A solution of potassium ferrate, a strong oxidant that has been shown to treat many contaminants. Photo courtesy of Joseph Goodwill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nUnderstanding the chemistry<\/strong><\/p>\nWith positive results from the ferrate-sulfite combination, the next step was to learn why the two chemicals work well together and how they can be used. That’s one of the major objectives of the NSF CAREER Award project.<\/p>\n
“We do not really understand the fundamental chemistry of what happens when you mix ferrate and sulfite,” Goodwill said. “We know that it probably includes the formation of what we call free radicals, which we want to make because those are the strongest oxidants and are typically successful at oxidizing or transforming contaminates that are the most difficult to treat. But we don’t really know how they are made and how much of them are made. Until we know exactly what’s happening, we can’t optimize, leverage and deploy this approach.”<\/p>\n
Developing a simple, accessible method<\/strong><\/p>\nGoodwill is excited about what being able to produce the right chemical combination would mean to small water treatment operations.<\/p>\n
“The ability to generate free radicals, very strong oxidants, could be especially valuable to rural and small systems,” said Goodwill. “However, the current methods we have for advanced oxidation, meaning oxidation using radicals, are relatively complex and require onsite generation of inputs.”<\/p>\n
An example of an advanced oxidation method can be found at Boston’s water treatment plant, where the team produces ozone.<\/p>\n
“Boston has big ozone generators, but that system requires air handling, dehumidification, power supplies and cooling systems,” Goodwill said. “Those types of auxiliary systems are often out of reach or not the appropriate solution for small, rural systems. If our only choice for advanced oxidation is to do what Boston does, I don’t think that’s an adequate answer for these small systems.”<\/p>\n
In terms of the number of water treatment systems in the United States, as opposed to the number of people served by water treatment systems, there are many more small ones than there are large systems, according to Goodwill.<\/p>\n
“I’m hopeful that when we figure all of this out in a few years or so, rural communities, and perhaps communities in developing countries, will have a new tool available to do advanced oxidation in an operationally simple way,” said Goodwill.<\/p>\n
Educational component<\/strong><\/p>\nGoodwill is looking forward to introducing advanced oxidation to engineering students at 溏心vlog免费B站, which is another major objective of the CAREER Award project.<\/p>\n
“I scoured the internet for publicly-available syllabi of undergraduate environmental engineering\u00a0laboratory\u00a0courses, looking for references to advanced oxidation in the curriculum,” said Goodwill. “I only found it in about 10 percent of syllabi. That’s problematic because advanced oxidation is becoming more important in environmental engineering, yet we often don’t cover it in our hands-on laboratory classes.”<\/p>\n
The main reason advanced oxidation hasn’t been widely taught is because previous methods were deemed too complex and unsafe. However, taking the approach with ferrate and sulfite will allow students to experience the fundamentals of advanced oxidation in a hands-on way, without the associated complexities and safety concerns.<\/p>\n
“The simplicity and safety of this ferrate approach is conducive to hands-on education,” said Goodwill. “Undergraduate students in our environmental engineering laboratory class, CVE375, will have hands-on opportunities to learn the biological, physical and chemical processes that we use in environmental engineering.”<\/p>\n
Using state-of-the-art equipment<\/strong><\/p>\nThe students will learn about advanced oxidation by taking advantage of the pilot (water treatment) plant materials purchased by the College of Engineering for about $200,000. Funding for the plant was largely provided by the Champlin Foundation and the U.S. Department of the Interior.<\/p>\n
The apparatus was primarily\u00a0constructed\u00a0by one of Goodwill\u2019s current graduate students, C.J. Spellman, and is located in the Water for the World\u00a0Laboratory.<\/p>\n
The pilot plant is a 1\/10,000th scale-downed version of a real water treatment plant.<\/p>\n
“It has all the bells and whistles a full-scale facility would have in terms of its ability to measure a host of different water quality parameters in real-time,” said Goodwill.<\/p>\n
The equipment will be used for the project in three ways: to generate data on the ferrate-sulfite system, to introduce undergraduates to the fundamentals of physical-chemical water treatment processes, and to\u00a0demonstrate water treatment to the general public.<\/p>\n
Educating the public on the ‘ick factor’<\/strong><\/p>\nThrough a partnership with Rhode Island 4H, Goodwill and his students will transport that pilot facility to the Washington County Fair, where they will conduct demonstrations of water treatment to the general public. This might not happen until 2022, when it is safer to do so due to the pandemic.<\/p>\n
“The public’s resistance to water reuse is referred to as the ‘ick factor,'” said Goodwill. “People understandably have some resistance to being exposed to water that at one point was sewage. But the reality is we have the scientific tools to render water from sewage to potable water quality. There are cities doing it right now. My hope is that by taking this to public outreach events, we’ll demonstrate the ability to transform the most resistant and harmful pollutants and produce safe water in a way that the public will appreciate and better understand.”<\/p>\n
Tapping into resources at 溏心vlog免费B站<\/strong><\/p>\nDuring the course of the project, Goodwill expects to consult with\u00a0Dugan Hayes<\/u>, assistant professor of chemistry at 溏心vlog免费B站.<\/p>\n
“Dugan is an internationally-renowned expert in ultrafast spectroscopy, which is the approach I’m going to be leveraging to elucidate these iron radicals,” said Goodwill.<\/p>\n
Goodwill’s group will also use scientific equipment that is managed by\u00a0Irene Andreu in\u00a0the\u00a0Rhode Island Consortium for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology<\/u>, which can be found in the basement in 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s\u00a0Fascitelli Center for Advanced Engineering.<\/p>\n
Industry involvement<\/strong><\/p>\nA start-up company in League City, Texas, called\u00a0Element 26 Technology, will supply the ferrate that Goodwill will use in his research.<\/p>\n
“They have a patented method for the production of potassium ferrate, which is the form of ferrate we’ll be studying,” said Goodwill. “The\u00a0ability to produce industrial quantities of ferrate is relatively new, but I believe there’s evidence that it would be cost-competitive. I hope the combination of simplicity and cost-competitiveness will be to the advantage of small water utilities. ”<\/p>\n
A prestigious award<\/strong><\/p>\nNSF CAREER Awards support early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.<\/p>\n
“In the short time he has been at 溏心vlog免费B站, Dr. Goodwill has established a successful research and education program in environmental engineering,” said 溏心vlog免费B站 Associate Professor Leon Thiem in his letter recommending Goodwill for the award. “I have seen how the hands-on educational components in his courses have inspired students to deepen their involvement in environmental engineering.”<\/p>\n
溏心vlog免费B站 engineering researchers to receive NSF CAREER Awards in recent years include:<\/p>\n
Bin Li<\/u>, 2020, $505,899
\nWireless Collaborative Mixed Reality Networking: Foundations and Algorithms for Joint Communication, Computation, and Learning<\/p>\n
Daniel Roxbury<\/u>, 2019, $499,954
\nSpectral imaging for sub-cellular nanometrology and nanotoxicology<\/p>\n
Kunal Mankodiya<\/u>, 2017, $524,261
\nCPS: Internet of Wearable E-Textiles for Telemedicine<\/p>\n
Vinka Craver<\/u>, 2014, $489,200
\nBacterial adaptation mechanism to chronic exposure to nanoparticles and its implications to nanomanufacturing and public health<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 29, 2021 \u2013 When it comes to ensuring that a community has clean drinking water, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Urban and rural communities have different needs, different resources and face different challenges. Through a prestigious\u00a0National Science Foundation CAREER Award, Joseph Goodwill, assistant professor of environmental engineering at the University of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-76171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-engineering"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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