Conference Session (C4)
Paper #6282
FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS: REVISED PROPOSAL
AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Luke Mesko, lpm23@pitt.edu, Dr. Mena 4:00, Austin Matase, ajm252@pitt.edu, Dr. Mena 4:00
REVERSE OSMOSIS WATER
PURIFICATION IS AN IMPORTANT
ENGINEERING PROCESS BECAUSE
OF THE IMPACT IT CAN HAVE ON
THE WATER CRISIS THAT OUR
WORLD IS FACING.
The world today is facing a water crisis that is quickly
approaching and many people are unaware of it. There are
Americans that think that the issue of clean water only applies
to foreign countries and continents like Africa, and while
Africa does have a dire need for clean water that is not the only
place in the world that needs water. Even here in the United
States there are states such as California, who have massive
populations, which could soon not have enough clean water to
fulfill everyone’s needs.
Reverse Osmosis can be used in places where there is
water that is contaminated by bacteria or other harmful
particles. A great example of where this is necessary is in
Africa. A study was done in South Africa by Suma George
Mulamattathil on the bacteria water sources and the results
determined that, “Bacterial biofilms were detected in all water
sources that were sampled and opportunistic pathogens such as
Pseudomonas and Aeromonas species were isolated from
biofilms in raw water from the Modimola Dam, drinking water
and mixed water. These isolates were found to harbor
virulence gene determinants indicating that they have the
potential to cause diseases in humans” [1]. These results go to
show that there is a need for water purification in Africa,
including South Africa.
Reverse Osmosis is a process that can be done pretty
much anywhere, but it is extremely efficient along coastal
areas since that is where there is a tremendous amount of water
that can be purified. This water that contains salt, which makes
it not drinkable or practical for use, needs to go through a
process called desalination. Desalination is the removal of salt
in water. Reverse osmosis should be used a lot more for
desalination along coastal states such as California. A study
by Tzyy Haur Chong showed that “For a typical seawater feed
of 35 g/L the energy efficient reverse osmosis 3-stage process
can achieve a 75% recovery at a net specific energy
consumption of 2.746 kWh/m3. This is significantly higher
than other forms of desalination that are used today” [2].
Reverse osmosis works by running water through a
semipermeable membrane. This semipermeable membrane
University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering 1
1/29/2016
removes particles that we do not want in our water. The
particles are removed because they are unable to pass through
the semipermeable membrane, but the clean water is able to
pass through [3]. In an article written by Dan Li and Huanting
Wang, they described the membrane used in the Reverse
Osmosis process saying, “The semi-permeable membrane
applied in the Reverse Osmosis process is usually called a
Reverse Osmosis membrane, which is effectively non-porous,
and excludes particles and even any low molar mass species
such as salt ions” [4]. There are different types of membranes
that are used for Reverse Osmosis, and in our paper we will go
into further detail about what these are and which ones work
the best.
REFERENCES
[1]
Chong,
T.
(2015).
“Energy-efficient reverse
osmosis desalination process.” Academic Search Premier
Database
(Online
Article).
http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=18&sid=a
2e2b8f2-ae6c-4214-8668e973e49e1276%40sessionmgr115&hid=115&bdata=JnNpdG
U9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=99281698&db=aph
This article is about the energy usage of the reverse
osmosis process. It goes into specific detail comparing it with
other processes that we already use. It also talks provides
statistics about how much energy is consumed by the process.
It also includes statistics that prove that reverse osmosis is the
most energy efficient process. It goes into ways that the system
could become even more efficient. We will use this source to
provide actual data that shows that Reverse Osmosis is the
most energy and cost effective process that we know.
[2] Mulamattathil, G. (2014). “Biofilm formation in surface
and drinking water distribution systems in Mafikeng,
South Africa.” Academic Search Premier Database (Online
Article)
This article is about how untreated water is
potentially dangerous. It includes how bacteria will grow in
water that is untreated. It also talks of the dangers of drinking
contaminated water. It also talks about biofilms which could
potentially be a problem for the process. They performed
experiments to prove that many different species of bacteria
would grow in poorly treated reused wastewater. We would
use this source to tell the audience how this problem affects
billions of people every day.
