CAREER: The Coagulation and Gravitational Settling of Particles in Aqueous Environments

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9502493 Grant This is an award to provide the support this investigator requested in response to NSF 94-101, the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program. The intent of this program is to encourage the early development of academic faculty as educators and researchers. The research this investigator plans to conduct is directed toward determining the effects of biologically produced polymers on the rate at which aggregates form and settle from aqueous suspension. He plans on characterizing the aggregation process by comparing a relatively clean system using polystyrene microspheres with one involving exocellular polysaccharides produced by heterotrophic bacteria. The investigator's education plan centers on modernizing the laboratory component of a core undergraduate course on microbial processes and coordinating this with other laboratory based courses in the environmental core involving physical and chemical processes. The research this investigator plans on conducting is expected to be used in improving procedures used in the engineering design of processes for removal of particles originally present in aqueous suspension or produced during water and wastewater treatment processes. The goal of the educational component of this project is to provide undergraduate engineering students illustrations of the fundamental relationships that exist between chemical and microbial systems used in environmental engineer practice. ***