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.

该小企业创新研究 (SBIR) 第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将是开发一个低占地面积的饮用水处理厂 (WTP)，适合促进当今国家水基础设施急需的升级。系统面临着产生大量废物（每个典型工厂每年约 100,000 吨污泥）和高维护要求和成本（每年 4 次、为期一周的澄清池退役以进行清洁）的问题。全国许多水处理厂导致数百万美国人饮用水不足，再加上水务运营商劳动力的老龄化和萎缩，由于其占地面积小且能耗低，供水中断和违规的威胁日益严重。和维护需求，拟议的技术将提供一种易于实施的解决方案，可供世界各地的社区和供水系统采用，即使是在偏远地区。成功开发后，WTP 将为实现关键的全球可持续发展目标提供独特的经济机会。促进人类健康和福祉。这项技术将降低升级国家水基础设施的障碍，通过工厂实施引入长期拖延的升级来创造就业机会。拟议水处理厂正在开发的创新要素包括驱动自动化的自调节反馈/前馈控制器混凝剂投加，与高效液压絮凝器配合使用，利用湍流促进絮凝物形成，同时避免易于发生故障的移动部件，并配有沉降器；用于有效去除污染物的板和污泥层系统；堆叠式砂滤器，可降低给定流量和床体积的水力负荷率，从而提高沉积颗粒的稳定性（即减少剪切力和颗粒）和连续突破；污泥脱水和处理系统可减少产生的污泥量，同时为进一步处理提供连续的废物流，而早期的努力已经建立了概念验证，证明运行时的能源需求比以前少 5​​0%。与传统系统相比，需要继续进行研究和开发，以提高系统性能和自主性。根据这一努力，第一阶段的工作将重点关注：1）开发用于精确混凝剂剂量的自动控制系统；2）进行设计修改，以最大限度地减少浪费。水量；3) 设计和建造每分钟 15 加仑的容量的试点工厂，适合满足约 300 人的社区的水处理需求。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过评估认为值得支持这基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。