Prof Bruce Jefferson, Dr E Cartmell
No more applications being accepted
Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
About the Project
Sponsored by Thames Water Utilities Limited and EPSRC, this studentship will provide a stipend of £19,000 per annum (year 1 & 2) rising to £20,000 per annum (year 3 & 4)*. This is open to UK/EU students only
Start Date: 2nd October 2015
Ref: CRAN1064
Supervisors:
Prof. Bruce Jefferson – Professor of Water Engineering
Prof. Elise Cartmell – Director of Environmental Technology
Background / rationale
Indirect potable reuse (IPR) is a critical component of future water resource plans for much of the world including UK regions in the south and east of the country. A key challenge is the removal of chemicals of concern broadly defined as micropollutants such as pesticides, pharmaceuticals and steriod estrogens. Traditionally, membrane bioreactors with reverse osmosis (MBR-RO) have been perceived as the most appropriate option for delivery of the required treatment level for IPR as the membranes act as robust barrier concentrating up the micropollutants into the reject streams. Advanced oxidation offers a promising alternative which has the potential to challenge the sustainability and economic suitability of RO. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) destroy rather than concentrate the micropollutants and as such different considerations must be included around the impact of break down products. A number of AOPs exist and current state of the art suggests that different AOP configurations may target different groups of micropollutant chemistries as they offer a range of different degradation pathways. This implies that AOP selection could be targeted towards specific challenges to minimise operating costs.
Overall this project will investigated the efficacy of AOPs and establish under what conditions they offer an attractive alternative to RO. This will be ultimately delivered through a business assessment to form the basis of an impact plan.
Methodology
The project methodology involves four components. Firstly, a review of the existing literature will be undertaken to establish the underpinning scientific evidence and application for the removal pathways and treatment efficacy of hazardous chemicals by RO, GAC and AOPs. An additional mini review on management of RO reject streams to establish best practice and associated economics of treating the RO reject stream. Secondly, an operation and monitoring study of the Old Ford pilot testing facility at the Olympic Park, London will be undertaken to establish the long term performance comparison between RO and GAC-AOP (UV-H2O2). This will include monitoring over 200+ determinands and so will establish a robust comparative assessment of the efficacy of each treatment line. The work will establish both steady state and dynamic performance against variable load (spiking) and flow to establish the overall resilience of both options across the full range of hazardous chemicals being considered. The work will critically consider the comparison of concentrating the parent molecules (RO) versus the production of secondary by products (AOP). Ultimately this will be used to respond to the research question of whether MBR-GAC-AOP is a suitable alternative to MBR-RO-UV for IPR schemes. Thirdly, to support the large scale investigations a series of bench trails will be conducted to compare the efficacy of a range of AOPs including emerging technology variants to establish the case for AOP selection based of preferential degradation pathways. This work will combine testing of surrogate compounds and real waters to: (a) verify specific affinities of the different AOPs to different molecular structures, (b) establish the impact of different background water characteristics on the efficacy of the different AOPs, and (c) investigate the break down products formed. Ultimately this work will be utilised to establish the basis for AOP selection long term and enable translation to new potential sites. Finally, the data generated will be considered alongside previous trial data and other national Chemical Investigation Programme (CIP) trials to establish the business case for the alternative treatment scheme to help inform the next water resources plan and contribute to the understand of robust appropriate solutions for delivery of micropollutant removal.
If you’d like to learn more about the programme, please visit the stream website at http://www.stream-idc.net or e-mail [Email Address Removed]
Entry requirements:
Applicants should have a first or second class UK honours degree or equivalent in a related discipline, such as chemistry or engineering.
Funding Notes
* To be eligible for this funding, applicants must be a UK national.We require that applicants are under no restrictions regarding how long they can stay in the UK i.e. have no visa restrictions or applicant has “settled status” and has been “ordinarily resident” in the UK for 3 years prior to start of studies and has not been residing in the UK wholly or mainly for the purpose of full-time education.