Young-Shin Jun, a professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, has been awarded a nearly $1.4 million U.S. Department of Energy grant to turn concentrated waste from water purification systems into valuable products for industrial use.
Her team and collaborators will be developing ways to find new use for a waste product known as reverse osmosis concentrate (ROC), produced by desalination plants. Jun envisions a future water economy that is more circular and sustainable.
"If we can find a better way to treat ROC, then we have a big opportunity to make something useful, to actually make value from waste," Jun said.
Jun's collaborators include researchers from Colorado State University, Clarkson University, Argonne National Laboratory and OLI Systems Inc.
