Planning the restoration of membranes in RO desalination using a digital twin

Vol. 113, No. 1 EnvironewsOpen AccessInnovative Technologies: Reverse Osmosis Moves Forward Carol Potera Carol Potera Search for more papers by this author Published:1 January 2005https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.113-a25aCited by:2AboutSectionsPDF ToolsDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InReddit As drought and growing populations cause water supplies to dwindle in areas around the world, reclaimed wastewater offers a possible solution. Indeed, some communities in California already use reclaimed wastewater to irrigate crops, water golf courses, and augment freshwater aquifers to block saltwater intrusion. Critics are concerned about the potential health hazards of the pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other contaminants that even treated wastewater has been shown to contain. But recent research reveals that the process of reverse osmosis may remove some of these contaminants.As described in the 12 March 2004 issue of the Journal of Chromatography A, Joel Pedersen, an environmental chemist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and his colleagues used gas chromatography–mass spectrometry to look for 19 compounds in effluent samples collected from reclaimed wastewater plants in California. They found detectable concentrations for 13, including food preservatives, painkillers, oral contraceptive hormones, and prescription medications. However, at the 228th American Chemical Society meeting held in Philadelphia in August 2004, Pedersen further reported that gas chromatography confirmed all 13 compounds to have been eliminated at two pilot plants testing reverse osmosis for contaminant removal.Nonetheless, Pedersen cautions that it’s too early to recommend that all reclaimed wastewater facilities employ reverse osmosis. “This is a case where the analytical chemistry is ahead of the toxicology,” he says.“Little is known about the toxicity of trace concentrations of these compounds,” agrees Shane Snyder, project manager of research and development at the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) in Las Vegas. Snyder has monitored the flow of treated wastewater effluent into nearby Lake Mead since 1997. He says fish in Las Vegas Bay are the healthiest in all of Lake Mead because they thrive on nutrients in the effluent. Snyder and colleagues at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are writing a paper on this topic.Often used to remove salts, reverse osmosis requires electricity to pump water through semipermeable membranes. “A lot of work is involved to perform reverse osmosis correctly,” says Pedersen. “Large-scale reverse osmosis may not be economically feasible in some areas.” Salts, contaminants, and biofilms can clog the pores of membranes, raising maintenance costs.Still other costs can make the process prohibitively expensive for inland cities in particular. Reverse osmosis generates brine. While coastal California wastewater facilities dump brine into the ocean, inland facilities must heat the brine to evaporate the water, then dispose of the dry salt in a landfill. “The cost of brine disposal is often more expensive than the cost of reverse osmosis itself,” says Snyder. About 30% of treated water ends up as brine during reverse osmosis. That water loss “is not acceptable when you live in the desert,” Snyder says. By comparison, standard treatment results in less than 1% water loss, according Snyder.Moreover, “reverse osmosis membranes are not infallible,” says Snyder. For instance, the carcinogen N-nitrosodimethylamine, a disinfectant by-product of wastewater treatment, breaches reverse osmosis membranes. However, dangerous compounds may be removed with less expensive treatments than reverse osmosis. For example, advanced oxidation methods can destroy N-nitrosodimethylamine.But it’s too soon to count reverse osmosis out just yet. Newer models require less pressure to pump water through. “More efficient membranes will lower the energy costs of reverse osmosis,” Snyder predicts, “and likely make the process more cost-effective.”One step back, two steps forward. New advances in reverse osmosis may mean cleaner—and healthier—reclaimed wastewater.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited by Jung Y, Alayande A, Chae S and Kim I (2018) Applications of nisin for biofouling mitigation of reverse osmosis membranes, Desalination, 10.1016/j.desal.2017.12.003, 429, (52-59), Online publication date: 1-Mar-2018. Olaoluwa S (2011) IN CONNIVANCE WITH NATURE: INTER-FAITH CRISIS AND ECOLOGICAL DEPLETION IN HELON HABILA'S MEASURING TIME , English Studies in Africa, 10.1080/00138398.2011.588380, 54:1, (73-87), Online publication date: 1-May-2011. Vol. 113, No. 1 January 2005Metrics About Article Metrics Publication History Originally published1 January 2005Published in print1 January 2005 Financial disclosuresPDF download License information EHP is an open-access journal published with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. All content is public domain unless otherwise noted. 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Colloidal fouling of RO membranes following MF/UF in the reclamation of municipal wastewater

