A Drop to Drink

New EPA Funding Puts UMass Amherst Water Treatment Innovation to the Test

Reckhowand his colleagues are working with the Patrick administration and the New England Water Innovation Network (NEWIN) to develop a translational cycle that will see early innovations move onto pilot tests and more quickly into use by the public and private sector. Having traveled with Governor Patrick to Israel and Singapore to see model water innovation networks first-hand, Reckhow is ready to help the campus create similar infrastructure for Massachusetts.

According to Reckhow, the industry faces constant changes—the regulatory environment, increasing competition for water supplies, build-out and contamination, and climate change all keep it on its toes. With this in mind, they are designing this network so there will be a constant back-and-forth between the innovators, the researchers and the end-users, so that the research and development will fill specific industry needs.

"Researchers must always be aware of the industry's volatile nature in order to address issues in real-time," says Reckhow.

Reckhow and colleagues around the country are conducting bench-scale, pilot-scale and full-scale experiments with alternative technologies that could enable water treatment plants to more safely and effectively disinfect. Though the use of chlorine has saved many lives since it was first used 100 years ago, epidemiological studies show that it may be causing increased bladder cancer mortality due to the formation of chlorinated organic compounds. Ferrate—a compound produced by mixing iron salt with chlorine before it is used to treat the water—has proven comparable to chlorine as a disinfectant, without the side effects.

The tricky part, however, is getting the recipe just right so that all the chlorine is eliminated in the process. The team is working with industry partners to perfect the process and clarify its proposed benefits. They must also prove its safety before it can be tested and approved at a full-scale level.

"This is something, of course, we don't do lightly," says Reckhow. "It could potentially affect people's health. Everyone needs to agree that it's perfectly safe."

Reckhow focuses on small treatment systems in much of this work. Larger systems have the resources to solve many of their own problems, while small systems are at a disadvantage because they often can't afford such luxuries, says Reckhow. Plus, small systems are more numerous—97 percent of drinking water systems in the US are considered small. Reckhow's new $4.1 million EPA grant will be used to expand this work with small systems, funding the creation of a center on the UMass Amherst campus, to be called WINSSS—Water Innovation Network for Small Sustainable Systems.

In providing funding for this center and another of its kind at the University of Colorado Boulder, Reckhow says the EPA intends to use these two institutions as a place where emerging water technologies can be tested and refined for the betterment of the water utilities across the country. Reckhow's partners on the project are other faculty on the Amherst campus(John Tobiason,Caitlyn Butler,Chul Park,Prashant Shenoy) and researchers at the University of Texas Austin, the University of Florida, the University of South Florida, the University of Illinois, and the University of Nebraska.

WINSSS will focus on proof of concept and bringing early innovations to where they can be tested on a pilot scale.By plugging into NEWIN, Reckhow's research (and WINSSS) will help create jobs and spur the economy. The global water industry is estimated to generate as much as $600 billion this year. With about 300 institutions in Massachusetts involved in water technology and a sea of innovators from Western Massachusetts to the Cambridge area, organizations here are ready to tap into that market and solve the industry's pressing problems. NEWIN was formed to connect these institutions and turn their innovative energy into useful products—a network Reckhow is eager to get moving.

Source: UMass

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• Treatment
• Sludge Separation
• Research