Thursday, March 31
10:45 - 11:15 AM (ET)

“Catalytic Hollow-Fiber Membranes as an Efficient and Scalable Process in Water Treatment”

Abstract

Meeting the future water demands of a fast-growing human population will require innovative solutions that are efficient and affordable. This is an increasingly critical problem as we continue to detect the presence of emerging contaminants in our drinking water sources. Several of these contaminants cannot be removed from drinking water using commonly available treatment technologies. With the advent of nanotechnology and the ability to control materials at the molecular scale, catalysis, which was once only feasible in industrial processes, is becoming a practical treatment option for recalcitrant contaminants. In the presentation, I will discuss my CAREER project on the development and application of catalytic membranes for drinking water treatment. Complimentary to the research are my educational goals to enhance and improve undergraduate education using virtual reality (VR) modules. I will provide a short example of a VR tour of a drinking water treatment plant that was developed with the ND Office of Digital Learning.

Biography

Kyle Doudrick is currently an Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. He received his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Arizona State University in 2013 under the supervision of Prof. Paul Westerhoff. After his Ph.D., he spent a year as an ASEE/NSF Small Business Research Diversity Postdoctoral Fellow for Integrated Surface Technologies, Inc. (Menlo Park, CA), a company that specializes in nano-film coatings for electronic components. He has broad research interests in physical-chemical water quality and treatment, with a specific focus on nano-enabled technologies. His research group is currently working on the catalytic hydrogenation of oxidized contaminants, fate/transport of nanomaterials in streams, and electrocatalytic treatment of urine and formation of hydrogen energy. He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award and served as a Fulbright Scholar in France at the CNRS Laboratoire Réactions et Génie des Procédés.