Dr. Shane Snyder argues that most households waste supplied water and that decentralized, point-of-use systems work better. He says low-cost sensors and biological assays can monitor water quality without over-treating with expensive methods like reverse osmosis.
Hi, I'm Angela Godwin with Water World magazine coming to you from the BlueTech forum here in London. Joining me today is my guest, Shane Snyder. He is a professor and also the executive director of the Nanyang Environment and water Research Institute. Dr. Schneider, thank you so much for joining us today.
Thank you for having me.
Now, you have spent many years, 20 years researching water pollutants. Is there a particular area that you have focused on?
Yeah, so we're generally looking at bioactivity of mixtures of contaminants, more so than just one specific. So that's really my area of expertise is the complex mixtures, disinfection, byproducts or recycled water, et cetera.
Excellent. So now fit for purpose water. I know that's an area that you've dabbled in. Low cost sensors seem poised to have impact there. Can you talk about that a little bit?
Yeah, absolutely. So I think fit for purpose water makes a lot of sense. In fact, in most households only consume maybe at best 10% of the water supplied. So I think we have to be smarter about centralized systems versus fit for purpose. And sensors play an absolutely critical role. For instance, some of the point of use devices that are coming on the market, people are worried, will they be maintained? Sensors could play a role there. They could play a role also in dual distribution systems or building systems as we decentralize. So I think sensors and the data networks that handle the data are absolutely critical.
Excellent. Do you feel like there's a lot of work that needs to be done there to advance them to a point where everybody can take advantage and adopt?
I do. I think in sensor technology we're looking for two things. Want them to be very small, very cost effective, but of course be accurate and precise. And that's very difficult. So we have low maintenance, but yet highly robust. So there's a lot of work to do.
So one other topic I wanted to touch on with you is, you know, we're hearing a lot more about wastewater reuse for potable as well as non potable uses. But that's sort of sparking a little bit of a debate about how much treatment do you need for these applications. Where do you stand on that?
That's an excellent question. So there's a gold standard where people believe often that reverse osmosis and UV advanced oxidation are really the key ingredients for a successful potable reuse project. I tend to disagree. I think that those are valuable in certain applications, but yet it's not always a one size fits all. And key to that I think is a better understanding of emerging contaminants. These are extremely effective barriers. But are we perhaps over treating? And I think that's something we should look into.
Interesting. So really just know what it is you're treating and treat for that purpose to some extent.
But also consider the unknowns. And I think characterizing these complex environmental mixtures, you're going to see a lot of movement towards biological based assays. We're seeing it already in California in draft regulation. The World Health Organization has made suggestions that biological assays could really provide a better grip on what this mixture is like. Then maybe we could better tune the treatment processes.
Excellent.
All right.
Well, that's some great advice, and we wish you all the best of luck with your research going forward.
Thank you.
Thanks for joining us today.
Okay. Thank you.
For Waterworld magazine, I'm Angela Godwin.
