Civil Engineering ETDs

Publication Date

Summer 7-27-2017

Abstract

Factors such as increasing population, urbanization, and climate change have made the management of water resources a challenge for many municipalities. Water reuse, especially direct potable reuse (DPR) of treated wastewater, is increasingly seen as a potential source of water for communities facing water shortages. Due to improvements in analytical capabilities as well as concerns regarding toxicology of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), the need for investigating the removal of CECs has become crucial for further DPR considerations. Reverse osmosis (RO) has been demonstrated to remove many CECs. Many studies, however, have investigated the removal of well-known CECs, often with high molecular weights and complex structures. This bench scale study investigated the rejection of low molecular weight compounds by RO membranes to correlate removal to molecular characteristics and physical properties. The data collected from experiments is also used to create a model to predict the CECs rejection between membranes used in experiments, utilizing boron as a reference between membrane products.

Keywords

reverse osmosis

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Civil Engineering

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Civil Engineering

First Committee Member (Chair)

Dr. Kerry Howe

Second Committee Member

Dr. Bruce Thomson

Third Committee Member

Dr. Daisuke Minakata

Fourth Committee Member

Dr. Aleksey N. Pisarenko

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