Publications related to Filtration

Formation of carbonyl compounds during ozonation of lake water and wastewater: Development of a non-target screening method and quantification of target compounds

Ozonation of natural waters is typically associated with the formation of carbonyl compounds (aldehydes, ketones and ketoacids), a main class of organic disinfection byproducts (DBPs). However, the detection of carbonyl compounds in water and wastewater is ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2023

Modeling of solids particle diversion to promote uniform growth of multiple hydraulic fractures

Guanyi Lu

Solid particulate additives are sometimes used to promote the uniform growth of multiple hydraulic fractures in horizontal oil and gas wells. The principle is that solid particulates block, accumulate, and form larger porous plugging zones preferentially a ...

ELSEVIER2023

Nature-Inspired Stalactite Nanopores for Biosensing and Energy Harvesting

Aleksandra Radenovic, Mukeshchand Thakur, Andrey Chernev, Vasily Artemov, Lucie Navratilova, Nianduo Cai, Yunfei Teng, Tzu-Heng Chen, Victor Carle Adrien Boureau

Nature provides a wide range of self-assembled structures from the nanoscale to the macroscale. Under the right thermodynamic conditions and with the appropriate material supply, structures like stalactites, icicles, and corals can grow. However, the natur ...

Wiley-V C H Verlag Gmbh2023

Clogging of riverbed substrates by fine sediment

Romain Maxime Dubuis

Riverbeds represent the habitat of numerous aquatic species. Exchanges between the groundwater, the hyporheic zone and the surface flow are also essential for river ecosystems. Fine sediment transported by rivers deposits inside or on top of the bed and mo ...

EPFL2023

Oxidative Water Treatment: The Track Ahead

Urs von Gunten, Yun Ho Lee

Chemical oxidation has been applied in municipal water treatment for more than a century, initially for disinfection. In the early decades, chlorine disinfection was adopted in the fight against waterborne disease. However, the oxidative properties of chlo ...

2023

Functional and structural characterization of polyphosphate-accumulating organisms in aerobic granular biofilms

Arnaud Michel Gelb

The "Aerobic Granular Sludge" (AGS) technology for wastewater treatment is based on dense microbial biofilm in the form of granular aggregates that have an excellent settling property allowing high biomass concentrations in bioreactors. This promising biol ...

EPFL2023

Biological material pooling device for biological or biomolecule purification

Bart Deplancke, Riccardo Dainese, Daniel Alpern

The present invention concerns a biological material pooling device for biological or biomolecule purification comprising a receptacle including a first orifice comprising ordefining a rectangular opening, the receptacle being configured to receive at leas ...

2023

Nanoplastics removal during drinking water treatment: Laboratory- and pilot-scale experiments and modeling

Urs von Gunten

Microplastics detected in potable water sources and tap water have led to concerns about the efficacy of current drinking water treatment processes to remove these contaminants. It is hypothesized that drinking water resources contain nanoplastics (NPs), b ...

ELSEVIER2022

Pretreatment options for micropollutant abatement before aquifer recharge in drinking water production: Assessment of UV/H2O2 and dense membranes

Robin Wünsch

Micropollutants (MP) such as residues of pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals or pesticides can be detected in almost all water resources. Various processes can be used to abate them in drinking water treatment, e.g., ozonation, advanced oxidation process ...

EPFL2022

On the durability of surgical masks after simulated handling and wear

Véronique Michaud, Vincent Marc Varanges, Jian Wang, Baris Çaglar, Yann Albert Gérard Lebaupin, René M. Rossi

After the spread of COVID-19, surgical masks became highly recommended to the public. They tend to be handled and used multiple times, which may impact their performance. To evaluate this risk, surgical masks of Type IIR were submitted to four simulated tr ...

Nature Research2022

Two-dimensional atomically bridged nanoporous silicate-based membranes for gas separation

Mostapha Dakhchoune

The synthesis of molecular-sieving two-dimensional zeolitic membranes by the assembly of crystalline building blocks without resorting to the secondary growth process is highly desirable. The precise pore size for molecular sieving, ultrathin thickness, an ...

EPFL2021

Formation of transformation products during ozonation of secondary wastewater effluent and their fate in post-treatment: From laboratory-to full-scale

Urs von Gunten

Ozonation is increasingly applied in water and wastewater treatment for the abatement of micropollutants (MPs). However, the transformation products formed during ozonation (OTPs) and their fate in biological or sorptive post-treatments is largely unknown. ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2021

Micropollutants as internal probe compounds to assess UV fluence and hydroxyl radical exposure in UV/H 2 O 2 treatment

Urs von Gunten, Silvio Canonica, Fabienne Eugster, Robin Wünsch, Thomas Wintgens

Organic micropollutants (MPs) are increasingly detected in water resources, which can be a concern for human health and the aquatic environment. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation based advanced oxidation processes (AOP) such as low-pressure mercury vapor arc lamp ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2021

Pressure-Induced Enlargement and Ionic Current Rectification in Symmetric Nanopores

Aleksandra Radenovic, Andrey Chernev, Sanjin Marion, Michal Daniel Macha, Sebastian James Davis

Nanopores in solid state membranes are a tool able to probe nanofluidic phenomena or can act as a single molecular sensor. They also have diverse applications in filtration, desalination, or osmotic power generation. Many of these applications involve chem ...

2020

Benchmarking protocols for the metagenomic analysis of stream biofilm viromes

Tom Ian Battin, Hannes Markus Peter, Jade Brandani, Massimo Bourquin, Meriem Bekliz

Viruses drive microbial diversity, function and evolution and influence important biogeochemical cycles in aquatic ecosystems. Despite their relevance, we currently lack an understanding of their potential impacts on stream biofilm structure and function. ...

PeerJ2019

Surface water treatment by UV/H2O2 with subsequent soil aquifer treatment: impact on micropollutants, dissolved organic matter and biological activity

Urs von Gunten, Fabienne Eugster, Thomas Wintgens

Because organic micropollutants (MP) are frequently detected in river waters that are used as drinking water sources, combining a relatively cost-efficient natural treatment with upstream advanced oxidation processes (AOP) appears promising for their effic ...

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY2019

A Tale of Two Treatments: The Multiple Barrier Approach to Removing Chemical Contaminants During Potable Water Reuse

Urs von Gunten

In response to water scarcity and an increased recognition of the risks associated with the presence of chemical contaminants, environmental engineers have developed advanced water treatment systems that are capable of converting municipal wastewater efflu ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2019

Interplay of hyporheic exchange and fine particle deposition in a riverbed

David Andrew Barry, Pei Zhang

Hyporheic flow transports fine particles into the riverbed, which can lead to clogging of the bed and in turn affect hyporheic flow and exchange processes. Field measurements and numerical simulations show the formation of a low-permeability layer (LPL) ne ...

2019

Electrostatically gated nanofluidic membranes: Technological developments and use of electrochemically polarizable materials

Stefano Silvio Giovanni Varricchio

Solid-state nanoporous membranes able to control ionic flows at the molecular level could have important applications in fields of research such as water filtration, nanomedicine, energy production, drug delivery, and bio-chemical analysis. The ability to ...

EPFL2018

Evaluation of a full-scale wastewater treatment plant upgraded with ozonation and biological post-treatments: Abatement of micropollutants, formation of transformation products and oxidation by-products

Urs von Gunten, Hansruedi Siegrist

To protect the ecosystem and drinking water resources in Switzerland and in the countries of the downstream catchments, a new Swiss water protection act entered into force in 2016 aiming to reduce the discharge of micropollutants from wastewater treatment ...

2018