Dr. Caliskaner was the principal investigator and project manager of one of the largest and most comprehensive research and technology development projects for wastewater treatment. The projects focused on increasing carbon diversion to save energy and increase treatment performance and capacity at Water Resource Recovery Facilities (WRRF).
Dr. Caliskaner was the principal investigator and project manager of the biofiltration / carbon diversion technology development and demonstration conducted for the California Energy Commission. The project includes biofiltration of wastewater before the secondary treatment to achieve aeration energy savings up to 30-40 percent compared to conventional primary treatment while increasing the plant performance and capacity.
Dr. Caliskaner was the principal investigator and project manager of this advanced primary treatment (APT) and carbon diversion technology development project funded by the California Energy Commission. The project had seven different sponsors from industry, academia, and public utilities. The project included testing of five wastewater filters for 2 years (between 2013-2015) to demonstrate significant potential energy and capital savings at water resource recovery facilities (WRRF).
Dr. Caliskaner was the co-project manager and lead process engineer for the evaluation and design for a Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) expansion and significant upgrades. In addition to the increased capacity, the WWTP design was completed considering more stringent NPDES permit discharge requirements in the future. Evaluated four major types of secondary treatment processes, four main types of filtration technologies, and three disinfection alternatives for the WWTP design.
Dr. Caliskaner was the project manager and principal investigator of a tertiary filtration pilot and evaluation project to assess the performance of the cloth depth filtration technology at increased filtration rates using three different types of cloth filter media to receive Title 22/unrestricted reuse approval from the California Department of Drinking Water (CDDW).
Dr. Caliskaner was the project manager and principal investigator of the tertiary filtration pilot and evaluation project to assess the performance of the Fuzzy Filter depth filtration technology employing a new type of compressible filtration media to receive Title 22 (unrestricted reuse) approval from the California Division of Drinking Water (CDDW). The pilot study was conducted at the City of Roseville’s Pleasant Grove WWTP in 2010. The filter known as the “Fuzzy Filter” was provided by Schreiber, LLC.
The FlexFilter is a compressible media filtration technology developed by WesTech Engineering, Inc. The FlexFilter has been used for tertiary treatment, combined sewer overflows, sanitary sewer overflows, and other treatment applications. Dr. Caliskaner managed the tertiary filtration pilot and evaluation project to assess the performance of the Flex Filter technology.
Dr. Caliskaner was the lead process engineer for the 14 million gallons per day (MGD) upgrade of the Eugene/Springfield Water Pollution Control Facility by adding tertiary filtration facilities to meet the future discharge regulatory requirements. The benefits of adding filtration were twofold.
Between 1995 and 1999 Dr. Caliskaner conducted comprehensive research and pilot studies for tertiary filtration. His studies at the University of California at Davis mainly included the following: