Collaborative Research: Fundamental Understanding of the Environmental Fate of Disinfection By-Products Arising from Desalination Plants

合作研究：对海水淡化厂产生的消毒副产品的环境归宿的基本了解

• 批准号: 1708461
• 负责人: Susan Richardson
• 金额: $ 15.44万
• 依托单位: University of South Carolina at Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-08-01 至 2021-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1708461&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Fundamental; Understanding; Environmental

This award is supported jointly by the Chemistry Division's Environmental Chemical Sciences Program and the Environmental Engineering Program in the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems. Dr. Michael Gonsior and colleagues at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science collaborate with Dr. Susan Richardson at the University of South Carolina. They study the formation of chemical compounds that arise during disinfection of seawater, which is required before water can be used in major desalination plants in the U.S. and Australia. Desalination is an important method for turning salt water into drinkable (potable) water in many parts of the world. It is becoming an increasingly important treatment technology as freshwater supplies are becoming scarcer. However, currently potentially harmful organic compounds produced during disinfection treatments are discharged into the aquatic environment in the waste water stream. The consequences of these organic compounds to aquatic organisms are largely unknown. This study provides new knowledge regarding the formation of previously unknown disinfection by-products (DBPs) produced during desalination. New quantification methods for organic compounds in aqueous environments are also developed. Undergraduate students are exposed to this research through internships, such as through the Maryland Sea Grant REU program and at USC. The CBL Visitor Center host displays about seawater DBPs, how they are formed and what impact they may have on the coastal ocean. In partnership with the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory Visitor Center, the research team hosts a summer workshop for 7-12th grade school students/teachers. The investigators also collaborate with colleagues in the U.S, Australia, and Germany, including industry partners from major desalination plants.Future reliance on desalination and water reuse to provide suitable drinking water is expected globally. During the desalination process, chlorination of water is required to limit biofouling of membranes and to kill potentially harmful bacteria. The formation of Disinfection Byproducts (DBPs) during drinking water chlorination and the compounding factors presented by different sources of fresh water, such as high levels of dissolved organic matter (DOM), is well recognized. However, during the chlorination of seawater, hundreds of brominated and iodinated compounds are formed, few of which have been characterized, and some of which are already known to be highly toxic. The researchers utilize new analytical techniques to investigate the production, fate and toxicity of DBPs in the coastal environment. Ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry has been utilized to describe complex organic matrices at the molecular level, and has successfully demonstrated the complexity of DBPS formed after chlorination of ship ballast water as well as characterizing DOM in natural waters. All of these studies have shown that highly precise mass measurements combined with soft ionization are capable of assigning unambiguous and exact molecular formulas. In combination with traditional gas chromatography interfaced with mass spectrometry methods to support quantification of a subset of compounds, the team characterizes DBPs at different steps of the desalination process and evaluates the fate of produced DBPs released into the environment. The students and faculty combine desalination plant measurements with controlled laboratory studies to better understand the mechanisms and factors contributing to the production, fate and the toxicity of known and newly discovered DBPs formed in seawater during pre-chlorination and accumulated in waste waters discharged into coastal ecosystems.

该奖项由化学部的环境化学科学计划和化学，生物工程，环境和运输系统的环境工程计划共同支持。马里兰州环境科学中心的迈克尔·贡索尔（Michael Gonsior）博士与南卡罗来纳大学的苏珊·理查森（Susan Richardson）博士合作。他们研究了在消毒时出现的化合物的形成，这是在美国和澳大利亚主要的海水淡化厂中使用之前所必需的。淡化是将盐水变成可饮用（饮用水）水的重要方法。随着淡水供应变得越来越稀缺，它正在成为一种越来越重要的治疗技术。但是，目前在消毒处理过程中产生的潜在有害有机化合物被排放到废水流中的水生环境中。这些有机化合物对水生生物的后果在很大程度上是未知的。这项研究提供了有关在脱盐过程中产生的先前未知的消毒副产品（DBP）形成的新知识。还开发了水性环境中有机化合物的新定量方法。本科生通过实习，例如通过马里兰州Sea Grant REU计划和USC接触这项研究。 CBL游客中心主持人展示了有关海水DBP，它们的形成方式以及它们可能对沿海海洋产生什么影响。研究小组与Chesapeake生物实验室游客中心合作，为7-12年级的学生/老师举办了夏季研讨会。调查人员还与美国，澳大利亚和德国的同事合作，包括主要淡化厂的行业合作伙伴。预计在全球范围内依赖海水淡化和水再利用以提供合适的饮用水。 在淡化过程中，需要水的氯化来限制膜的生物污染并杀死潜在的有害细菌。在饮用水氯化过程中形成了消毒副产品（DBP），以及不同淡水来源（例如高水平溶解有机物（DOM））提出的复合因子。但是，在海水的氯化过程中，形成了数百种溴化和碘化化合物，其中很少有特征，其中一些已经被称为剧毒。研究人员利用新的​​分析技术来研究沿海环境中DBP的生产，命运和毒性。超高分辨率质谱法已被用来描述分子水平的复杂有机矩阵，并成功证明了在氯化船镇压水后形成的DBP的复杂性以及在天然水中表征DOM的复杂性。所有这些研究都表明，高度精确的质量测量与软电离结合能够分配明确和精确的分子公式。结合传统的气相色谱法与质谱法连接以支持化合物子集的量化，该团队在淡化过程的不同步骤中表征了DBP，并评估了释放到环境中的生产DBP的命运。学生和教职员工将海水淡化厂的测量与受控的实验室研究结合在一起，以更好地了解有助于生产，命运以及在氯化期间在海水中形成的已知和新发现的DBP的毒性的机制和因素，并积聚在沿海生态系统中的废水中。

项目成果

Tracking the formation of new brominated disinfection by-products during the seawater desalination process

• DOI: 10.1039/d0ew00426j
• 发表时间: 2020-06
• 期刊: Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology
• 作者: L. Powers;Annaleise Conway;C. Mitchelmore;Stephen J. Fleischacker;M. Harir;Danielle C. Westerman;J. Croué;P. Schmitt‐Kopplin;S. Richardson;M. Gonsior