CEE Seminar -Engineering Sustainable Approaches to Water Treatment and Critical Mineral Recovery

In this seminar, Dr. Mishrra will describe how integrating concepts from environmental geochemistry, materials science, and water quality engineering is essential for addressing urgent challenges in drinking water supply and distribution and in sustainable resource management. Her talk will highlight contaminants such as lead, copper, and hexavalent chromium in drinking water sources, and will discuss strategies to remove them using sustainable materials that can meet increasingly stringent drinking water standards. She will also outline a broader vision for a circular water economy that moves beyond treatment alone by valorizing wastewater and legacy waste streams, with particular emphasis on critical mineral recovery from acid mine drainage. Her work pairs solid-phase characterization with chemical separation, creating practical pathways to convert complex waste streams into viable secondary sources of critical minerals. Her interdisciplinary work advances next-generation technologies that both mitigate toxic exposures and enable resource recovery.