Mission & Research
Chair Mission Research Goals Facilities
Chair Mission
The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Chair in Water Treatment at the University of Waterloo functions as a centre of expertise in water treatment and quality. The Chair's mission is to conduct leading edge, fundamentally based, yet practically oriented research on critical issues related to water treatment and quality. Our research emphasis is on work that addresses short- to medium-term needs of the funding partners, including municipalities, consultants and industry involved in water treatment and provision. A key feature of the Chair is its multidisciplinary expertise and research program. The Chairholder, Dr. Peter M. Huck, is an internationally recognized expert in water treatment. In addition to engineering, the Chair team includes senior doctorally trained individuals in environmental chemistry and microbiology.
Research Goals
Now in its fourth five-year term (2008 - 2012), the Chair's major research focus is in the following two areas:
- Source Water Issues - Investigating the presence of known and emerging chemical and microbial contaminants in source waters.
- Treatment Technologies - Investigating current and evolving technologies for the removal of these contaminants.
Facilities
The NSERC Chair team has extensive experimental facilities at its disposal. These include well-equipped laboratories in addition to pilot- and full-scale facilities for both treatment and distribution system work.
The labs are equipped with bench scale filter columns, membrane systems, particle analysis systems and a collimated beam UV apparatus. There is a pilot plant on campus at the University of Waterloo and the team has access to pilot-scale and full-scale facilities through its partners. Analytical capabilities include chemical and microbiological laboratories at the University of Waterloo.
- Bench-Scale Water Treatment Facilities
- Pilot-Scale Water Treatment Facilities
- Full-Scale Water Treatment Facilities
