Category: Sponsored Research

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Academic/Government Partners Work Toward the Next Level in Home Water Filtration

ISTC NEWS

Nanoparticle Membrane Technology Investigated for Commercial Viability  

gold membrane for water filtration
Illustration of free-standing gold membrane with nanoparticles 6 nanometers in diameter and openings of 2 micrometers.

ISTC’s Nandakishore Rajagopalan and Wei Zheng are part of a team of experts from government and academia who are working to improve the filtration of household drinking water using new ultrathin nanoparticle-based membranes to remove trace organic contaminants (TrOCs).

 

The U.S. Department of Energy will fund the work through its Technology Commercialization Fund, which moves promising energy technologies developed by 12 national laboratories and their research partners to the marketplace. ISTC will assist in the testing the performance of prototype TrOCs filtration membrane devices which may be commercially viable for the home water filtration market. The primary investigator on the project is Xiao-Min Lin, a scientist at Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials and at the James Franck Institute, University of Chicago.

 

Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago developed the technology for the new membrane structure using gold nanoparticles which are strong and porous, and which can be ‘dialed’ to selectively trap different contaminants by engineering the ligand on the particle surface. A ligand is a molecule that binds to a central metal atom to form a complex that helps to protect the nanoparticle and introduce additional functionalities. Laboratory measurements have demonstrated the nanoparticle based membrane can selectively filter out molecules as small as 2 micrometers, yet has water permeability far higher than conventional polymer-based membranes.

 

For two years, scientists at Argonne, ISTC and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) of Greater Chicago have been conferring on the problem of removing TrOCs from potable water supplies. Such contaminants consist of hormones, pesticides, prescription medications, personal care products, synthetic industrial chemicals, and chemicals formed during wastewater and drinking-water treatment processes. Even at very low concentrations these molecules can negatively affect aquatic environments and are of concern for human health impacts.

 

“Modern wastewater treatment plants were not designed to remove such materials, especially at such low concentrations,” said Wei Zheng, a senior research scientist at ISTC.

 

The search has been ongoing for methods to remove TrOCs including biodegradation, photolysis, volatization, and sorption. “We hope a gold nanoparticle-based membrane approach will improve the sorption efficiency of TrOC removal at low pressure and low energy — at a cost that makes it widely available for home filtration,” he said.

 

“Deploying new clean energy technologies is an essential part of our nation’s effort to lead in the 21st century economy and in the fight against climate change,” said Lynn Orr, DOE’s Under Secretary for Science and Energy in announcing the grant. DOE’s Technology Commercialization Fund “will help to accelerate the commercialization of cutting-edge energy technologies developed in our national labs, making them more widely available to American consumers and businesses.”

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Prairie Research Institute’s Large-Scale Watersheds Initiative Recognized Today at White House Water Summit

PRI'a Large-Scale Watershed Initiative was highlighted as part of the White House Water Summit.
PRI’s Large-Scale Watershed Initiative was highlighted as part of the White House Water Summit.

 

ISTC NEWS

 

Initiative Aims to Calculate ‘Value’ of Entire Illinois River Watersheds

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The White House Water Summit today highlighted the Resilient Watersheds Initiative of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois in its announcement of new measurable steps being taken across the country to address key water issues.

 

The White House Water Summit Fact Sheet and the Commitments to Action on Building a Sustainable Water Future report are both available online.

 

The Resilient Watersheds Initiative seeks to provide a science-based and data-driven approach to promoting resilient, sustainable Illinois watersheds. The interdisciplinary approach includes expertise from the Prairie Research Institute (PRI), Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, other departments across the University, as well as researchers at the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center in Alton, Ill.

 

The initiative will organize available data into a multi-dimensional model of the tangible ecosystem benefits watersheds provide (e.g., water storage and filtration, groundwater recharge, biodiversity) in addition to the value they represent for food, drinking water, swimming, fishing, boating, and tourism, etc.

 

The concept is called Value-based Landscape Design, which works to create tools that evaluate the potential of every acre of habitat. PRI is already engaged in landscape design projects related to the Lower Fox River and Green Bay ecosystems in Wisconsin, as well as Great Lakes coastal wetlands. This latter project was recognized by the White House in April, 2015 as one of the first four Resilient Lands and Waters Initiatives.

 

The Resilient Watersheds Initiative has set an ambitious goal of building integrated models of the entire Illinois River watershed. Areas suggested as starting points, due to the vast amount of information already available, include the Spoon River and Kankakee River watersheds.

 

PRI has for decades conducted extensive studies of Illinois’ fisheries, water quality, water supply, floodplains, wildlife habitat, and invasive species, just to name a few, through research by four of its divisions—the Ill. Natural History Survey, Ill. State Geological Survey, Ill. State Water Survey, and Ill. Sustainable Technology Center. The Watersheds Initiative builds on and integrates these efforts.

