This course details the quantitative treatment of chemical processes in aquatic systems such as lakes, oceans, rivers, estuaries, groundwaters, and wastewaters. It includes a brief review of chemical thermodynamics that is followed by discussion of acid-base, precipitation-dissolution, coordination, and reduction-oxidation reactions. Emphasis is on equilibrium calculations as a tool for understanding the variables that govern the chemical composition of aquatic systems and the fate of inorganic pollutants.
This course is offered through The MIT/WHOI Joint Program. The MIT/WHOI Joint Program is one of the premier marine science graduate programs in the world. It draws on the complementary strengths and approaches of two great institutions: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

Water supply is a problem of worldwide concern: more than 1 billion people do not have reliable access to clean drinking water. Water is a particular problem for the developing world, but scarcity also impacts industrial societies. Water purification and desalination technology can be used to convert brackish ground water or seawater into drinking water. The challenge is to do so sustainably, with minimum cost and energy consumption, and with appropriately accessible technologies.
This subject will survey the state-of-the-art in water purification by desalination and filtration. Fundamental thermodynamic and transport processes which govern the creation of fresh water from seawater and brackish ground water will be developed. The technologies of existing desalination systems will be discussed, and factors which limit the performance or the affordability of these systems will be highlighted. Energy efficiency will be a focus. Nanofiltration and emerging technologies for desalination will be considered. A student project in desalination will involve designing a well-water purification system for a village in Haiti.

Water supply is a problem of worldwide concern: more than 1 billion people do not have reliable access to clean drinking water. Water is a particular problem for the developing world, but scarcity also impacts industrial societies. Water purification and desalination technology can be used to convert brackish ground water or seawater into drinking water. The challenge is to do so sustainably, with minimum cost and energy consumption, and with appropriately accessible technologies.
This subject will survey the state-of-the-art in water purification by desalination and filtration. Fundamental thermodynamic and transport processes which govern the creation of fresh water from seawater and brackish ground water will be developed. The technologies of existing desalination systems will be discussed, and factors which limit the performance or the affordability of these systems will be highlighted. Energy efficiency will be a focus. Nanofiltration and emerging technologies for desalination will be considered. A student project in desalination will involve designing a well-water purification system for a village in Haiti.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Around 125,000 years ago Earth was relatively warmer than today All because Earth’s orbit permitted greater exposure to incoming solar rays This time period provides an example of how Earth’s climate might respond to future warming A recent study used fossil corals to explore past changes within the Tropical Atlantic a region sensitive to shifts in the rain belt that spans the equator Any effect this has on water bodies is captured within the reefs built by corals Oxygen isotopes within seven corals reveal 85 years of seasonal climate change Pairing the coral data with computer simulations showed the rain belt moved farther north bringing more summer rain to the islands of the South Caribbean, such as Bonaire in contrast to the dry weather found in the region today Brocas et al. Last Interglacial Hydroclimate Seasonality Reconstructed From Tropical Atlantic Corals..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

In this 6th grade science class, students consider how they use water in their daily lives and learn that water is a nonrenewable resource in a closed system.

Several times per year, seawater floods some of the streets in Charleston, South Carolina. Taking steps to deal with this "nuisance" flooding can help the city prepare for sea level rise.

Students learn about the techniques engineers have developed for changing ocean water into drinking water, including thermal and membrane desalination. They begin by reviewing the components of the natural water cycle. They see how filters, evaporation and/or condensation can be components of engineering desalination processes. They learn how processes can be viewed as systems, with unique objects, inputs, components and outputs, and sketch their own system diagrams to describe their own desalination plant designs.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Dimethylsulfoniopropionate, or DMSP, is an organosulfur compound produced in huge quantities by organisms throughout the ocean. Understanding how marine organisms degrade and use DMSP has been the subject of research for more than 70 years, largely because DMSP is the precursor to the climate-active gas dimethyl sulfide (DMS), which aids in cloud formation. But a new study highlights one possibly overlooked detail in this area of study: major DMSP degraders aren’t necessarily using it as a carbon source. Researchers used isotope labelling (DNA-SIP) to identify microorganisms using DMSP as a carbon source in the North Sea. While metagenomic analyses suggested that Rhodobacterales and SAR11 bacteria were the major degraders of DMSP via demethylation, neither group was prominently labeled in DNA-SIP experiments, suggesting that they use DMSP as a source of sulfur but not of carbon. Instead, DNA-SIP pointed to gammaproteobacterial Oceanospirillales as the dominant microorganisms using DMSP as a carbon source..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Students use a thermal process approach to design, build and test a small-scale desalination plant that is capable of significantly removing the salt content from a saltwater solution. Students use a saltwater circuit to test the efficiency of their model desalination plant and learn how the water cycle is the basis for the thermal processes that drive their desalination plant.