[3] S. Jamaly (2014). “A short review on reverse osmosis
pretreatment technologies” Science Direct database. (online
Luke Mesko
Austin Matase
article).http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001
191641400492
superior to other membrane methods and more importantly
every method.
It talks of methods to fix the problems that Reverse
Osmosis has and advantages of it. Pretreatment capital cost
increases 20% depending on water quality. Reverse osmosis is
a better treatment than any conventional method. Pretreatment
is necessary when water quality is bad because it gets stuck in
the membrane. Studies suggest that reverse osmosis produces
better quality water and minimize overall treatment cost. We
plan on using this to enforce that reverse osmosis has the least
problems and the most advantages over other methods.
M. Li. (2010). “Minimization of Energy in Reverse Osmosis
Water
Desalination
Using
Constrained
Nonlinear
Optimization” American Chemical Society Database. (online
article).
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/ie9012826
This article is about minimizing the energy usage
during the process. It is mostly conclusions from an
experiment that was done. It also states the important need for
clean drink water. It also stresses the importance of the amount
of energy that is consumed. It is 45% of the cost of the process.
It talks about methods to reduce energy used. We plan on using
this to prove that it is still the most energy efficient method and
can still be improved.
[4] Li D. (2010). ”Recent developments in reverse osmosis
desalination membranes” Compendex database. (Online
article)
http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2010/JM/b924
553g#!divAbstract
This article describes some recent progress on the
reverse osmosis process. More importantly, it includes an
explanation of how the process works and what the system is
comprised of. We need this because we need to explain how
the process works in our paper because it is not considered
common knowledge. It also includes recent developments that
have made the process even better. We are going to use this
source to explain to the audience how the process works.
R. Tufa (2015). “Perspectives on environmental ethics in
sustainability of membrane based technologies for water and
energy production” Science Direct database. (online article).
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S235218641
5000292
This article reviews all of the environmental impacts
and ethics of membrane based technologies. It assesses
environmental impacts from different techniques. Also the
sustainability of each method. It also considers the ethics
involved in the situation. Lastly, it predicts future changes in
water and energy production. We are going to use this one to
prove its positive affect on the environment. Also it’s
evaluation of ethics will be used multiple times.
TOPIC AREA: CIVIL AND
ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
J. Yong, W. Phillip, M. Elimelech, et al. (2012). “Reverse
Permeation of Weak Electrolyte Draw Solutes in Forward
Osmosis” American Chemical Society Database. (online
article).
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/ie3016494
This article is about the future of Reverse osmosis,
and how it could change. This shows some new technology
that could solve all of the problems with Reverse Osmosis. It
even suggests a way to use little to no energy while continuing
the process. It incorporates different solutions using chemistry
and theoretical math to propose possible breakthroughs. It
includes experiments and diagrams that we could use. We
would use this source to show the improvements that could be
made.
This paper belongs in the topic field of civil and
environmental engineering because any type of engineering
process that has to do with the purification of water falls into
this category. Even though the majority of the science and
technology behind reverse osmosis involves chemistry, this
paper still belongs in the topic of civil and environmental
engineering.
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
B. Feinberg, G. Ramon, E. Hoek (2013). “Thermodynamic
Analysis of Osmotic Energy Recovery at a Reverse Osmosis
Desalination Plant” American Chemical Society Database.
(online article). http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es503051t
This article is an experiment that compares two
different methods of membrane desalination. It compares
Reverse Osmosis with another method called Membrane
distillation. It helps show why reverse osmosis is one of the
best methods. The most important aspect of reverse osmosis is
that it doesn’t require high temperature just like every other
method. We can use this to show why reverse osmosis is
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