 

“The complexity of natural ecosystems, human impacts on them, and the value they represent to us, transcends boundaries of geography, political borders, and science disciplines,” said Brian Anderson, senior deputy executive director of PRI.

 

“Illinois watersheds are predominantly working landscapes,” added Laura Kammin, outreach program leader at Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant. “A framework that underscores the broad spectrum of values and the tangible benefits watersheds provide, and quantifies how those benefits change with changes in land-uses and practices, will help us make the best informed decisions for future planning.”

 

A preliminary report “The Resilient Watersheds Initiative: A Value-based Landscape Design Approach to Promote Watershed Resiliency though Collaboration” was drafted in fall 2015 to set the stage for planning and implementation of the initiative in spring 2016. The organization for the initiative is shown in Figure 1 of that document. Please contact Laura Kammin, or Brian Anderson, for additional information.

 

The White House Summit coincided with World Water Day.

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Sen. Durbin Backs Research to Capture More Carbon from Coal Plants

Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) toured the Abbott Power Plant at the University of Illinois on Jan. 15 for a briefing on Prairie Research Institute (PRI) research to develop next-generation carbon capture technology.

PRI has just released an informative video introduction to the work underway at the Abbott Power Plant.

Durbin featured in project video
Illinois Senator Dick Durbin spoke about the carbon capture research following a tour of the University of Illinois’ Abbott Power Plant.

The first-hand look at the project was an “eye opener,” Durbin said. If selected for the federally funded project, the technology would economically extract at least 90 percent of the carbon dioxide following an Abbott Power Plant retrofit. The ramifications for coal-rich Illinois – for jobs, the economy, and keeping utility rates low – could be profound.

“What’s going on here at the Abbott Power Plant is an effort to show that there is an environmentally responsible way to deal with the sources of energy whether they’re coal, natural gas, or oil,” Durbin said after the tour. “We’re working with the university, and the power plant, on an application for a Department of Energy research effort; and their goal, of course, is to take even more of the emissions and turn the pollution into profits and make certain that it doesn’t at least harm the environment in serious ways.”

For many nations around the world where coal is likely to remain the fuel of choice well into this century, the new technology could be a game changer in the challenge to limit global warming. The project includes expert advisory panel representing some of the largest power producers around the world, including China, India, and Brazil, said Kevin O’Brien, director of the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center and primary investigator for the project.

“We’re living in an era of dramatic change,” Durbin said. “Ten years ago we depended on OPEC oil. Now we’re talking very seriously about climate change and the need to reduce emissions.”

Senator Durbin was Supportive of the research on carbon captureHe praised the efforts at the University for keeping the more than 70-year-old plant at the forefront of efficient and effective technologies to deliver both steam and electric power to students and staff. “It still serves the campus today,” Durbin remarked. “The good news is that over the years there have been some dramatic efforts to modernize this plant and to make sure that it not only meets the standards but goes beyond, and sets the standard for new technology and new energy development.”

“So it was good to see this first hand today — to be educated. I will tell you that it came as an eye opener to me.  The steam generation and how important it is to the University of Illinois and also very important to generate the kind of electricity that sustains a modern campus in the 21st century.”

The project would put Abbott well beyond existing standards for emissions control. Abbott’s current pollution control technology, consisting of a combination of electrostatic precipitators and a flue gas desulfurization unit (scrubber), remains the “best available control technology” for removing pollutants from the byproducts of coal combustion.

The carbon capture research project also will look ahead to developing new uses for waste carbon dioxide. The project seeks partners interested in forming and building the overall “value chain” for captured CO2 – including members/ suppliers to the coal and power industry, and current and potential end-users of CO2. To learn more about the opportunity, call +1 (630) 472-5016.

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ISTC Signs Call for Action to Limit Global Warming

ISTC NEWS

The paris pledge for actionThe Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) has become a signatory to The Paris Pledge for Action, a world-wide call to action to reduce environmental impacts and limit global warming to less than two degrees.

 

“Minimizing the impact of climate change will require global innovation and cooperation,” said Kevin O’Brien, director of ISTC at the University of Illinois’ Prairie Research Institute (PRI). “There is not one solution to this societal, governmental, and technological challenge,” he added, “there are as many as we can think of.”

 

COP21, also known as the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, was the United Nation’s 21st climate conference in December, at which 196 nations recognized that climate change represents an “urgent and potentially irreversible threat to all human societies” requiring “deep reductions” in global greenhouse gas emissions.

 

The Paris Pledge for Action offers cities, businesses, investors, organizations and others everywhere to pledge to impact the goal of halting the rise in the average annual temperature on Earth. It is an initiative of the COP21 French Presidency (diplomatic host of the Conference) and the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.

