4.6.21-Water-Industry-Jongyoon-Han

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  While the conventional water treatment technology is relatively well-established, we see a continuously increased list of emerging water contaminants (heavy metals, PFAS, infectious pathogens, pharmaceuticals, etc.), which poses challenges for both detection/monitoring and removal technologies. Many of these emerging contaminants need to be detected at the lowest abundance level, challenging our ability to monitor environmental contamination continuously. Besides, targeted removal processes (often based on chemical treatment) are deployed as ‘add-on’ to existing water treatment processes, increasing the cost significantly without offering the flexibility for dealing with various emerging contaminants. In the Han group (MIT), we approach these challenges by developing electrokinetic contaminant concentration/removal processes called Ion Concentration Polarization (ICP). A diverse class of contaminants (TSS, heavy metal, biomolecules, cells, salt ions, etc.) can be concentrated for more sensitive detection and removed to generate clean water in a single-step process. Our vision is to combine advanced monitoring with advanced removal, providing technical options for intelligent contamination management for many different application scenarios such as industrial/agricultural/domestic water generation.

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