SBIR Phase I: Compact, low-maintenance water treatment plant

SBIR 第一期：紧凑、低维护的水处理厂

• 批准号: 2212882
• 负责人: Marcin Sawczuk
• 金额: $ 25.58万
• 依托单位: FIRST WATER TECHNOLOGY CO.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-02-15 至 2025-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2212882&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Compact; low; maintenance

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will be the development of a low footprint drinking water treatment plant (WTP) suited to facilitate much-needed upgrades to the nation’s water infrastructure. Today’s drinking water treatment systems are suffering from high volumes of generated waste (~100,000 tons sludge per typical plant per year) and high maintenance requirements and costs (4x/year week-long clarifier decommissioning for cleaning). The aging infrastructure of many of the nation’s water treatment plants has left millions of Americans with inadequate drinking water. This situation, paired with the aging and shrinking water operator workforce, translates into a growing threat of water supply interruptions and noncompliance. Owing to its small footprint and low energy and maintenance demands, the proposed technology would deliver an easily implementable solution that could be adopted by communities and water systems around the world, even in remote areas. Successfully developed, the WTP will offer a unique economic opportunity to meet critical global sustainable development goals and promote human health and welfare. This technology will lower the barriers to upgrading the nation’s water infrastructure, creating jobs through the introduction of long-delayed upgrades through plant implementation.Elements of the innovation under development for the proposed water treatment plant include a self-modulating feedback/feedforward controller driving automated coagulant dosing, which is paired with a high-efficiency hydraulic flocculator that leverages turbulent flow to promote floc formation while remaining free of failure-prone moving parts; a self-cleaning clarifier fitted with settling plates and a sludge blanket system for efficient contaminant removal; a stacked sand filter that decreases the hydraulic loading rate for a given flow and bed volume, resulting in improved stability of the deposited particles (i.e., reduced shear and particle breakthrough); and a continuous sludge dewatering and treatment system that decreases the volume of produced sludge while also providing a continuous waste stream for further processing. While early efforts have established a proof-of-concept demonstrating operations at 50% less energy demand than conventional systems, continued research and development to improve system performance and autonomy are needed. In line with this effort, the Phase I effort will focus on: 1) development of an automated control system for precise coagulant dosing; 2) design modification to minimize waste stream volume; and 3) design and construction of a pilot plant with 15 gallons per minute capacity, suitable to meet the water treatment needs of communities of ~300 people.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.

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）I期项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是开发一个低足迹饮用水处理厂（WTP），该厂（WTP）适合支持急需的升级到该国水基础设施。当今的饮用水处理系统遭受了大量产生的废物（每年典型工厂约100,000吨污泥）和高维护要求和成本（4倍/年/年为期一周的澄清仪退役以进行清洁）。美国许多水处理厂的老化基础设施使数百万美国人的饮用水不足。这种情况与衰老和缩小的水运算师劳动力相结合，转化为供水中断和不遵守供水的威胁。由于其较小的占地面积，低的能源和维护需求，该提议的技术将提供易于实施的解决方案，该解决方案甚至在偏远地区，甚至在世界各地的社区和水系统中都可以采用。 WTP成功发展，将提供独特的经济机会，以实现关键的全球可持续发展目标并促进人类健康和福利。这项技术将降低升级国家水基础设施的障碍，通过引入长期延迟的升级来创造就业机会。拟议的水处理厂的开发创新元素要元素元素，以自我调制的反馈/进料控制器包括驱动自动化的凝胶式供应量的自动化式旋转式牛油，这是促进高效应的速率，这是促进自动化的速度，该速率是驱动式滚动式氟甘露的，该速度是驱动式滚动式烟草的，这是该效率的。容易失败的运动部件；一个装有设置板和污泥毯系统的自我清洁的旋转链轮机，可有效污染污染物；一个堆叠的砂滤器，可降低给定流量和床体积的水利负荷速率，从而提高沉积颗粒的稳定性（即减少剪切和颗粒突破）；连续的污泥脱水和处理系统减少了产生的污泥的体积，同时还提供了连续的废物流以进一步加工。尽管早期的努力与传统系统相比，早期的概念证明了能源需求少50％的运营，但仍需要持续的研发来改善系统性能和自主权。与这项努力有关，第一阶段的工作将重点放在：1）开发自动化控制系统以进行精确的凝结剂剂量； 2）设计修改以最大程度地减少废物流量； 3）设计和建造一个具有每分钟15加仑的飞行员工厂，适合满足约300人社区的水处理需求。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响评估标准来评估，被认为是珍贵的支持。