Faculty Awards for Women

研究人员将调查：1)其他异生化合物，特别是其他取代苯酚(氯代和甲基-)是否会产生底物增强作用，这些苯酚属于流动性较强的危险污染物；2)单一补充底物对细胞循环系统中细菌群降解两种或两种以上异生化合物混合物的影响；3)在不添加补充饲料的情况下，是否能在惰性颗粒上生长的生物膜中保持大量降解细菌的数量；4)活性污泥絮体或生物膜形态是否能保护单个细菌免受外来化合物的毒性影响。实验室实验结束后，被提名者将进行试点或示范规模的模拟。这将使P.I.能够调查混合、曝气和生物质分离的影响，这些变量是大规模研究的最佳变量，并验证大型生物降解系统的预测模型。这项研究的一个好处是，在纯细菌培养中发现的现象可以在混合种群中进行研究。通常，这种应用是由工程师在没有研究微生物混合群落机制的情况下进行的，这些微生物群落在非无菌现场过程中发展。第二个好处是研究了非特定的强化机制，如生长絮凝颗粒以保留细菌，从而使单一的生物降解过程可以用于许多污染物去除系统。最后，一些对生物降解有很大影响的条件无法在实验室规模的模拟中进行研究。进行更大规模的研究将有助于避免在不了解放大效应时发生的流程故障。

The researcher will investigate: 1) whether substrate enhancement occurs with other xenobiotic compounds, particularly other substituted phenols (chloro- and methyl-) which are among the more mobile hazardous contaminants; 2) the effect of a single supplemental substrate on degradation of a mixture of two or more xenobiotic compounds by bacterial consortia in cell recycle systems; 3) if large populations of degrading bacteria can be maintained in a biofilm growing on inert particles without added supplemental feed; 4) whether the activated sludge floc or biofilm morphology protects individual bacteria from toxicity effects of xenobiotic compounds. After the laboratory experiment, the nominee will carry out simulations at pilot- or demonstration-scale. These will allow the P.I. to investigate the effects of mixing, aeration and biomass separation, variables that are best studies in large scale, and to verify the predictive models on large biodegradation systems. One benefit of this research is that phenomena identified in pure bacterial cultures can be researched in mixed populations. Usually this application is made by engineers without research on the mechanism in mixed communities of microorganisms which develop in nonsterile field processes. A second benefit is the investigation of non-specific enhancement mechanisms, like the growth of floc particles to retain bacteria, so that a single biodegradation process can be used in many contaminant removal systems. Finally, some conditions which greatly affect biodegradation cannot be studied in bench-scale simulations. Doing research at a larger scale will help to avoid process failures which occur when scale-up effects are not understood.