Desalination energy minimization using thin film nanocomposite membranes

The development of a prototype Decision Support System (DSS) for the condition assessment of the Armored Vehicle Launched Bridge (AVLB) has been demonstrated in the current work. AVLB is a mobile bridge that has been used by the US Army for tank and assault vehicle crossing. It is employed for spanning short gaps of 50 feet or less in the terrain. The condition assessment of such bridges, to ensure safety of personnel and tank, is of strategic importance. The methodology of the prototype DSS is based on a refined visual inspection procedure and a previously established vibration measurement technique.;Conforming to the design requirements, the DSS has been developed as an Internet based, interactive application, and is integrated with an automated vibration measurement system. The web-based DSS, which incorporates an expert system and a database system, can be run from a web-browser. The development of the system, as described in this thesis, involved: identification of important visual and vibration inspection parameters; development of an expert system for bridge condition assessment, based on these parameters; and design of a database for storing important inspection data and other vital bridge records. The prototype system has been validated through limited test runs. Discussion on further verification and validation issues has also been put forth in this work.;The unique feature of this DSS is its accessibility through the Internet, which is practical considering that the AVLB is deployed worldwide. With a central database, this system provides a useful research tool for further study of the AVLB behavior and damage mechanisms, and can be used to establish failure prediction model and remaining life assessment.

Remote decision support system: a distributed information management system

Coal mine waters often have high salinity, hardness and alkalinity. The treatment of coal mine water requires careful management of multi-stage reverse osmosis (RO) systems to achieve effective recovery of water for domestic reuse, as well as zero liquid discharge to minimise the impact to the local environment. Design of RO systems for coal mine water treatment has been limited to the use of commercial design packages provided by membrane manufacturers, which do not provide insights into the impact of operating parameters such as feedwater salinity, concentrations of sparingly soluble salts, feed pressure and their interactions with different RO modules on the fouling/scaling potential of RO membranes. This also restricts the use of novel RO products and the delivery of an optimum design based on real needs. In this work, a mathematical model was developed to simulate a standard brackish water RO pressure vessel consisting six full-size RO membrane elements, using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The model can be used to predict the permeate flowrate, water recovery levels, as well as the spatial information of the accumulation and scaling potential of sparingly soluble salts on the membrane surface. The results obtained from the model showed good agreement with the results obtained from the commercial RO design software WAVE. The CFD model was then used to predict the scaling threshold on various positions of a full-scale RO element, at different operating conditions, using parametric simulations based on Central Composite Designs. Outputs from this work not only provide insights into the microscopic flow characteristics of multiple full-scale elements in the RO pressure vessel, but also predicts the position where scaling would occur, at different feed conditions, for any RO products.

Intelligent information systems to support decision-making, taking into account current trends and directions of development, are a basic part of the functioning of society. The main task of many, which lies in the development of decision support systems, is to present knowledge of a particular subject area, which has its own characteristics depending on the countries in which it operates. Decision support systems have various features that characterize the main tasks of the subject area in which this system is used, including, for example, the presentation of knowledge of multilevel administration systems for decision support at the state level. The most effective for the formal presentation of knowledge in decision support systems, given the modern knowledge base, experience and technology, is mathematical modeling, which can be used to present declarative knowledge about land relations. Therefore, now there is an urgent scientific and practical problem, which involves the presentation of the subject area in the form of mathematical and information models with its further implementation to organize and fill the knowledge base of the decision support system to implement the operational functioning of this system in the chosen field. The tasks set in this study were solved by using the following methods: isotonic mapping for rational borrowing of the administration system, as a standard of a multilevel system, mathematical logic and mathematical modeling, which will provide models of knowledge representation, system analysis for scientific substantiation of acceptance system solutions. The study for the first time developed conceptual models for implementing the functioning of decision support systems for multilevel administration based on the methods of category theory, which allow reflecting the unique knowledge of the subject area in the decision support system to solve the problem. All the knowledge represented by these models is connected and has a certain relationship with each other, depending on the task to be solved, and they realize the possibility of further presentation of the theory in practice with the help of modern information technology. The developed models to some extent ensure the relevance of knowledge in the system.

