Category: March 2021

NMSU Student Awarded NM WRRI Water Research Grant to Study Degradation of Microplastics from Wastewaters to H₂ Energy

By Marcus Gay, NM WRRI Student Program Coordinator

The term microplastics refers to any fragmented plastic material with sizes less than 5 mm. In a 2017 worldwide study by Orb Media, researchers found that over 80 percent of tap water samples tested positive for microplastics. The U.S. had the highest contamination rate of any nation with more than 94 percent of tap water samples containing plastic fibers. Microplastics are found in the effluent of water treatment plants, industrial wastewaters, rivers, lakes, and oceans. A recent report in Science indicates that approximately 0.48–1.27 million tons of plastic debris enter oceans annually. Microplastics have the potential to cause harmful effects on human health (endocrine disrupting chemicals and disease-causing microbes) and ecological environments (invasive species can use them to travel to new habitats). For these reasons, it is important to remove microplastics from water before consumption and before releasing water into the environment.

However, due to the intrinsic physical and chemical characteristics of microplastics, removal from water or wastewater is difficult. Studies suggest that treatment technologies such as membrane bioreactors, activated sludge, hydrocyclone, coagulation, and filtration are effective at removing microplastics with sizes larger than 1 mm, but large amounts of smaller microplastics still pass through the existing water and wastewater treatment processes. There are some processes that can be used to remove or degrade microplastics like membrane filtration, or thermal, chemical, and catalytic oxidation, but these technologies are expensive and often have high energy requirements. Therefore, NM WRRI has awarded a Student Water Research Grant to Thiloka Edirisooriya as she works to develop an efficient and sustainable method to degrade micro-and nano-plastics from water. Under the guidance of her faculty sponsors, Dr. Huiyao Wang and Dr. Pei Xu, the project entitled, Solar reforming of microplastics in water for H₂ production and degradation using nanocomposite photocatalysts, will use photocatalysis while producing hydrogen (H₂) under solar reforming.

The project aims to develop highly functional nanocomposite photocatalysts to clean water and convert microplastics from a waste to H₂ energy. According to Edirisooriya, “This research will help to improve water quality, reduce acute and chronic toxicity to human and aquatic life, and will assist in guiding the potential application of photocatalysis for environmental remediation of microplastic pollution.” Edirisooriya presented this project, which also addresses the renewable energy demand issue, at the 65^th Annual New Mexico Water Conference.

Edirisooriya, originally from Sri Lanka, has a BS in Civil Engineering where she worked on flow forecasting modeling and flood modeling. Edirisooriya plans to graduate with her MS in Civil Engineering from New Mexico State University in December. After graduation, Edirisooriya plans to continue in academics and hopes to enroll in a PhD program.

NMHU Student Awarded NM WRRI Water Research Grant to Study Water Quality in the Upper Pecos River

By Marcus Gay, NM WRRI Student Program Coordinator

The Upper Pecos watershed is part of the larger Rio Grande Basin. It extends from the headwaters of the Pecos River in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to where Interstate Highway 25 crosses the Pecos near San Jose, New Mexico. The Upper Pecos River provides water for wildlife habitats and the public water supply, and supports recreation, agriculture, and tourism. However, it has been hypothesized that increasing public and private land usage in the watershed could degrade the water quality of the Upper Pecos River. In order to reduce any potential water quality degradation, the Upper Pecos community needs data that can help them make informed management decisions. The first step in this process would be to conduct a water quality monitoring study to determine the current condition of the Upper Pecos River and its response to increasing land usage.

Unfortunately, water quality data are not regularly collected throughout the Upper Pecos watershed. To help address this knowledge gap, NM WRRI has awarded New Mexico Highlands University’s Megan Begay a Student Water Research Grant to assess the overall water quality of the Upper Pecos River. The project entitled Water Quality Monitoring of the Upper Pecos River; Protecting the Pecos with Baseline Data, seeks to establish the baseline water quality levels of the Upper Pecos River. Under the guidance of her faculty advisor, Dr. Jennifer Lindline, Begay will collect data on a bi-weekly basis at six monitoring sites along the Upper Pecos River. The data being collected are water temperature, dissolved oxygen, specific conductance, pH, and turbidity. The project seeks to define monthly and seasonal water quality variations on the Upper Pecos River, and to inform restoration efforts by the Upper Pecos Watershed Association.

The research team aims to create an impactful water management data set for the Pecos community. According to Begay, “this research will help benefit future decision making regarding the water quality of the Upper Pecos River.” The study hopes to provide a clear understanding of the current condition of the Upper Pecos River in order to develop a more detailed understanding of the river’s response to current and increasing land usages.

Begay and her team have presented this project at the 65^th Annual New Mexico Water Conference, an Upper Pecos Watershed Association Board Meeting, and to the Pecos Hydrology Workgroup.

Originally from New Mexico, Begay received her Associate of Applied Science in both Natural Resources Management and Environmental Science from Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute. Begay is on track to graduate from New Mexico Highlands University in the fall with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Geology. After graduation, Begay plans on gaining more applied experience in her field and going to graduate school.

PhD Student, Sara M. Torres, Begins Research on the Life Cycle Assessment of Pecan Orchards in the Mesilla Valley

By Carolina Mijares, NM WRRI Program Manager

PhD student Sara M. Torres’ dissertation follows the life cycle of pecan orchards to identify the water and environmental impacts at each stage of pecan production from cradle-to-gate. Cradle refers to the establishment of the orchard and gate represents the pecans leaving the orchard. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) will compare orchards using different irrigation schemes, including flood, drip, and micro-sprinklers in the Mesilla Valley. New Mexico is the second-largest pecan producer in the country, and Doña Ana County is the highest pecan-producing county in the United States. With this research, Sara hopes to provide producers with sustainability tradeoffs to help inform decisions on how to make pecan production more sustainable from cradle-to-gate.

