Topic: Sustainability Assessment of Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems for Nutrient Management

 

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Time: 14:00, 2019-6-25    

Venue: Room 404, Experiment Building 11

Speaker: Dr. Zhang Qiong

Organizer: School of Resources and Environmental Engineering of East China University of Science and Technology

Introduction of the Speaker

Dr. Zhang is an Associate Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida (USF).Her research focuses on sustainability assessment, process modeling and system modeling with applications to water, wastewater and stormwater systems. Her MASS (Modeling & Assessment for Sustainable Systems) research group evaluates sustainability of water systems and develops models and decision support tools with active collaboration with partnering utilities for water infrastructure. She has received a CAREER award from the NSF Environmental Sustainability Program. Dr. Zhang completed her PhD in Environmental Engineering at Michigan Technological University. Prior to joining the faculty at USF, she served as the operations manager of the Sustainable Future Institute at Michigan Tech.

Abstract: The role of environmental engineers expands from end-of-pipe treatment to sustainable management of natural and engineered systems. Sustainability assessment is an evaluation of potential environmental, economic and social impact of a system over its life. Such assessment enables technology development, comparison and improvement from a system perspective. This presentation introduces the application of life cycle environmental impact assessment and cost analysis to evaluate the treatment technologies for nutrient management. The talk focuses on the assessment of onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTSs) including conventional systems, the advanced systems consisted of aerobic treatment units (ATUs) and passive nitrogen reduction systems (PNRs). The assessment results shed the light on the strategies to improve the sustainability of OWTSs.