Total fluorescence as a surrogate for organic carbon measurement: Implications for rapid water and wastewater quality assessment

The Science of The Total Environment · 2025-08-25

Total Fluorescence as a Surrogate for Organic Carbon Measurement: Implications for Rapid Water and Wastewater Quality Assessment

SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

Tailored divalent-monovalent selectivity of nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes through controlled oxidation

Desalination and Water Treatment · 2025-05-29 · 3 citations

The implementation of membrane technologies, especially nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO), has proven to be highly effective in water treatment applications where ion rejection is required. Extensive research has been made to demonstrate membranes with high water-solute selectivity. However, the rising need for sustainable and economically efficient processes has led to an increasing interest in solute-solute selectivity for targeted and precise separation applications such as resource recovery and extraction. Expanding beyond the traditional limitations of the permeability-selectivity trade-off contributes to the broader goal of selective separation. In this study, utilizing ultra-filtered treated wastewater, pristine and oxidized NF and RO membrane coupons were used to study the influence of oxidation through chlorination on solute-solute selectivity. The cation and anions mono/divalent separation factor initially increased with increasing the chlorine dose for both NF and RO membranes and then decreased when the chlorine dose increased beyond 8 K ppm-h. For monovalent-divalent ions/organics, the separation factor remained relatively consistent for both membranes. Interestingly, both membranes maintained high rejection rates for bulk organics and trace organics up to 10 K ppm-h chlorine dose. The results highlight the opportunities of controlled oxidation for tailoring the solute-solute selectivity.

Targeted chemical cleaning preserves high water flux and water quality in long-term pilot-scale membrane distillation for potable water reuse

Desalination · 2025-03-23 · 8 citations

Knowledge gaps and education opportunities on direct potable reuse: Interviews with customers of a large, southwestern United States water utility

The Science of The Total Environment · 2025-09-30

Water scarcity is a global public health threat that has increased urgency in implementing new sustainable practices to protect water supplies, such as the use of direct potable reuse, or “advanced water purification (AWP)". The study objective was to use interviews to characterize knowledge gaps and community outreach strategies to increase successful AWP implementation in an arid city in the southwestern United States. Through partnership with a water utility in an urbanized area of Arizona, 6000 individuals were emailed for invitation to participate in interviews. Interviews were conducted over Zoom and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts underwent inductive thematic analysis. Twenty-two individuals participated in interviews, and saturation of themes was reached. Five main themes emerged: 1) Conflation of filters with all treatment and the influence of residential technologies, 2) individual-level control over decisions to use advanced purified water, 3) desire for regulation, testing, and transparency about testing results, 4) concerns about specific chemicals, 5) educational resources to strengthen community engagement. Participants expressed lack of knowledge about how water is delivered to their residences by expressing the desire for opting in or out of system-wide treatment approaches. They also expressed wanting more support in interpreting testing results and having access to multiple outreach modalities. There is a growing body of evidence supporting increased outreach from utilities and governmental entities for water reuse adoption. This work provides insights into why the public may be in support or not of AWP and what information they need to form an opinion. • “Filtration” may be conflated with other water treatment approaches for the public. • Some people want to opt in/out of direct potable reuse at municipality scales. • Greater transparency and education about testing results is needed. • Concerns about chlorine and fluoride indicate a need for more outreach. • People desire a variety of community engagement modalities.

Public risk perceptions of advanced water purification in an arid urban region of the U.S. southwest: A mixed methods study

The Science of The Total Environment · 2025-09-26 · 1 citations

Targeted Chemical Cleaning Preserves High Water Flux and Water Quality in Long-Term Pilot-Scale Membrane Distillation for Potable Water Reuse

SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

Comparative analysis of reverse osmosis and nanofiltration for the removal of dissolved contaminants in water reuse applications

Desalination · 2024-06-06 · 36 citations