Faculty Awards for Women

研究人员将调查：1)底物增强是否与其他异种化合物一起发生，特别是其他取代酚（氯-和甲基-），它们是流动性更强的有害污染物；2)单个补充底物对细胞循环系统中细菌联合体降解两种或多种外源化合物混合物的影响；3)是否可以在不添加添加饲料的情况下，在惰性颗粒上生长的生物膜中维持大量降解细菌；4)活性污泥絮凝体或生物膜形态是否保护单个细菌免受外源化合物的毒性作用。在实验室实验后，被提名人将进行中试或示范规模的模拟。这将使P.I.能够调查混合、曝气和生物质分离的影响，这些变量在大规模研究中是最好的，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群体中进行研究。通常这种应用是由工程师提出的，而没有研究在非无菌现场过程中形成的混合微生物群落的机制。第二个好处是研究非特异性增强机制，如絮团颗粒的生长以保留细菌，因此单一的生物降解过程可以用于许多污染物去除系统。最后，一些对生物降解影响很大的条件无法在实验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规模效应时发生的过程失败。

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.