The "waste" in wastewater isn't useless. At least, that's William Tarpeh's conviction. He's developing chemical reactions that recover the waste from wastewater and turn it into useful products. For example, as a PhD student, he developed a method to extract nitrogen from urine, turn it into a gas, and combine it with water to make fertilizer.The Tarpeh Lab develops and evaluates novel approaches to resource recovery from “waste” waters at several synergistic scales: molecular mechanisms of chemical transport and transformation; novel unit processes that increase resource efficiency; and systems-level assessments that identify optimization opportunities. They employ understanding of electrochemistry, separations, thermodynamics, kinetics and reactor design to preferentially recover resources from waste. They leverage these molecular-scale insights to increase the sustainability of engineered processes in terms of energy, environmental impact and cost.

Chemists, Chemistry Technology, Science, Science and Technology Professionals, Research scientist, Innovation,