PhD position - Optimising drinking water treatment for emerging contaminants: Increasing process resilience through advanced selection strategies
CDT WIRe (Centre for Doctoral Training in Water Infrastructure and Resilience)
CDT WIRe is funded by EPSRC and run by three world-leading water research groups at internationally-renowned universities:
- The Cranfield Water Science Institute at Cranfield University
- The Sheffield Water Centre at the University of Sheffield
- The Water and Environmental Engineering groups at Newcastle University
It is an inclusive and diverse doctoral centre and welcomes applications from all highly motivated individuals, regardless of background, identity or disability.
Homepage: https://cdtwire.com/
This is an exciting fully funded laboratory-based PhD based at Cranfield University.
The work will derive the experimental evidence base required to ensure that the most appropriate water treatment solutions are selected to minimise cost and whole-life carbon associated with removing emerging water quality challenges. You will undertake lab and pilot scale experiments using a range of water treatment processes (conventional and emerging) to establish the operational envelops of these technologies against multiple water treatment challenges (for example, PFAS, microplastics and viruses). This will determine the best combinations of treatment for different water quality conditions.
Water treatment scientists are currently understanding how to manage issues associated with PFAS, microplastics, DBPs and viruses. Individual technology solutions are being developed for each challenge independently of the others (for example, activated carbon, IEX and membranes), which risks siloed investment, process redundancy and technology obsolescence. But how well do processes designed to remove one specific substance work for other substances and how might technologies be effectively combined to address multiple challenges? There is a genuine paucity of understanding about how each technology performs against water quality challenges that it was not directly designed for.
The PhD project will explore a range of research questions:
- How does the background water matrix impact the synergistic and antagonistic nature of the removal pathways for each technology?
- How can different technologies be adapted to maximise removal across different substances of emerging concern?
- What is the optimum solution for different combinations of substances of emerging concern in terms of economics and whole-life carbon?
The work will provide an evidence-based framework to select technologies (and their operating conditions) to match to multiple contaminant challenges in order to maximise the benefit of the investment at least cost. This will inform water company investment strategy, guiding both what processes to invest in, and when. Outcomes will also highlight substances of emerging concern for which there are currently no technical or economically viable treatment options, informing further research in this area
This project is a collaboration between Cranfield University, UKWIR, and EPSRC, and is part of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Water Infrastructure and Resilience (WIRe). The WIRe programme offers a bespoke training programme in technical and personal skills, access to world-leading experimental facilities. The successful candidate will also have the opportunity to undertake an international placement. More details can be found here: CDT WIRe.