 

The pledge also reads: “We … realize that taking strong action to reduce emissions can not only reduce the risks of climate change but also deliver better growth and sustainable development.”

 

Researchers at PRI have partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy on its technology roadmap on two approaches to perfect systems that can remove a record proportion of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel energy (especially coal used to generate electricity). With a Phase I DOE grant the team is currently investigating the engineering requirements to install ground-breaking technology at the U of I’s Abbott Power Plant. A second grant is developing a unique bi-phasic solvent as an ultra-efficient carbon capture technique.

 

“Our mission includes research, technical assistance, and public information to help forge a more sustainable future,” O’Brien continued. “The new technology, and our partners, span three continents and some of the largest power generators in the world so that our findings can quickly have the greatest impact on our Pledge for Action.”

 

For more on the PRI research, visit http://www.istc.illinois.edu/news/news26_carbon_capture.cfm and https://illinois.edu/blog/view/6231/314236.

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Ten: 10 Days of ISTC; Anniversary Presentation Video

30thBlogThing10Videos of presentations at ISTC’s anniversary event provide a fascinating look at problems of pollution contamination in Illinois and how the Center contributed to the clean up. Links to the videos will be made available over the next two weeks as they become available.

ISTC Looks Back, and to the Future During Anniversary

VIDEO 10: Mark Ryan After leading the assembly in “Happy Birthday” to ISTC, Ryan shared a brief survey of the history of “sustainability in the modern context.” In 1980, sustainable development was called a global priority in “World Conservation Strategy” published by the International Union for of Conservation of Nature.

 

The United Nation’s Bruntland Commission defined it in 1987: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

 

But sustainability in the sense of natural resources goes back thousands of years to so many cultures across the globe that Ryan said he was comfortable labeling it a “universal truth.”

 

For examples in ancient times he cited, “Deuteronomy’s” caution not to kill female birds with young, forest management practiced in the Han Dynasty, and the Roman latifundium which managed the production of wood and other crops. Ryan noted that when Rome fell, and latifundia disappeared, so did many of the forests in Italy and France.

 

Ryan continued to offer examples of preserving resources for future use through the centuries, right up to the establishment of the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center in 1985.

 

ALL VIDEOS and other ISTC 30th Anniversary information is available at this ISTC web page.

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Nine: 10 Days of ISTC; Anniversary Celebration Videos

30thBlogThing2Videos of presentations at ISTC’s anniversary event provide a fascinating look at problems of pollution contamination in Illinois and how the Center contributed to the clean up. Links to the videos will be made available over the next two weeks as they become available.

ISTC Looks Back, and to the Future During Anniversary

VIDEO 9: State Senator Scott Bennett’s presentation gave insights on how policies work their way through the state legislature. For 10 years politics, policy and science questions surrounded a proposal to store PCBs and manufactured gas plant waste in a DeWitt County landfill positioned over the Mohamet Aquifer.

 

He has been active in promoting legislation to protect the aquifer, which is a critical source of drinking water for a large region of central Illinois. Another pending bill to protect the state’s natural infrastructure is a comprehensive program to monitor the quality of air, water, and land resources. Also, a proposed law would allow cities to collect fees from power plants to prepare for the costs of environmental cleanup when the plant eventually closes down.

 

NEXT UP: Mark Ryan, PRI executive director, “A Brief History of Sustainability.”

 

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Eight: 10 Days of ISTC; Anniversary Presentation Videos

30thBlogThing9Videos of presentations at ISTC’s anniversary event provide a fascinating look at problems of pollution contamination in Illinois and how the Center contributed to the clean up. Links to the videos will be made available over the next two weeks as they become available.

ISTC Looks Back, and to the Future During Anniversary

VIDEO 8: Jerri-Anne Garl represented the federal Environmental Protection Agency during the ISTC Anniversary Celebration. Since EPA’s pollution prevention program started in the early 1990s, ISTC “has been one of our most effective and innovative partners,” Garl said. “ISTC itself has served as a model for other state programs.” She outlined successes of ISTC programs in assisting local communities and small companies, as well as major manufacturers, save money, water, energy, and make their operations more environmentally friendly.

 

Garl reviewed federal priorities for the EPA: 1) making a visible difference in communities; addressing climate change and improving air quality; launching a new era of state, tribal and local partnerships; and embracing EPA as a high performing organization. She added that the agency has set three emphasis areas for its work: climate change, food manufacturing, and hazardous materials mitigation.

 

“We believe that the ISTC is really well-positioned with the tools, experience, connections and the innovative spirit, to be a central partner in this effort.

 

NEXT UP: Scott Bennett, Illinois Senate (52 Dist. D), “Protecting Our Environment.”

