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.

该奖项由化学系的环境化学科学计划和化学、生物工程、环境和运输系统系的环境工程计划联合支持。马里兰大学环境科学中心的 Michael Gonsior 博士及其同事与南卡罗来纳大学的 Susan Richardson 博士合作。他们研究了海水消毒过程中产生的化合物的形成，这是美国和澳大利亚主要海水淡化厂使用水之前所必需的。在世界许多地方，海水淡化是将盐水转化为饮用水的重要方法。随着淡水供应日益稀缺，它正成为一种越来越重要的处理技术。然而，目前消毒处理过程中产生的潜在有害有机化合物通过废水流排放到水生环境中。这些有机化合物对水生生物的影响很大程度上未知。这项研究提供了关于海水淡化过程中产生的以前未知的消毒副产物（DBP）形成的新知识。还开发了水环境中有机化合物的新定量方法。本科生可以通过实习接触这项研究，例如通过马里兰州海洋资助 REU 项目和南加州大学。 CBL 游客中心展示了海水 DBP、它们的形成方式以及它们可能对沿海海洋产生的影响。研究团队与切萨皮克生物实验室游客中心合作，为 7-12 年级学生/教师举办夏季研讨会。研究人员还与美国、澳大利亚和德国的同事合作，包括来自主要海水淡化厂的行业合作伙伴。预计未来全球将依赖海水淡化和水回用来提供合适的饮用水。 在海水淡化过程中，需要对水进行氯化，以限制膜的生物污染并杀死潜在的有害细菌。饮用水氯化过程中消毒副产物 (DBP) 的形成以及不同淡水来源带来的复合因素（例如高含量的溶解有机物 (DOM)）已广为人知。然而，在海水氯化过程中，会形成数百种溴化和碘化化合物，其中很少有已被表征的化合物，并且其中一些已知具有剧毒。研究人员利用新的​​分析技术来研究沿海环境中 DBP 的产生、归宿和毒性。超高分辨率质谱已用于在分子水平上描述复杂的有机基质，并成功证明了船舶压载水氯化后形成的DBPS的复杂性以及天然水域中DOM的表征。所有这些研究都表明，高精度质量测量与软电离相结合能够指定明确且准确的分子式。结合传统的气相色谱法和质谱法来支持对部分化合物的定量，该团队在海水淡化过程的不同步骤中表征了 DBP，并评估了所产生的 DBP 释放到环境中的命运。学生和教师将海水淡化厂测量与受控实验室研究相结合，以更好地了解预氯化过程中在海水中形成的已知和新发现的 DBP 的产生、归宿和毒性以及在排放到沿海生态系统的废水中积累的机制和因素。 。

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