Fresh water resources for large metropolis in the USA and around the world are becoming increasingly unreliable for multitude of reasons including unanticipated droughts and climate change. However, municipal wastewater after secondary treatment remains as a huge reliable source yet untapped to any significant extent. Treatment processes currently under development employ energy intensive reverse osmosis or RO processes that also require extensive pretreatment. In our ongoing work, we have demonstrated that the unique chemistry of carbon dioxide and zirconium oxide nanoparticles be appropriately harnessed to achieve: i) viable water reuse concomitant with over 50% reduction of total dissolved solids or TDS without RO; ii) complete recovery of phosphate as a high grade fertilizer; iii) removal of silica; and iv) absence of any externally added chemicals in the residuals.

Unmet challenges in developing energy efficient processes for reuse of municipal wastewater in large metropolis

255th National Meeting (2018)

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