
reducing UV transmittance. The UV disinfection has a decreased effectiveness when the UV transmittance isx000D
reduced, thereby necessitating a larger UV AOP system size to account for the potential UV scavenging. Thex000D
proposed project investigates new membranes that can reduce the amount of anti-foulants and anti-scalantsx000D
required, which will maximize the effectiveness of the UV disinfection process. Reducing anti-foulant andx000D
anti-scalant use will reduce the overall cost of treating wastewater for potable reuse.