Engineering college hosts international water treatment conference

The College of Engineering is hosting an international conference Aug. 10-13 that will showcase many advances in new technologies for water and wastewater treatment.

The 2008 North American Membrane Research Conference, held in the ELab II Auditorium at the College of Engineering, will feature recent breakthroughs in wastewater treatment, desalination, drinking water treatment, gas transfer applications, fouling mechanisms and control, and membrane materials and modeling.

A membrane is a thin sheet of selectively permeable material that separates two or more phases of a process. In water and wastewater treatment, the membranes are usually composed of polymeric materials, although ceramic membranes are starting to be used more. Membranes are used in a variety of water and wastewater treatment applications, including reverse osmosis membranes for desalination of seawater, ultrafiltration, and nanofiltration membranes used for removal of small particles from water and wastewater, and gas transfer membranes used for aeration of bioreactors. A major driving force in the use of membrane materials for water and wastewater is the scarcity of clean water sources and the need to reuse wastewater.

The scarcity of clean water represents a global threat to society, equal to or greater than that of oil resources. A range of factors is responsible for this shortage, including population growth in arid regions, and contamination of surface and groundwater supplies. Membrane technologies can be used to provide both short- and long-term solutions to these problems by providing clean water from low-quality sources.

Advances in membrane technologies for water and wastewater treatment as well as novel membrane materials and processes will be discussed at tghe meeting. It is expected that between 150-200 delegates will attend the conference. Delegates will primarily come from North America; however, as the International Water Association will also be publicizing the event to its members, some international participation is expected.

The membrane conference will highlight expertise across the campus on membrane technology for water and wastewater treatment, membrane system modeling, and polymer and membrane synthesis and characterization. The principal investigator for the conference is Sarina Ergas, associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE). Ergas does research on membrane bioreactors for water and air pollution control. Other CEE research at the conference will include John Tobiason’s work on microfiltration/ultrafiltration of waste backwash from media filters and chemical treatment of concentrate from reverse osmosis/nanofiltration water treatment, and David Reckhow’s investigations into disinfection byproducts and endocrine disrupting compounds in water reuse systems.

Ergas was a Fulbright Scholar at the Technion Institute, Haifa, Israel last summer and fall and will also draw on a highly regarded community of Middle Eastern researchers in the field of water reuse to participate in this meeting. Ergas has conducted a number of studies of membrane bioreactor (MBR) treatment of air pollutants from industrial sources. Over the last five years, Ergas has turned her attention to the use of membranes for reclamation of industrial and domestic wastewater.

Faculty from the Chemical Engineering and Polymer Science and Engineering departments are also participating in the conference.

More Information

Conference program and related details

August 6, 2008.

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