Grants and Contributions:

Title:

Use of nanotechnology for waste water treatment in remote communities by radioluminescence generated UV light from dispersed composite nanoparticles

Agreement Number:

EGP

Agreement Value:

$25,000.00

Agreement Date:

Jun 14, 2017 -

Organization:

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

Location:

Saskatchewan, CA

Reference Number:

GC-2017-Q1-00412

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:

Kasap, Safa (University of Saskatchewan)

Program:

Engage Grants for Universities

Program Purpose:

Innocorps Research Corporation is a local corporation in Saskatoon that is engages in the industrial waste water treatment. Their water treatment process is based on thermochemical processes and does not include any UV treatment stages. In addition, their present system cannot be adapted for purification without any power. They would like to incorporate a UV treatment that is inexpensive and can be self-powered as a final water disinfection step in which the UV treatment would result in safe drinking water. A self-powered UV treatment would also mean that this step can be installed in remote communities as well where there is no electricity or it is not reliable. Water treatment with ultraviolet (UV) light is, of course, an established method of germicidal treatment. There are two problems related to the existing UV technology. The first is a need for electric power, which can exclude the application of this technology in various northern, remote or rural communities as well as for stranded and remote applications. The second is the fact that UV is strongly absorbed by water which requires the tight placement of powerful UV sources close to the water to be treated; the result is the difficulty in uniform UV irradiation of water. In this project, we address both problems by the creation of distributed sources of UV emission powered by built-in internal source of ionizing radiation. We are proposing to examine self-lighting UV emitting nanomaterials in the form of composite particles dispersed in a porous medium. This material could be packaged and engineered for use in water treatment in wells in remote areas and in simple water containers. The self-lighting nanoparticle has a core region that would consist of tungsten or bismuth oxide, which absorbs x-rays. The core material is coated with nanoparticles that exhibit UV emission by X-ray induced luminescence, such as CaF2 (calcium fluoride) nanocrystals. We will calculate the necessary parameters for designing such a system, for example the concentration and weight of the radioactive element needed, the conversion of energy from the radiative source to UV by the excitation of nanocrystals and the loss of some energy in the host glass material, and the necessary total volume of disinfection unit that is needed. Consequently, we would have the necessary parameters for the experimental work in the next phase.