Tandom reverse osmosis process for zero-liquid discharge

The health care industry must align with new digital technologies to respond to existing and new challenges. Digital twins (DTs) are an emerging technology for digital transformation and applied intelligence that is rapidly attracting attention. DTs are virtual representations of products, systems, or processes that interact bidirectionally in real time with their actual counterparts. Although DTs have diverse applications from personalized care to treatment optimization, misconceptions persist regarding their definition and the extent of their implementation within health systems. This study aimed to review DT applications in health care, particularly for clinical decision-making (CDM) and operational decision-making (ODM). It provides a definition and framework for DTs by exploring their unique elements and characteristics. Then, it assesses the current advances and extent of DT applications to support CDM and ODM using the defined DT characteristics. We conducted a scoping review following the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews) protocol. We searched multiple databases, including PubMed, MEDLINE, and Scopus, for original research articles describing DT technologies applied to CDM and ODM in health systems. Papers proposing only ideas or frameworks or describing DT capabilities without experimental data were excluded. We collated several available types of information, for example, DT characteristics, the environment that DTs were tested within, and the main underlying method, and used descriptive statistics to analyze the synthesized data. Out of 5537 relevant papers, 1.55% (86/5537) met the predefined inclusion criteria, all published after 2017. The majority focused on CDM (75/86, 87%). Mathematical modeling (24/86, 28%) and simulation techniques (17/86, 20%) were the most frequently used methods. Using International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision coding, we identified 3 key areas of DT applications as follows: factors influencing diseases of the circulatory system (14/86, 16%); health status and contact with health services (12/86, 14%); and endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases (10/86, 12%). Only 16 (19%) of 86 studies tested the developed system in a real environment, while the remainder were evaluated in simulated settings. Assessing the studies against defined DT characteristics reveals that the developed systems have yet to materialize the full capabilities of DTs. This study provides a comprehensive review of DT applications in health care, focusing on CDM and ODM. A key contribution is the development of a framework that defines important elements and characteristics of DTs in the context of related literature. The DT applications studied in this paper reveal encouraging results that allow us to envision that, in the near future, they will play an important role not only in the diagnosis and prevention of diseases but also in other areas, such as efficient clinical trial design, as well as personalized and optimized treatments.

Based on information systems and government's emphasis on efficient medical service and health management, Canadian health decision support system stands in a leading position. This paper firstly researches the Canadian health decision overall development situation, clinical decision support system, public decision support system, application features etc. through the literature research method. And then summarize the experiences and characters of Canadian decision support system construction and application situation. Finally by the analysis of development of the HDSS in Canada, some enlightens may be obtained to improve HDSS of China: (1) The establishment of Infoway is an important factor in the development of the Canadian health decision support system; (2) The Canadian government's support is the main power in the development of the Canadian health decision support system; (3) Improving the management system is an important undertaking for the Canadian health decision support system; (4) Strong financial security is the key to the development of the Canadian health decision support system; (5) Overall planning and standardization are the foundations of Canada's health decision support system development.

Finding appropriate decision support systems (DSS) development processes and methodologies is a topic that has kept researchers in the decision support community busy for the past three decades at least. Inspired by Gibson and Nolan’s curve (Gibson & Nolan 1974; Nolan, 1979), it is fair to contend that the field of DSS development is reaching the end of its expansion (or contagion) stage, which is characterized by the proliferation of processes and methodologies in all areas of decision support. Studies on DSS development conducted during the last 15 years (e.g., Arinze, 1991; Saxena, 1992) have identified more than 30 different approaches to the design and construction of decision support methods and systems (Marakas, 2003). Interestingly enough, none of these approaches predominate and the various DSS development processes usually remain very distinct and project-specific. This situation can be interpreted as a sign that the field of DSS development should soon enter in its formalization (or control) stage. Therefore, we propose a unifying perspective of DSS development based on the notion of context. In this article, we argue that the context of the target DSS (whether organizational, technological, or developmental) is not properly considered in the literature on DSS development. Researchers propose processes (e.g., Courbon, Drageof, & Tomasi, 1979; Stabell 1983), methodologies (e.g., Blanning, 1979; Martin, 1982; Saxena, 1991; Sprague & Carlson, 1982), cycles (e.g., Keen & Scott Morton, 1978; Sage, 1991), guidelines (e.g., for end-user computer), and frameworks, but often fail to explicitly describe the context in which the solution can be applied.

