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Geochemistry 

Water Quality

Water coming out of pipes

The Water Quality technical group focuses on deep understanding of the interface between water and the subsurface, the surface, and the atmosphere, and applies the results to solving complex water quality problems. Erica Woodburn is lead of this group.

This group conducts experimental studies and develops conceptual and numerical models to assess flow, transport, and reaction processes in a variety of subsurface and engineered systems related to:

Spills and waste disposal

  • Reaction with soil/sediments both above and below the water table
  • Discharge and contaminant transport to nearby creeks
  • Example: pH and uranium at a waste disposal facility

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mining-Impacted Lake Sediments

  • Example: oxygenation of reduced sediments by surface water
  • Assessing the transport of various metals including concentration trends with depth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Desalination

  • Using predictive models to link physical and chemical processes on/within membranes to macro-level desalination system performance
  • Understand fouling to reduce operational costs and improve efficiency

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carbon geologic sequestration

·      Experimental and numerical simulation of carbon capture and storage to assess the feasibility of large-scale implementation

·      Understanding potential risks to water quality due to the injection of CO2 and other constituents

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Metal and carbon cycling

Arora et al., 2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Groundwater-surface water interactions

Through the use of high performance computing and integrated hydrologic models such as ParFlow and Amanzi-ATS, the complex partitioning of water and solutes across the critical zone are being studied in a number of different contexts. Problems range from meso-scale (e.g. a) to watershed-scale (e.g. b) projects.

a)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

b)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Water-energy feedbacks

The inextricable link between energy use and the extraction, distribution, and treatment of water is becoming increasingly acknowledged and important. For example, understanding how tradeoffs between energy requirements to source water from groundwater pumping or from surface water, in tandem with the secondary impacts on the quality of water (and therefore the energy requirements to treat that water) are topics of interest.

People

Bhavna Arora portrait

Bhavna Arora
Carbon Removal and Mineralization Program Head;
Research Scientist

Wenming Dong
Research Scientist

Patricia M. Fox
Senior Scientific Engineering Associate

Peter S. Nico
Deputy Director, Energy Geosciences Division;
Resilient Energy, Water and Infrastructure Program Domain Lead;
UC Berkeley Associate Adjunct Professor;
Senior Scientist

Nigel William Trevelyan Quinn
Group Leader, Staff Scientist

Carl I. Steefel
Senior Scientist & Department Head

William T. Stringfellow
Environmental Staff Engineer

Charuleka Varadharajan
Staff Scientist

Erica Woodburn
Research Scientist
Seaborg Research Fellow

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