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Lecture: Non-Traditional Water Sources: Technology, Energy, and the Environment
September 13, 2016 @ 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Co-sponsored by the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, the Water Technology Research Center and the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
ABOUT THE TALK
The challenges in water management are among the most important problems facing the world today. The shortage of clean water is at the heart of critical health issues in developing countries and is the focus of ecological and safety concerns even for highly developed nations. There are increasing efforts to deploy various technologies to reclaim and treat impaired groundwater and surface water, increase reuse of municipal and industrial wastewater, and desalinate saline groundwater, agricultural drainage water, as well as seawater. There are also major efforts to improve small-scale water purification systems for residential use. A major challenge is to ensure new systems operate in an environmentally-compatible manner.
Israel has made significant steps to address these challenges and provide affordable solutions to increase its water portfolio. These include seawater desalination (80% of the urban water consumption), tertiary treatment of wastewater for irrigation, and drip irrigation. Professor Semiat will present some of the major advances in water management and an overview of research efforts at the Technion to improve process effectiveness and reduce cost, while addressing the important issues pertaining to energy consumption and environmental protection.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Raphael Semiat is Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology where he holds the Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Chair in Science, Engineering and Management of Water Resources. Dr. Semiat also serves as Director of the Rabin Desalination Laboratory, President of the Israel Desalination Society, and Co-Editor of the journal Desalination.
His research interests include: water technologies with emphasis on water desalination aspects; applications of membranes to separation processes and water desalination; and processes for protecting the environment.