The NSERC Chair group will attend the 2022 Ontario’s Water Conference & Trade Show (https://pheedloop.com/owwa22/site/program/), which is organized by OWWA and will be held from May 2nd to May 4th in Niagara Falls. Chair members will deliver five oral presentations and two poster presentations at this conference. See below for titles and short abstracts of the presentations:
Climate Change Session
Tuesday, May 3, 10:30 am - 11 am
Robustness in Drinking Water Treatment Systems to Manage Turbidity Related Water Quality Upsets During Extreme Weather (Kirti Nemani, PhD Candidate)
This study focuses on current research being done to establish a robustness framework to guide water treatment utilities during short-term surface water quality upsets. The water quality parameter selected for this study is turbidity, which is important for DWTP operations and for complying with regulations. The presentation will discuss different steps of the conceptual framework, as well as its application to data from a full-scale drinking water treatment plant in Southern Ontario.
University Research Session
Tuesday, May 3, 11 am - 11:30 am
Robustness of Drinking Water Treatment Plants during Normal Weather and Extreme Weather Events (Noshin Nawar Reza, MASc. Candidate)
This study focused on robustness of the treatment steps that control turbidity, which can be evaluated by the Turbidity Robustness Index (TRI) concept, developed by Huck and Coffey (2004). This study quantifies robustness with one index and one classification system. The presentation will explore bench-scale simulations and different operational strategies for treatment step(s) that are found to be less robust in this analysis.
Distribution Session
Tuesday, May 3, 4:30 pm - 5 pm
The Impacts of Orthophosphate Addition on Monochloramine Decay and Biofilm Community Development in a Model Drinking Water Distribution System (Mahmoud Badawi, PhD Candidate & Mitchell Cooke, MASc. Candidate, Wilfrid Laurier University)
Orthophosphate is a common corrosion inhibitor, which is frequently applied to control lead release in drinking water distribution systems. This presentation will discuss four bench-scale systems which were operated in parallel, each consisting of a feed tank, a residence tank, and an annular reactor. All systems were continuously supplied with chloraminated water and fed differing amounts of phosphate. Results discussed include the impact of phosphate dose on chloramine residual loss and chemical water quality parameters such as ammonia, nitrite and nitrite and the complementary microbiological analysis of the formed biofilms.
Treatment Session
Wednesday, May 4, 9:30 am - 10 am
Super-fine Powdered Activated Carbon for Removal of Microcystin-LR: A Superior Alternative to Conventional Powdered Activated Carbon (Sina Golchi, MASc. Graduate & Research Associate)
Cyanobacterial blooms are natural phenomena occurring during warm weather in moderate climates. The objectives of this research were to produce super-fine powdered activated carbon (SPAC), from three commercially available powdered activated carbon (PAC) (coal, coconut, and wood-based) and to evaluate the performance of SPACs for the removal of microcystin-LR from ultra-pure and surface water. The presentation compares SPAC performances to the performances of the original PACs in terms of kinetics and capacities/isotherms for microcystin-LR in ultrapure and surface water.
Treatment Session
Wednesday, May 4, 10 am - 10:30 am
Adsorption of Microcystin-LR with Powdered Activated Carbon in NOM-Rich Surface Water (Katarzyna Jaszczyszyn, Post-doc fellow)
The primary objective of this study was to investigate the adsorption behavior (rate and capacity) of microcystin-LR with three commercially available PACs (coal, coconut and wood based) in natural surface water in the presence and absence of algal organic matter. This talk will give a comprehensive overview of the results and main findings.
Poster Presentations
Tuesday, May 3, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm & Wednesday, May 4, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm
How Effective is Biofiltration for Manganese Removal in Cold Water Conditions? A Pilot-Scale Investigation (Hemant Arora, PhD Candidate)
The primary objective of this pilot-scale study is to assess the performance of concurrent biofiltration treatment of groundwater for iron and manganese removal in cold water conditions (<10°C) including a comparison of biofilter performance using different filter media namely sand, anthracite, and granular activated carbon. Specifically, the impact of filter media characteristics on the performance of biofilters removing manganese will be investigated. This poster presentation will provide details regarding pilot plant design and construction, in addition to an overview of the experimental approach and planned operations. Once results are obtained this project will provide a better understanding of how to adopt the use of biofiltration for manganese and iron removal from groundwater sources.
Evaluation of Microplastics Removal Based on Published Full-Scale Drinking Water Treatment Plant Surveys (Jaita Saha, MASc. Candidate)
Microplastics (MPs) have been considered one of the emerging pollutants which have the potential to cause harm to the environment and human health. The objective of this research was to conduct a meta-analysis of existing data accessible through different published research studies on the presence of MPs in drinking water sources and their removal through various process units in full-scale drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs). This poster presentation will provide an analysis of the removal efficiencies of MPs in different size ranges by full-scale DWTPs and also by individual treatment steps (i.e. coagulation-flocculation-sedimentation system, conventional filtration).