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Simulating Exposure Concentrations of Engineered Nanomaterials in Surface Water Systems: WASP8
Citation:
Knightes, Chris, D. Bouchard, R. Zepp, Matt Henderson, Y. Han, H. Hsieh, Brad Acrey, AND J. Spear. Simulating Exposure Concentrations of Engineered Nanomaterials in Surface Water Systems: WASP8. 2017 AGU Fall Meeting, New Orleans, LA, December 11 - 15, 2017.
Impact/Purpose:
Presented at the 2017 AGU Fall Meeting
Description:
The unique properties of engineered nanomaterials led to their increased production and potential release into the environment. Currently available environmental fate models developed for traditional contaminants are limited in their ability to simulate nanomaterials’ environmental behavior. This is due to an incomplete understanding and representation of the processes governing nanomaterial distribution in the environment and by scarce empirical data quantifying the interaction of nanomaterials with light and environmental surfaces. The well-known Water Quality Analysis Simulation Program (WASP) was updated to incorporate nanomaterial-specific processes, including heteroaggregation with particulate matter and photoreactions with wavelength- and depth-dependence. In parallel with this effort, laboratory studies were used to quantify parameter values necessary for governing processes in surface waters. Here, we discuss the recent developments in the new architecture for WASP8 and the newly constructed Advanced Toxicant Module. The Advanced Toxicant Module includes algorithms for increased numbers of state variables: solute chemicals, solids, nanomaterials, dissolved organic matter, pathogens, temperature and salinity. This presentation will focus specifically on the incorporation of nanomaterials, with the applications of the fate and transport of hypothetical releases of Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNT) and Graphene Oxide (GO) into the headwaters of a southeastern US coastal plains river. While this presentation focuses on nanomaterials, the advanced toxicant module can also simulate metals and organic contaminants.
