Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 2

This research project involving Center of Water Technology (CTE) and BioLargo Water Inc is based on a college-industry collaboration. The occurrence and persistence of pharmaceutical products (PPs) in the aquatic ecosystems lead to a negative effect on human life and cause troubles on aquatic systems. BioLargo is developing a novel electrochemical technology for water treatment termed the Electrochemical Advanced Oxidation System (EAOS). The EAOS process having "six chamber" uses flow-through electrodes, with the water flowing sequentially through an expanded graphite anode, a porous separator and an expanded graphite cathode. This R&D project aims to demonstrate the economic and environmental interest of the innovant EAOS technology in the particular case for the PPs treatment. The research project will be structure according to the following four steps. The first activity aims to evaluate and characterize the EAOS reactor having six chamber in terms of its ability to simultaneously produce ROS (H2O2, OHo, etc). The second activity will consist to develop and to optimize the EAOS efficiency to oxidize the PPs. The performance of the EAOS will evaluated under different conditions (current density, electrolysis time, pH, type of electrodes, PPs concentrations, etc). The optimization essays will conducted in batch and continuous operation mode. The third activity will consist to evaluate and to optimize the efficiency of the EAOS to treat municipal wastewater (MWW) loaded with PPs. The fourth objective was carried out to compare conventional oxidation process (O3/H2O2) and EAOS to determine the most effective process (in term of cost-effective) in treating MWW strongly loaded with PPs. A technical-economic analysis will be carried-out. This project will benefit from a unique expertise combining electrochemical oxidation techniques and analysis of emergent contaminants, and an already operational R&D infrastructures, an ingredient essential to the achievement of the objectives of the project.