Five UA SBRP Investigators Awarded Technology and Research Initiative Funds

UA SBRP is pleased to announce that the University of Arizona Technology and Research Initiative Funds (TRIF) Water Sustainability Program (WSP) has chosen to fund five projects that are leveraged by the UA SBRP.  These projects range from water research to education and outreach and total $193, 362.  The TRIF-WSP mission is to provide science-based technical, economic, legal, and policy expertise necessary for water development, use, and conservation in a rapidly growing, increasingly urban state.

The funded projects include:

Spanish Translation and Reprints of the Booklet, Arizona: Know your Water

Janick Artiola (Co-PI, SBRP Research Translation Core)

This funding request aims at facilitating the transfer of water-related information in the TRIF-funded publication “Arizona: Know your Water” to interested Arizona consumers.  A Spanish translation of this popular booklet would provide much needed information on home water treatment alternatives to the Spanish-speaking population of Arizona.  An update and new printing of the English version will further enhance the distribution of a well received consumer water information booklet to the general public.

Electrocoagulation Applied to Water Conservation & Wastewater Treatment

James Farrell, (C0-PI, SBRP Project 8)

Intel and others in the semiconductor industry are interested in developing a robust, cost effective water treatment technology that has broad applicability to both water conservation and wastewater treatment. The new treatment technology will reduce the number and variety of water treatment unit operations that are currently required, and will enable onsite reuse of much of the water used in semiconductor manufacturing.  Electrocoagulation (EC) is one of the few technologies that may be capable of cost effectively meeting these requirements.

High Capacity, Environmentally Benign Sorbents for Treating Arsenic Regenerant Streams

Wendell Ela and Eduardo Sáez, (C0-PIs, SBRP Project 8)

Current technologies for the removal of arsenic from drinking water rely primarily on the use of sorbents utilizing iron-based surfaces. The iron-based sorbents are non-regenerable and, when saturated, will typically be disposed in non-hazardous landfills. When these sorbents are landfill disposed, the iron is readily reduced to the more soluble Fe(II) state, thus remobilizing the arsenic. This project will investigate non-iron based sorbents for treating the arsenic bearing brine streams produced when re-usable sorbents are regenerated. The project aim is to identify and/or develop stable sorbents that can selectively sorb arsenic from a regenerant brine and subsequently retain it (with or without stabilization) under landfill disposal conditions. 

Bioremediation of Hexavalent Uranium Plumes with Inorganic Electron Donors
Jim Field, (PI, SBRP Outreach Core)

Hexavalent uranium (U(VI)) is a groundwater containment of concern in Arizona. The goal of this project is to demonstrate that U(VI) can be removed from groundwater by microbial reduction to insoluble uraninite. The project contemplates the use of elemental sulfur (S0) as an inexpensive electron-donating compound to drive the microbial reaction. S0 is inexpensive and is available in granulated forms that are suitable for a flow through permeable reactive barrier treating contaminated plumes.