NSF-BSF: Collaborative Research: Solids and reactive transport processes in sewer systems of the future: modeling and experimental investigation

NSF-BSF：合作研究：未来下水道系统中的固体和反应性输送过程：建模和实验研究

• 批准号: 2134594
• 负责人: Polina Sela
• 金额: $ 21万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Austin
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-01-01 至 2026-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2134594&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; BSF; Collaborative; Research; Solids; NSF; BSF; Collaborative; Research; Solids

In the United States, there are approximately 16,000 sanitary sewer systems serving more than 190 million people through over 740,000 miles of public sewers. Sanitary sewers are underground pipes designed to deliver sewage water from residential, commercial, and industrial buildings to the city sewage treatment plants. This wastewater contains solid waste such as human excreta, soiled water from sinks, showers, and toilets, and other waste. Sanitary sewers are critical to the communities that they serve for managing and disposing of wastewater in a safe manner. Two major problems affecting these sanitary sewer systems are blockages and the formation of hydrogen sulfide, a highly toxic and corrosive gas. Sewer blockages can result in overflow of untreated contaminated wastewater into individual properties, local communities, and the environment. Sewer blockages can also lead to bad smells and the release of harmful gases, such as hydrogen sulfide, which is dangerous to human health. The goal of this NSF-BSF project is to investigate the characteristics of the solid waste that enters sewers, the factors that affect how it moves and accumulates, and the formation of hydrogen sulfide and other harmful substances in sewer systems. To advance this goal, the Principal Investigators (PIs) will use a combination of laboratory and field experiments, as well as computer modeling, to predict how solid waste and harmful substances travel in sewers. The PIs also propose to develop software tools to help track and model these processes, considering different sources of uncertainty. The successful completion of this project will benefit society through the generation of new data and models to improve the fundamental understanding of how solids move in sewers and identify vulnerabilities and potential problems that may arise from future changes in wastewater characteristics. Additional benefits to society will be achieved through student education and training including the mentoring of one undergraduate and one graduate student at the university of Texas, Austin and one graduate student at the University of Illinois at Chicago.Sewer blockages and the formation of hydrogen sulfide, a highly toxic and corrosive gas, are two critical issues that compromise the integrity of sanitary sewers and have severe economic, environmental, and public health impacts. The increased adoption of sustainable water technologies is forecasted to significantly alter the quantity and quality of the wastewater discharged into sewer systems, leading to unintended negative implications. Water demand reductions are expected to increase the deposition of solids and alter the solid-liquid biochemical processes within the sewer system, exacerbating sewer blockages and hydrogen sulfide formation. The overarching goal of this NSF-BSF project is to investigate the dynamic characteristics of domestic solids discharged to sewers, the factors that affect the transport, deposition, and accumulation of these solids, and the formation and transformation of hydrogen sulfide and other key biochemical species in sewer systems. The specific objectives of the research are to 1) conduct lab and field experiments to characterize the physical aspects of gross solids transport, deposition, and transformation in sewers; 2) develop open-source software tools to model solid-liquid biochemical interactions, enable tracking the fate and transport of key biochemical species in sewer systems, and quantify and propagate different sources of uncertainty; and 3) create a computational framework for identifying potential breakpoints due to future changes in the characteristics of wastewater discharges under various decentralized water technologies, population shifts, and changes in infiltration/inflow patterns due to climate change. The successful completion of this project will bridge the fundamental knowledge gaps in solids transport and solid-liquid biochemical processes in sewer systems and will enable identifying vulnerabilities under future uncertain long- and short-term shifts in wastewater characteristics.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

在美国，通过740,000英里的公共下水道，大约有16,000个卫生下水道系统为超过1.9亿人提供服务。卫生下水道是地下管道，旨在将污水从住宅，商业和工业建筑物运送到城市污水处理厂。该废水含有固体废物，例如人类排泄物，水槽，淋浴和厕所的弄脏水以及其他废物。卫生下水道对他们服务的社区至关重要，这些社区以安全的方式管理和处置废水。影响这些卫生下水道系统的两个主要问题是堵塞和硫化氢的形成，硫化氢是一种剧毒和腐蚀性气体。下水道的阻塞可能导致未经处理的污染废水溢出到各个物业，当地社区和环境中。下水道的堵塞也可能导致气味不良，有害气体（例如硫化氢）的释放，这对人类健康很危险。该NSF-BSF项目的目的是研究进入下水道的固体废物的特征，影响其移动和积累的因素以及硫化氢氢和下水道系统中其他有害物质的形成。为了促进这一目标，主要研究人员（PIS）将使用实验室和现场实验以及计算机建模的组合来预测固体废物和有害物质如何在下水道中传播。 PI还建议开发软件工具，以帮助跟踪和建模这些过程，考虑到不同的不确定性来源。该项目的成功完成将通过生成新的数据和模型来使社会受益，从而提高对固体如何移动下水道的基本理解，并确定未来废水特性变化可能引起的脆弱性和潜在问题。将通过学生的教育和培训来实现社会的其他好处，包括在芝加哥的伊利诺伊大学的一名本科和一名研究生的指导和一名研究生中，以及一名研究生。进行硫化氢的形成，硫化氢，高度毒性和腐蚀性的气体，是两个关键问题，是两种关键问题，是造成综合的两个关键问题，是造成良好的隔壁和经济造成的，并且有经济的经济范围，并且有一个经济疾病和有经济的缝制范围和有疾病。预计可持续水技术的采用量增加了，以显着改变排放到下水道系统中的废水的数量和质量，从而导致意外的负面影响。预计降水量减少将增加固体的沉积，并改变下水道系统内的固液生化过程，加剧下水道阻塞和硫化氢的形成。该NSF-BSF项目的总体目标是研究排放到下水道的国内固体的动态特征，影响这些固体的运输，沉积和积累的因素，以及硫化氢和下水道系统中其他关键生物化学物种的形成和转化。研究的具体目标是1）进行实验室和现场实验，以表征下水道中固体运输，沉积和转化的物理方面； 2）开发开源软件工具来建模固定生物化学相互作用，使下水道系统中关键生物化学物种的命运和运输能够，并量化和传播不同的不确定性来源； 3）创建一个计算框架，以识别由于气候变化而导致的各种分散水技术，人口转移以及浸润/流入模式的变化，由于未来的废水排放特征变化而导致潜在的断点。该项目的成功完成将弥合下水道系统中固体运输和固定液体生物化学过程的基本知识差距，并将能够在未来的不确定的废水特征上长期和短期变化下识别脆弱性。该奖项奖反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过评估智力的MERITAIL和BRODITAIL和BRODITAIL和BRODITIAL和BRODITAIL和BRODITAIL和BRODITIAL和BRODITIAL和BRODITAIL和BRODITAIL和BRODITAILATIAL和BRODITAILATIAL和BRODITAILATIAS和BRODITAILATIAS和BRODITIAS。