You are here:
Small-Scale Evaluation of the Expeditionary Unit Water Purifier
Citation:
JAMES, R., S. Rosansky, JEFF Q. ADAMS, AND E. N. KOGLIN. Small-Scale Evaluation of the Expeditionary Unit Water Purifier. Presented at AWWA WATER SECURITY CONGRESS, CINCINNATI, OH, April 06 - 08, 2008.
Impact/Purpose:
To present information
Description:
The U.S. EPA’s Technology Testing and Evaluation Program has been charged by EPA to evaluate the performance of commercially available water security-related technologies. Throughout 2007, an evaluation the Expeditionary Unit Water Purifier (EUWP), a mobile water treatment technology, has been evaluated by challenging it with various chemical challenges. The EUWP is a transportable, skid-mounted ultrafiltration (UF)/reverse-osmosis (RO)-based system that is intended to meet expeditionary purified water needs in areas with challenging water sources of very high total dissolved solids (TDS), turbidity, or hazardous contamination during emergency situations when other water treatment facilities are incapacitated. The unit was designed for military use to meet or exceed Tri-Service Field Water Quality Standards for short-term consumption by healthy adults. However, the technology might be capable of exceeding the EPA National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (NPDWR). Due to the high flow rate required for operating a full-scale EUWP system, (i.e., up to 300,000 gal/day, depending on the source water quality), testing at a full-scale level is not practical because of the large quantity of toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) needed, the space requirements of the full-scale system, and the handling logistics and costs associated with waste disposal. As such, evaluation of the system under multiple challenge conditions was conducted on a smaller-scale RO component representation of the EUWP. This system was challenged with several TICs including (among others) cesium chloride, dichlorvos, methylmercury, and chloroform, injected into finished drinking water. The evaluation assessed the rejection of various TICs, specific flux, and water recovery.