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Seven: 10 Days of ISTC; Anniversary Presentation Videos

30thBlogThing8Videos of presentations at ISTC’s anniversary event provide a fascinating look at problems of pollution contamination in Illinois and how the Center contributed to the clean up. Links to the videos will be made available over the next two weeks as they become available.

ISTC Looks Back, and to the Future During Anniversary

VIDEO 7: Kevin Greene’s career in the environmental arena spans almost 30 years, including nearly 20 years at the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. During the early days of the pollution prevention movement, he viewed the reaction against environmental contamination from several perspectives — as an environmental issues consultant, lobbyist, and regulator.

 

He noted that during the 1970s there was a wave of federal environmental laws which represented a change in the environmental community from public activists for change working from outside institutions to working inside them. Early regulations were also aimed at dealing with managing pollution after it was created.

 

A second wave of community activism developed in the 1980s over concern about how effectively industrial by-products were being handled, and their potential health impacts, he said. “Specialists or technocrats” continued to be “at the table” in seeking waste management solutions, but public activists were growing less trusting, he recalled.

 

Activists’ focus shifted away from calls for regulations that manage pollutants to local level activism to halt proposed storage/disposal facilities.  Increasingly the questions became “why is waste being generated in the first place” and the response shifted to getting critical information about pending waste projects to affected communities.

 

NEXT UP: Jerri-Anne Garl, U.S. EPA, “Working with ISTC on Pollution Prevention: Past Accomplishments and Future Opportunities from a Federal Perspective.”

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Six: 10 Days of ISTC; Anniversary Presentation Videos

30thBlogThing6Videos of presentations at ISTC’s anniversary event provide a fascinating look at problems of pollution contamination in Illinois and how the Center contributed to the clean up. Links to the videos will be made available over the next two weeks as they become available.

ISTC Looks Back, and to the Future During Anniversary

 

VIDEO 6: Timothy Lindsey As long-time head of technical assistance at the Center, Timothy Lindsey, helped pioneer more effective technical assistance efforts by applying the principals of innovation diffusion. He recalled he and his colleagues at the Center were frustrated when they made recommendations that would clearly save money and trim waste, yet often they were not adopted.

 

As part of his doctoral studies, Lindsey began to apply the ideas of Everett M. Rogers in his book “Diffusion of Innovation.” Innovations are initially perceived as uncertain and even risky, Lindsey said. They must be demonstrated in the context of the scale and type of the existing process. Innovations are most likely to be shared among trusted peers and the process can be slow.

 

Lindsey explained that sustainability in an innovative way of doing business, similar to innovations like the assembly line or electronic commerce. Following innovations in sustainable business, he said,  financial performance, environmental performance and social performance must be considered over the long term.

 

Now Global Director of Sustainable Development at Caterpillar Inc., Lindsey has applied principles of innovation diffusion to the multi-national manufacturer. Sustainability has long been important at Caterpillar, he said. But 2104 was a formative year at the company when sustainability became more than just an important thing they do. “Sustainability became an important part of who we are,” as one of the corporation’s core value, he said.

 

NEXT UP: Kevin Greene, “Pollution Prevention: Looking Back Towards the Future.”

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Five: 10 Days of ISTC; Anniversary Presentation Videos

30thBlogThing7Videos of presentations at ISTC’s anniversary event provide a fascinating look at problems of pollution contamination in Illinois and how the Center contributed to the clean up. Links to the videos will be made available over the next two weeks as they become available.

ISTC Looks Back, and to the Future During Anniversary

VIDEO 5: Jeff Levengood, spoke about the strong collaboration between ISTC and the other four state surveys during its history. The diverse expertise of the scientists at the Prairie Research Institute’s four other surveys — spanning water, geology, natural history, and archaeology — enabled them to examining complex, place-based, legacy environmental contamination and degradation issues.

 

The work resulted in research reports published by the center, but also in refereed journal articles. He said this work helped communities around Illinois in managing their contamination problems but the collaborations also made significant contributions to the knowledge base in the field.

 

At Lake Calumet, Waukegan Harbor, Lake DePue and other post-industrial natural habitats, the surveys studied exposure and uptake of pollution by wildlife. They tracked changes in habits including nesting, foraging, reproduction in the birds, fish and the greater ecosystem. The information helped lead to innovative restoration projects at compromised sites in the state.

 

“I think we have to be proud,” Levengood said, “anybody that was involved in those early studies, because we really kind of kicked this off and helped to show what could be, what was possible.”

 

He quoted Nicole Kamins Barker, who worked on the Lake Calumet restoration as part of the Chicago Department of Environment, who said “The Surveys’ involvement took our work in the Calumet region to a new level of effectiveness by merging the latest scientific research with natural resource planning and management.”

 

NEXT UP: Timothy Lindsey, “Incorporating Innovation into Pollution Prevention and Sustainability.”