Finding appropriate decision support systems (DSS) development processes and methodologies is a topic that has kept researchers in the decision support community busy for the past three decades at least. Inspired by Gibson and Nolan’s curve (Gibson & Nolan 1974; Nolan, 1979), it is fair to contend that the field of DSS development is reaching the end of its expansion (or contagion) stage, which is characterized by the proliferation of processes and methodologies in all areas of decision support. Studies on DSS development conducted during the last 15 years (e.g., Arinze, 1991; Saxena, 1992) have identified more than 30 different approaches to the design and construction of decision support methods and systems (Marakas, 2003). Interestingly enough, none of these approaches predominate and the various DSS development processes usually remain very distinct and project-specific. This situation can be interpreted as a sign that the field of DSS development should soon enter in its formalization (or control) stage. Therefore, we propose a unifying perspective of DSS development based on the notion of context. In this article, we argue that the context of the target DSS (whether organizational, technological, or developmental) is not properly considered in the literature on DSS development. Researchers propose processes (e.g., Courbon, Drageof, & Tomasi, 1979; Stabell 1983), methodologies (e.g., Blanning, 1979; Martin, 1982; Saxena, 1991; Sprague & Carlson, 1982), cycles (e.g., Keen & Scott Morton, 1978; Sage, 1991), guidelines (e.g., for end-user computer), and frameworks, but often fail to explicitly describe the context in which the solution can be applied.

Data quality is a key issue in decision support systems. The urgency of the problem is due to the fact that the introduction of corporate information systems, digital technologies and digital twins requires strict synchronization and updating of a large amount of data. Management decisions depend on big data. The use of data containing one or more logical errors can lead to incorrect decisions and large losses for the enterprise. Aim. The aim of the study is to develop a classification of data that takes into account the production profile, types of data in production, the formal structure of business processes for each type of data based on the proposed logical-semantic architecture of the digital twin for data quality control. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study are the works of domestic and foreign scientists on the problems of managing digital platforms and digital transformation and digital twins of the enterprise. Results. In the course of the study, the classification of the main logical-semantic factors of poor-quality data provision was generalized and systematized, and a methodology for assessing data quality was presented. Business processes for collecting, storing and processing are formalized for each type of data and one responsible person is identified for the relevant business processes, as well as competency requirements for individual responsible persons and a tool for data quality control are developed. As a result, an approach based on the logical-semantic architecture of the digital twin for data quality control is proposed. Conclusion. In modern realities, logical filtering of a huge amount of redundant data in decision support systems (DSS) is necessary. Digital twins (DTs) in decision support systems can provide high quality of initial digital data for PPR. This article presents an integrated approach to data quality management based on their logical-semantic digital twins when creating an effective decision support system using the example of oil and gas companies. Data quality management based on the use of logical-semantic digital twins ensures the usefulness of digital data.

Digital methods for process design, monitoring, and control can convert classical trial-and-error bioprocess development to a quantitative engineering approach. By interconnecting hardware, software, data, and humans currently untapped process optimization potential can be accessed. The key component within such a framework is a digital twin interacting with its physical process counterpart. In this chapter, we show how digital twin guided process development can be applied on an exemplary microbial cultivation process. The usage of digital twins is described along a typical process development cycle, ranging from early strain characterization to real-time control applications. Along an illustrative case study on microbial upstream bioprocessing, we emphasize that digital twins can integrate entire process development cycles if the digital twin itself and the underlying models are continuously adapted to newly available data. Therefore, the digital twin can be regarded as a powerful knowledge management tool and a decision support system for efficient process development. Its full potential can be deployed in a real-time environment where targeted control actions can further improve process performance.