For environmental and ecological engineering junior Holly Haflich, the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program was a great way to get experience working on prevalent issues in her field. She joined Amisha Shah’s lab last summer to investigate a current issue in water treatment. Professor Shah is an assistant professor of civil engineering and environmental and ecological engineering.

Because of a worldwide freshwater shortage, researchers are looking for ways to purify halide-impaired water — like seawater or brackish water. An inexpensive and effective way to do this is through reverse osmosis and nanofiltration using a membrane. However, a significant problem with this technique is membrane performance loss, called “biofouling.” Shah’s study looks to discover ways to treat the membrane with a chlorine-based disinfectant — without damaging the membrane.

“Chlorine can be used as a disinfectant in order to decrease biofouling, but the chlorine reacts with halides causing secondary oxidants to form, which can damage the membrane,” Haflich says. “These secondary oxidants can potentially react with polymer functional groups on the membrane surface causing polymer degradation, which leads to rapid membrane integrity loss.”

Haflich’s contribution to the project was developing a method for detecting different model compounds representative of polyamide-based membrane monomers by the liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry instrument at a low sensitivity, to explore how such compounds react in the presence of chlorine.

“It took time to optimize each of the components of this process, but I was able to optimize each of the different organic compounds we were looking at that had similar structures to the polyamide membrane in reverse osmosis and nanofiltration,” Haflich says.

“I got a good understanding of what other people are doing and seeing how much can be accomplished even just as an undergraduate student,” she says. “This research has given me insight on what I’m interested in, in terms of environmental engineering, and what I want to do after graduation.”

Haflich says she enjoyed working with her fellow lab members, and that they became great role models.

“Holly worked very hard during the course of the summer, was a fast learner and was a valuable asset to this project,” Shah says. “At the end of the summer, she gave a presentation to our lab members that was extremely clear and logical, and one of the best undergraduate presentations that I have experienced.”

The impact of this research could change the way researchers look at water filtration, and it already has had a positive impact on Haflich’s undergraduate career.