| Advanced IFAS-EBPR Process
- Monitoring of performance and population analysis |
Principal
Investigator |
April Gu
Assistant Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering |
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Research
Abstract |
Recently, there has been increasing demand to achieve
very low effluent total phosphorus and total nitrogen
due to more stringent discharge limits imposed on wastewater
treatment plants in US. Biological nutrient removal
(BNR) process is still the most commonly applied technology
for removing nitrogen and phosphorus from municipal
wastewater.
The overall objective of the proposed research is to
investigate the feasibility, and efficiency of using
an IFAS (Integrated Fixed Film Activated Sludge) system
for nutrient removal in wastewater treatment. The specific
aims include:
- Evaluate the phosphorus removal capacity of the
system conducting P up-take and release test with
both the fixed-film media and the suspended activated
sludge from a lab-scale IFAS-BNR plant;
- Identify and quantify the PAOs populations and
their distribution on the fixed-film (media) and
in the suspended activated sludge using molecular
techniques such as fluorescent in situ hybridization
(FISH).
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| Research
Activities/
Experience |
The students will be able to learn how a wastewater
treatment plant work, they will be able to learn about
nutrients and C cycles in nature and in wastewater
system. They will also get familiar with parameters
that affects removal efficiency in full scale application.
They will learn how to prepare solution and determine
the nutrient requirement for living cells.
They will familiarize with techniques used to identify
and quantify microrganisms present in the systems,
like the use of staining and molecular tecniques. |
Helpful
skills or interests |
Interests in environmental Engineering and Biology,
as well as hands on experience on running biological
reactor and variuos molecular tecniques. Experiences
with microscope
and chemistry lab is a plus. |
Suggested
literature to review prior to program |
www.coe.neu.edu/~clee; Joel L. Swerdlow, Nature's
Rx, National Geographic Magazine,
April 2000 |
Download |
PDF |
