Author ORCID Identifier
Semester
Fall
Date of Graduation
2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Type
PhD
College
Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources
Department
Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
Committee Chair
Fernando Lima
Committee Member
Debangsu Bhattacharyya
Committee Member
Oishi Sanyal
Committee Member
Lian-Shin Lin
Committee Member
Nicholas Siefert
Committee Member
Timothy Bartholomew
Abstract
Water treatment research has become an essential field to solve the water-related challenges outlined by the globally recognized sustainable development goals. Recent research efforts have explored innovative strategies of water use, management, and treatment for greater sustainability through conceptual designs and pilot systems. Throughout all phases of process development, employing model-based process systems engineering tools such as process operability can inform on design and performance through simulation, without the need for costly and time intensive physical implementations. Process systems engineering tools developed for and applied to water treatment processes are less prevalent than those for economically-driven industries long studied by chemical engineers. These software frameworks must contain water property predictions, water treatment equipment models, and sustainability-focused analysis tools, among other process systems engineering strategies, to continue to advance water sustainability in the future.
The material presented in this work has contributed to the application of process systems engineering tools to evaluate conceptual water treatment processes and the development of generalized process systems engineering tools for the simulation and optimization of water treatment processes. Model-based process systems analyses are presented for exploratory water treatment systems including blowdown and produced water cotreatment, electrodialysis systems for concentrating high-salinity brines, and PFAS treatment by granular activated carbon. The achievable treated water quality, energy consumption, and levelized cost of water are performance metrics for the optimally suggested designs obtained through process simulation of validated models which guide decision-making for the maturation of the processes.
The source waters which are treated in these applications and across diverse water treatment systems have significant variations in water quality. This upstream operational uncertainty has substantial implications on the steady-state design and performance of the process. The inclusion of source water uncertainty within process systems analyses of water treatment was identified as a research gap within the field. Among other software contributions included in this work, a framework was developed for the robust optimization of water treatment processes subject to operational source water uncertainty assessed by process operability tools. The utility of this framework was demonstrated through an applicable example of producing ultrapure water from river water desalination. In this methodology, the quantitative trade-off between design robustness and cost was determined which provides an informative analysis based on statistically-driven design practicality.
Recommended Citation
Barber, Hunter, "Water Treatment Simulation and Optimization Assessed by Process Operability Tools" (2024). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 12629.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/12629