MILWAUKEE (WITI) – A group of professors in the Opus College of Engineering at Marquette University has received a $199,679 grant from the National Science Foundation to study drinking water treatment.
The research will be done in Marquette’s Water Quality Center, housed in the college’s Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering and led by Dr. Brooke Mayer, assistant professor. She will collaborate with Drs. Daniel Zitomer, professor and director of the Water Quality Center, and Patrick McNamara, assistant professor.
The grant will allow the group to study the performance of a process called electrocoagulation to remove harmful viruses and chemicals from drinking water. Rather than using filters or adding chemicals, the process takes advantage of an electrical current to treat contaminants, either by causing them to group together and separate from treated water or by degrading them.