Indian-American researcher at Stonybrook U wins grant for clean water project

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An Indian-American professor at Stony Brook University, N.Y., has received a Department of Energy (DOE) Particle Accelerator Research grant to advance his research into clean drinking water, the University announced Sept. 5.

Arjun Krishna Venkatesan, PhD, associate director for Drinking Water Initiatives at the Center for Clean Water Technology and Ram Dhuley from the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL) in Batavia, IL, for “Design and demonstration of an economical SRF structure for  Continuous Wave (CW), high‐energy, Megawatt‐class beams” are among only 13 to receive these DOE grants nationally.

Venkatesan is receiving one-year $281,000 grant that begins in late September to test a novel treatment technology that removes emerging contaminants from drinking water, the press release from Stony Brook said.

The research will provide the first demonstration of using electronic beam (e-beam) technology to remove toxic pollutants such as perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and 1,4-dioxane from contaminated drinking water, elements that existing technologies fail to remove.

According to Venkatesan, the proposed e-beam technology has the potential to completely degrade these toxic chemicals from contaminated drinking water.

Professor Venkatesan graduated from Anna University, Chennai with a chemical engineering degree in 2007, did his M/S. in environmental engineering from the University of Nevada in Las VEgas, and his Ph.D. in environmental engineering from Arizona State. His research focuses on studying the fate, transport and treatment of emerging contaminants in the natural and built environment, his bio on Stony Brook University website shows.

His goal as the leader of the pilot program at the Center for Clean Water Technology is to develop and commercialize affordable, high performance water quality protection and restoration technologies that are suitable for widespread deployment.