SBIR-STTR Award

The broader impact / commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is to offer a low cost solution to purify water for reuse applications with higher effectiveness and superior performance than currently available technologies. The global water scarcity, including some parts of the US such as southwest, has led to a strong need for efficient technologies to treat wastewater for direct or indirect potable reuse. Current technologies such as carbon filters and chemical oxidation, have limited efficiency and are expensive for the removal of trace organic contaminants from wastewater for water reuse. To address this unfulfilled need, this project seeks to develop a low cost, reusable filter unit for water purification to remove and destroy hazardous organic contaminants. No secondary waste products or harmful byproducts will be produced in the purified water. The proposed technology is expected to be used by entities conducting industrial wastewater and groundwater treatment, and wastewater utilities that have a focus on water reuse.

The objective of this Phase I research project is to develop this low cost, reusable filter technology for water treatment. Specifically, the project will evaluate and demonstrate: (1) long term stability and performance of the new filter media involving a novel coated sand adsorbent (2) the non-biodegradability of the filter material, and (3) the robustness of the regeneration process. The work will confirm the stability of this new adsorbent media for multiple (>100) regeneration cycles. The project will also seek to demonstrate the stability of the adsorbent from bacterial attacks and if necessary, develop methods to prevent biodegradation. Applicability of the adsorbent to treat industrial wastewater, municipal wastewater and groundwater will be tested, and pretreatment steps will be identified if needed. The limitation of the technology with regard to certain specific organics will be determined. The following contaminants, at trace levels, are the initial target of this technology: 17beta-estradiol (representative of estrogenic hormones); bisphenol-A (used in plastics); ibuprofen, mepbromate and iopromide (pharmaceutical); and atrazine (pesticide).

The broader impact / commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project is to offer a low-cost novel filter to purify water with higher effectiveness and superior performance than currently available technologies such as carbon filters. The global water scarcity, including some parts of the US such as the southwest, has led to a strong need for efficient technologies to purify wastewater for direct or indirect potable reuse. Recently, there has been growing concerns over emerging contaminants such as perfluorinated compounds (PFCs e.g. PFOA and PFOS) in surface and groundwater. These PFCs are being found at many groundwater sites and in drinking water wells affected by PFCs. Current technologies are not efficient for the removal of PFCs from water, and there is an immediate need for new cost-effective treatment technologies. To address this unfulfilled need, this project seeks to develop a low cost, reusable filter unit for water purification to remove emerging contaminants such as PFCs. The technology is expected to be used by entities conducting industrial wastewater and groundwater treatment, and wastewater utilities that have a focus on water reuse. The objectives of this Phase II research project are to develop a prototype water filter, test and optimize it for the removal of emerging contaminants with a focus on PFCs. Specifically, the project will focus on: (1) optimization of the adsorbent performance and synthesis method; and scale-up of the synthesis method for bulk production of filter media; (2) optimization of the filter regeneration process; and (3) design, construct, and test a prototype unit of the technology; and determine the process cost. The work will confirm the effectiveness of the filter in removing the target contaminants as well as the effectiveness of the regeneration process to reuse the filter. The PFC contaminants will be first removed from the water and then destroyed. The overall performance of the technology will also be evaluated and compared with other available technologies to determine its cost-effectiveness.