This project has provided Sara the opportunity to get to know the pecan production culture in the Mesilla Valley. She has had the chance to talk with producers one-on-one and has learned a lot about the hopes and dreams producers have for the Valley. Sara states, “Being in the field speaking with stakeholders is my favorite part of my current role.”

Sara enjoys the project’s collaborative approach and working under the guidance of Dean Rolando Flores of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, and Dr. Alexander “Sam” Fernald, Director of NM Water Resources Research Institute. Her project is funded by the Hazel and Ulysses McElyea Endowment through the college of ACES. She is grateful for the critical conversations about research where individual and collective goals can be developed and used to execute and complete the proposed study on pecan orchard LCA. Sara states, “There is a creative energy to our meetings that I believe is helping move our research forward.”

Born and raised in Colombia, Sara recently lived in Colorado, Michigan, and now New Mexico. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder. She has a Master of Science in Community Sustainability and another in Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences from Michigan State University.

Sara expects to graduate with a Doctor of Philosophy in Water Science and Management in August 2022. She aspires to work on solving complex environmental problems at the community level. Sara hopes to use her skills and tools to implement environmental and behavioral theories to improve local environmental outcomes.

Meet the Researcher, Huiyao Wang, Associate Professor, New Mexico State University

By Jeanette Torres, NM WRRI Program Coordinator

This month for Meet the Researcher, we had the opportunity to interview Huiyao Wang, an associate professor of Materials Engineering for the Department of Civil Engineering at New Mexico State University (NMSU). Wang has worked at NMSU since 2013 and specializes in advanced research on novel materials and innovative energy for water treatment, solar energy, fuel cells, nanomaterials, and analytical devices. He teaches Fundamentals of Environment Engineering, and has instructed other NMSU courses in the past. Huiyao acknowledges that water is one of the most important factors of life for human beings, and has therefore dedicated his career to developing and researching new opportunities to reuse and preserve it.

Wang received his higher education entirely from Lanzhou University in Lanzhou, China. He earned a BS in Physics (1987), an MS in Semiconductor Physics and Devices (1993), and a PhD in Condensed Matter Physics (1998). His PhD work focused on preparing nano-structure photocatalytic metal oxide thin films to degrade dye wastewater by sunlight. Huiyao is currently a part of the American Society of Civil Engineering, and the Materials Research Society (International). He has additionally served as a guest editor for the journal Catalysts.

Huiyao is currently mentoring Master’s student Thiloka Edirisooriya and PhD student Lin Chen. The New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute (NM WRRI) recently awarded Thiloka Edirisooriya an FY20-21 Student Water Research Grant for her project entitled, Solar reforming of microplastics in water for H₂ production and degradation using nanocomposite photocatalysts. This research will study the abundance of microplastics in multiple water sources that tend to absorb toxic chemicals and cause chronic diseases such as cancer within the human body. According to Wang, the result of this experiment will be to develop highly functional nanocomposite photocatalysts to clean water and convert microplastics to H₂ energy. By doing this, it will help improve water quality, reduce acute and chronic toxicity in human and aquatic life, and will assist in guiding the potential application of a photocatalysis to assist in remedying microplastic pollution.

Wang has worked with NM WRRI for several years, and has contributed to multiple technical completion reports including Reducing Treatment Costs of Alternative Waters with Antifouling Ion-Exchange Membranes, and Low Cost, Low Energy concentrate Water Desalination Using Heat Recuperative Solar Still with Concentrating Solar Technology. Additional articles by Wang can be found in over 50 peer-reviewed publications with his latest being featured in the open access journal Water (2020) entitled, Interplay of the Factors Affecting Water Flux and Salt Rejection in Membrane Distillation: A State-of-the-Art Critical Review.

Huiyao and his colleagues are currently working on two projects using solar-driven multi-functional photocatalytic oxidation membrane distillation for produced water treatment, and closed-loop water reuse. This research will focus on innovative technology based on the integration of photocatalysis and membrane distillation processes instead of a combination of both. Integration is performed by utilizing solar energy to cause organic degradation on photocatalytic nanoparticles and inactivation of microorganisms while enhancing photothermal efficiency to produce vapor for membrane distillation. Wang states that these “projects aim to develop a multi-functional anti-fouling photocatalytic membrane distillation process that can utilize the full spectrum of solar energy to separate salts, decompose organic contaminants, inactivate pathogens, and produce high quality distillate.”

Using nano or advanced materials and technologies to improve water treatment and develop new water purification technologies is vital to Wang’s research, and he has stated that he would like to develop a transdisciplinary program to integrate nanotechnologies into environmental engineering. He hopes to continue developing immobilized solar photocatalytic reactors for water disinfection and purification as well.

Regarding future research, Huiyao plans to continue using his expertise to enhance environmental sustainability in his upcoming project with Dr. Pei Xu and Dr. Xuesong Xu entitled, Near zero-waste discharge of concentrate treatment using innovative electrodialysis processes. Huiyao is also currently collaborating with researchers at the University of Cincinnati, University of Michigan, University of California at Davis, California State University Fresno, and NMSU on several different research projects. He aims to participate in as many new developments related to environmental sustainability as possible, and hopes for additional cooperative opportunities with NM WRRI, NMSU, and other universities.