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Aerosols & Water Treatment Lab

Dr. Chellam's Research lab at Texas A&M

Texas A&M University College of Engineering

Research

Our research group performs largely experimental work on environmental separations and primary aerosols.  A brief description of our current and recently concluded work is given below.

Our water/wastewater purification research includes:

    • Colloidal transport mechanisms in treatment processes.
    • Methods to enhance removal/inactivation of waterborne viruses.
    • Fouling of pressure-driven membranes and control via pretreatment.
    • Desalination for potable reuse and hypersaline industrial wastewater.
    • Treatment of drinking water, municipal wastewater, and hydraulic fracturing wastewater.

Our research on primary atmospheric particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) includes:

    • Trace metals measurement.  We have pioneered digestion and ICP-MS methods for rare earth elements, platinum group elements, and a host of other representative and transition metals present in urban particulate matter in the USA.
    • Long-range aerosol transport; e.g. Sahara-Sahel dust and Central American smoke to Texas.
    • Emissions from fluidized bed catalytic cracking units of petroleum refining operations.
    • Tailpipe and non-tailpipe emissions from gasoline-driven light duty vehicles.
    • Source apportionment in industrialized urban areas.

Examples of current and recently concluded projects are:

    • Membrane autopsy for fouling identification and cleaning.
    • Produced water treatment to generate clean brine and its desalination.
    • Microorganism attenuation by aggregation and inactivation by (electro)coagulation.
    • Optimizing microfilter productivity during water treatment and potable reuse.
    • Advanced pretreatment for desalination.
    • Electrocoagulation pretreatment for microfilter fouling reduction and enhanced virus removal.
    • Quantifying North African dust, Central American biomass burning smoke, and proximal sources using rare earths, transition (platinum group) metals, and main group elements.

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