This is an award to provide support for a project, the objective of which is to devise and verify mathematical models that characterize the removal of soluble manganese from natural water by filter media that have become coated with oxides of manganese. The mathematical models to be devised will be based upon fundamental principles of surface chemistry and mass transfer. Model parameters will be experimentally evaluated at laboratory-scale, and the models verified by conduct of field-scale research at the City of Durham, North Carolina's Williams Water Treatment Plant and at the Blacksburg-Christiansburg- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Water Treatment Plant. Results of this project are expected to provide a more fundamental understanding of the mechanisms by which manganese in solution is removed from water by contact with filter media coated with the contaminant's oxide. This knowledge may be applied to improving the engineering design of water treatment processes for removal of soluble manganese.
