New technology in water treatment could boost economic development

The University of Minnesota partners with a consortium of science and engineering researchers from across the Great Lakes region to develop innovations in water management and resource conservation.

The consortium, Great Lakes ReNEW, will receive up to $160 million over the next 10 years from the U.S. National Science Foundation to determine how to create new technology and bring it to Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

The basic concept is to invest in research at a regional scale, involving not only university researchers but also the corporate sector and community partners, and to invest in a way that generates innovation that leads to regional economic development.・Mr. Peterson stated. , director of the university's Water Resources Center and one of the schools, is co-leading the project.

Last year, the university put together a proposal to join the consortium. It was tied to a proposal from Current, another Chicago-based group focused on water innovation across the Great Lakes region.

technology development

The consortium's efforts include water management and treatment technologies aimed at minimizing negative climate impacts. There may also be additional benefits, such as recovering waste from water and turning it into something economically valuable.

There's a lot of things that may not be as obvious that have to do with (water management), Peterson said.

These include advances in data science and analytics that can monitor sensors and the large streams of data they send, he said.

The ultimate goal of the project is to move ideas from the lab to the field. Researchers will look at ways to improve productivity for Minnesota farmers by capturing nitrates from water and reusing them to fertilize land.

The University of Minnesota is working on a project to recover nutrients from water. The team is also working on a project focused on sensors that can detect nutrients such as nitrates, phosphates and heavy metals in water, which will be led by Tianhong Cui, a professor of mechanical engineering and co-leader of the project at the University of Minnesota.

Jeffrey Strzok, a soil scientist and professor at the University of Minnesota's Southwest Research and Outreach Center in Lumberton, is involved in the effort. He works on a variety of innovations to help crop and livestock farmers ensure superior productivity, profitability and environmental quality.

He is excited about this project because there is a lot of collaboration from people from different fields.

water and nutrient recycling

Some of the solutions Strzok is considering include storing water in ditches or farm ponds. That way, water can be recycled and irrigated back into the landscape, rather than wasting resources such as nitrogen and phosphorus that were applied as fertilizer or already in the water.

If we consider the past three years, different parts of the state have experienced moderate to severe drought. Some areas, like southern Minnesota, don't have wells for irrigation like the sandy soils of central Minnesota, Strock said. But what we have are these agricultural ponds and these drainage ditches that pump out temporarily stored wastewater and pump it out of those reservoirs and back into the landscape to help with any potential drought conditions. A piece of land can be irrigated. That will eventually make the water go around.

He said most agricultural areas don't have bodies of water available for storage, so innovations are being made to regulate drains and slow the flow of water, similar to how urban drainage systems manage stormwater runoff. He said that

Solutions being considered by professor and soil scientist Jeffrey Strzok include storing water in ditches or farm ponds.Credit: University of Minnesota

(It) could help with downstream flooding. Strzok said this could help reduce nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus in the water.

Cui develops sensors that can monitor nitrogen, phosphorus, and heavy metals in wastewater in real time. Strzok said data from sensors will allow farmers to implement specific water management processes in preparation for weather events, increasing productivity for farmers and ensuring water quality is up to standards. .

Suppose these sensors know that a storm is coming which will allow the water in the body of water to drain and create storage capacity. Strzok said some of the water that's currently there can be drained more quickly before a storm hits. Then that storm event happens, and conceptually, our idea here is to actually slowly bring the water back in, create some storage capacity in that system, and then it comes out of us. Potential new water and nutrient runoff can be reduced (agricultural) land.

Strzok works with the Cottonwood Soil and Water Conservation District, which has an 11,000-acre watershed. He applied for a grant through the state's Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund. They believe this complements a larger National Science Foundation grant that could help manage and clean water in the drainage ditch leading to Cottonwood Lake.

He said the technology developed through NSF research could really help the Cottonwood district. The technology we are developing absolutely has application in such watersheds, he said.

decarbonized economy

The Great Lakes Water Innovation Engine, which also includes the University of Minnesota, is one of 10 engines aimed at improving innovation across the country and promoting regional economic competitiveness through approximately $1.6 billion in investment from NSF. That's one.

A central focus of the grant is the creation of a decarbonized, circular blue economy, which Peterson described as a water management system that can also create economic value for the region.

For example, Cui is in contact with companies in the water management sector who are interested in implementing these technologies. These private companies will help municipalities install the technology in their water treatment facilities.

We are taking resources and reusing them for other things, creating value in the process. The circular blue economy being referred to includes the circularity of resources related to water and, hopefully, the discovery of technologies that create new types of economic value, Peterson said.

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