About

Andrea Achilli is an Associate Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of Arizona, where he is also an Associate Professor at the BIO5 Institute and a Deputy Director at the WEST Center. His main fields of research include membrane processes for desalination and water reuse, energy recovery from water and wastewater, process integration, modeling, and optimization, as well as biological processes for water and wastewater treatments. Achilli is the principal investigator on several research projects focused on membrane contactor processes and hybrid systems for desalination and water reuse. He holds a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno, and has work experience at the University of Arizona since 2017 and Humboldt State University from 2012 to 2017. His professional interests encompass teaching environmental engineering, water and wastewater treatment, physicochemical processes, and mass and heat transfer. Achilli is a licensed Professional Engineer in Nevada and has contributed extensively to research and publications in the field of environmental water treatment technologies.

Research topics

• Environmental engineering
• Environmental science
• Chemistry
• Chromatography
• Process engineering
• Organic chemistry
• Engineering
• Computer Science
• Virology
• Biology
• Business
• Economics
• Chemical engineering
• Environmental chemistry
• Environmental resource management
• Waste management
• Biochemistry
• Geotechnical engineering
• Environmental planning
• Environmental economics
• Geology
• Ecology
• Nuclear chemistry

Selected publications

• Influence of virus analytical methods on the estimation of virus reductions by ultrafiltration

  Journal of Virological Methods · 2025-06-19

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Influence of Virus Analytical Methods on the Estimation of Virus Reductions by Ultrafiltration

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Total fluorescence as a surrogate for organic carbon measurement: Implications for rapid water and wastewater quality assessment

  The Science of The Total Environment · 2025-08-25

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Total Fluorescence as a Surrogate for Organic Carbon Measurement: Implications for Rapid Water and Wastewater Quality Assessment

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Tailored divalent-monovalent selectivity of nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes through controlled oxidation

  Desalination and Water Treatment · 2025-05-29 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  The implementation of membrane technologies, especially nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO), has proven to be highly effective in water treatment applications where ion rejection is required. Extensive research has been made to demonstrate membranes with high water-solute selectivity. However, the rising need for sustainable and economically efficient processes has led to an increasing interest in solute-solute selectivity for targeted and precise separation applications such as resource recovery and extraction. Expanding beyond the traditional limitations of the permeability-selectivity trade-off contributes to the broader goal of selective separation. In this study, utilizing ultra-filtered treated wastewater, pristine and oxidized NF and RO membrane coupons were used to study the influence of oxidation through chlorination on solute-solute selectivity. The cation and anions mono/divalent separation factor initially increased with increasing the chlorine dose for both NF and RO membranes and then decreased when the chlorine dose increased beyond 8 K ppm-h. For monovalent-divalent ions/organics, the separation factor remained relatively consistent for both membranes. Interestingly, both membranes maintained high rejection rates for bulk organics and trace organics up to 10 K ppm-h chlorine dose. The results highlight the opportunities of controlled oxidation for tailoring the solute-solute selectivity.

  PublisherDOI

• Targeted chemical cleaning preserves high water flux and water quality in long-term pilot-scale membrane distillation for potable water reuse

  Desalination · 2025-03-23 · 8 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Knowledge gaps and education opportunities on direct potable reuse: Interviews with customers of a large, southwestern United States water utility

  The Science of The Total Environment · 2025-09-30

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Water scarcity is a global public health threat that has increased urgency in implementing new sustainable practices to protect water supplies, such as the use of direct potable reuse, or “advanced water purification (AWP)". The study objective was to use interviews to characterize knowledge gaps and community outreach strategies to increase successful AWP implementation in an arid city in the southwestern United States. Through partnership with a water utility in an urbanized area of Arizona, 6000 individuals were emailed for invitation to participate in interviews. Interviews were conducted over Zoom and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts underwent inductive thematic analysis. Twenty-two individuals participated in interviews, and saturation of themes was reached. Five main themes emerged: 1) Conflation of filters with all treatment and the influence of residential technologies, 2) individual-level control over decisions to use advanced purified water, 3) desire for regulation, testing, and transparency about testing results, 4) concerns about specific chemicals, 5) educational resources to strengthen community engagement. Participants expressed lack of knowledge about how water is delivered to their residences by expressing the desire for opting in or out of system-wide treatment approaches. They also expressed wanting more support in interpreting testing results and having access to multiple outreach modalities. There is a growing body of evidence supporting increased outreach from utilities and governmental entities for water reuse adoption. This work provides insights into why the public may be in support or not of AWP and what information they need to form an opinion. • “Filtration” may be conflated with other water treatment approaches for the public. • Some people want to opt in/out of direct potable reuse at municipality scales. • Greater transparency and education about testing results is needed. • Concerns about chlorine and fluoride indicate a need for more outreach. • People desire a variety of community engagement modalities.

  PublisherDOI

• Public risk perceptions of advanced water purification in an arid urban region of the U.S. southwest: A mixed methods study

  The Science of The Total Environment · 2025-09-26 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Targeted Chemical Cleaning Preserves High Water Flux and Water Quality in Long-Term Pilot-Scale Membrane Distillation for Potable Water Reuse

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Comparative analysis of reverse osmosis and nanofiltration for the removal of dissolved contaminants in water reuse applications

  Desalination · 2024-06-06 · 36 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Amy E. Childress

  University of Southern California

  16 shared

• R. Ferri

  Siet (Italy)

  14 shared

• Shane A. Snyder

  Nanyang Technological University

  13 shared

• Kerri L. Hickenbottom

  12 shared

• F. Bianchi

  11 shared

• G. Cattadori

  11 shared

• P. Méloni

  10 shared

• Tzahi Y. Cath

  10 shared

Education

• PhD Environmental Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering

  University of Nevada Reno

  2009

• Laurea, Environmental Engineering

  Marche Polytechnic University

  2002