Research
Circular Economies of the Future
Today’s industrialized nations are supported by inefficient “one-way” flows of water, energy sources, and nutrients. As more economies move toward achieving middle class standards of living and industrialization, global natural resources will become increasingly strained, with implications for food security, clean water availability, and environmental and human health sustainability. We are interested in using our engineering knowledge and technology to recycle resources, from water and fuel to phosphorus and ammonia, creating resilient cycles and circular economies.
Circular Economies of the Future
Nutrient Recovery from Municipal Wastewater
We work across an interdisciplinary project team to study and develop electrochemical technology to recover phosphorus and nitrogen nutrients as reusable fertilizer from municipal wastewater sources. We are studying a Mg-electrode driven electrochemical precipitation process and are interested in understanding Mg electrode behavior, precipitation and P removal kinetics, water chemistry effects on P/N recovery, and other aspects of electrochemical reactor design. We work collaboratively across a project team to study technoeconomics, life cycle assessment, greenhouse and row crop viability, membrane materials, and peptide enhancement of nutrient recovery.
Funding: National Science Foundation
Circular Economies of the Future
Nutrient and Water Recovery from Hog and Dairy Wastewaters
In this multi-disciplinary project, we are investigating both cutting-edge electrochemical technology and commercially-available off-the-shelf technologies for nutrient and water recycling on hog and dairy farms. The overarching goal of the team and project is to create a decision support tool that can help farmers understand technology options and decide on options that would work best for them, given certain inputs and farm scenarios. We are interested in developing approaches that can help farmers better control the ratio of N:P in recycle streams and understand the technological, economic, and social barriers and drivers for nutrient and water recycling.
Funding: U.S. Department of Agriculture, NIFA AFRI Water for Food Production Systems
Project: Water and Nutrient Recycling: A Decision Tool and Synergistic Innovative Technology
Circular Economies of the Future
Enabling Remote Farming and Aquaculture Water Recycling
In collaboration with the Hawaii Farm Bureau and the Hawaii State Dept. of Agriculture, we work on developing modular electrochemical technology to treat recirculating aquaculture wastewater and to disinfect irrigation water for use in remote, small farm scenarios. We study reactor kinetics, develop reactor design features, and work to understand electrode design and electrode lifetime.
Funding: Hawaii Farm Bureau and the Hawaii State Dept. of Agriculture
Project: Modular, Off-Grid Electrochemical System for Disinfection of Irrigation Water and Disinfection/Ammonia Removal from Aquaculture Wastewater
Circular Economies of the Future
Membrane-Based Nutrient Recovery
We are studying nutrient recovery with commercially-available filtration membranes as a function of nominal pore size and surface chemistry. This project is considering process flow design approaches to efficient and strategic use of membranes to rethink wastewater filtration as an opportunity to recover phosphorus and nitrogen nutrients rather than simply treat these components as water contaminants.
Funding: NSF I/UCRC MAST Center
Project: Membrane Separation of Nitrogen and Phosphorus Nutrients with Downstream Recovery as Struvite Fertilizer