Most of us are used to turning on a tap and water coming out. We rarely question whether this will happen or whether the water is clean enough to bathe in or drink. Though the process of maintaining water quality is practically invisible to most of us, removing bacteria and contaminants from water requires a lot of effort from both humans and treatment systems alike.
Most of us are used to turning on a tap and water coming out. We rarely question whether this will happen or whether the water is clean enough to bathe in or drink. Though the process of maintaining water quality is practically invisible to most of us, removing bacteria and contaminants from water requires a lot of effort from both humans and treatment systems alike.
Mohammad Alizadeh Fard, a doctoral student in Michigan Tech’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, and Brian Barkdoll, professor of civil and environmental engineering, are developing low-tech, affordable solutions to improve water quality in municipal water tanks, and to remove micropollutants from water using renewable materials.
Their research has been published in three journals—Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)HY.1943-7900.0001459), Journal of Molecular Liquids (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2017.11.039), and Colloids and Surfaces A(DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfa.2017.08.008)—with a fourth paper pending review. Their work proves that solutions to vexing problems can be elegant in their simplicity.
Read more at Michigan Technological University
Photo: The PVC spraying mechanism that causes the water to circulate constantly within a tank to prevent a stagnant top layer clotted with algae and bacteria. CREDIT: Sarah Bird / Michigan Tech
