Vasiliki Karanikola

University of Arizona | UA · Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering

Strategic pairing of engineered nanomaterials to platforms will advance safe and effective deployment of nano-enabled water decontamination.

Thermal desalination technologies are required for minimal and zero liquid discharge (MLD/ZLD). However, conventional and emerging thermal desalination technologies, such as mechanical vapor compression (MVC) and membrane distillation (MD), are usually highly expensive to implement or/and energy intensive to operate. In this study, we develop a nov...

In this study we provide a comprehensive evaluation of the economic performance and viability of solar membrane distillation (MD). To achieve this goal, process models based on mass and energy balances were used to find the minimum cost of water in MD systems. Three MD configurations: direct contact, sweeping gas, and vacuum MD, were compared in te...

In this study, we produced a super hydrophobic and oleophobic cellulose nanofiber membrane by reducing the surface energy of the membrane through the attachment of SiNPs and chemical vapor deposition of fluoroalkylsilane. SiNPs were growing on top of the fibers by using in situ sol-gel approach. SiNPs cellulose nanofiber composed mat was coated wit...

Asymmetric membranes with a thin, small pore size upper layer have the potential to facilitate a high vapor flux while maintaining high liquid entry pressure, which is critical for membrane distillation (MD) and thermo-osmotic energy conversion (TOEC) processes. Here, asymmetric mixed cellulose ultrafiltration membranes were modified with perfluoro...

Struvite (MgNH4PO4·6H2O) scaling in wastewater treatment plants causes significant processing issues. Struvite formation can be controlled by acid addition since struvite solubility increases as pH decreases. Carbon dioxide from anaerobic digester gas can be used to lower the pH of wastewater to prevent struvite formation. In this work, bench-scale...

The University of Arizona chapter of Engineers Without Borders USA has faced multiple challenges involving community participation in rural development, in the Andean community of Marquirivi, Bolivia, both in rural design and in community participation. Despite successful construction of a shower house in 2014, the EWB-USA UA team experience with c...

Energy-efficient desalination and water treatment technologies play a critical role in augmenting freshwater resources without placing an excessive strain on limited energy supplies. By desalinating high-salinity waters using low-grade or...

A bench-scale, sweeping gas, flat-sheet Membrane Distillation (MD) unit was used to assess the importance of membrane architecture and operational variables to distillate production rate. Sweeping gas membrane distillation (SGMD) was simulated for various membrane characteristics (material, pore size, porosity and thickness), spacer dimensions and...

A hollow fiber MD module was tested at various air and brine flow rates and temperatures. A model based on heat and mass transport was developed to predict permeate production rates. The dependence of permeate production rate on brine temperature, air flow rate and brine flow rate was successfully simulated. Numerical simulations support the select...

Abstract Provision of clean water is among the most serious, long-term challenges in the world. To an ever increasing degree, sustainable water supply depends on the utilization of water of impaired initial quality. This is particularly true in developing nations and in water-stressed areas such as the American Southwest. One clear example is the N...

Water scarcity is among the most fundamental, long-term challenges in the world. To an ever increasing degree, sustainable water supply depends on the utilization of water of impaired quality. This is particularly true in developing nations and in water-stressed areas such as the United States Southwest. The most plentiful impaired water resources...

The experiments described provide insight into the feasibility of using compressible particulate packs to filter live plankton. The pore constriction sizes are controlled by subjecting the filter pack to isotropic confinement, thereby allowing for: (1) enhanced filtration upon confinement and (2) enhanced unclogging upon relaxation. Results show th...