CAREER: Fungal Bioreactors for the Treatment of Contaminated Air

提出的研究动机是通过开发一种创新的生物反应器来改善生物反应器的性能，该生物反应器使用固定化真菌物种来处理挥发性有机和一氧化氮（NO）污染物。总体目标是深入了解影响生物反应器性能的基本环境、生物和传质过程，并利用这些信息改进工艺设计和操作。具体研究目标包括：(1)评估固定化酵母和丝状真菌降解污染气流中挥发性有机化合物的能力；(2)确定真菌生物反应器去除NO的机制；(3)对气相生物反应器中真菌生物量的发育如何影响挥发性有机化合物的降解有一个基本的了解；(4)优化真菌生物反应器的配置和操作，以处理被挥发性有机化合物或一氧化氮污染的空气。PI获得的初步结果表明，真菌生物反应器具有比细菌系统更大数量级的VOC消除能力，并且它们也可以有效地去除一氧化氮污染物。此外，真菌生物反应器可以忍受更极端的操作条件，因此提供比细菌系统更稳定的性能。PI研究项目的一个关键特点是，它提供了将行业联系整合到课堂上的独特机会。在这个项目中，PI将以这种整合为基础，让学生接触到现实世界的应用，向他们介绍不同的职业可能性，并促进工程专业人员、研究生和本科生以及教师之间的互动。为此，计划开展两项教育活动：“以项目为基础”的指导和针对本科女工程师的指导计划。因此，建议的项目将改善工程专业本科生和研究生的教育体验，将加强产学研的互动，并将导致空气污染控制技术的进步。

The motivation for the proposed research is to improve bioreactor performance by developing an innovative bioreactor that uses immobilized fungal species to treat volatile organic and nitric oxide (NO) contaminants. The overall goal is to gain insight into the fundamental environmental, biological and mass transfer processes that affect bioreactor performance and to use this information to improve process design and operation. Specific research objectives include: (1) Assess the capability of immobilized yeast and filamentous fungi to degrade volatile organic compounds found in contaminated air streams, (2) Determine the mechanism of NO removal in fungal bioreactors, (3) Develop a fundamental understanding of how fungal biomass development in vapor phase bioreactors affects volatile organic compound degradation and (4) Optimize the configuration and operation of a fungal bioreactor to treat air contaminated with volatile organic compounds or nitric oxides. Preliminary results obtained by the PI indicate that fungal bioreactors have the potential to achieve VOC elimination capacities up to an order of magnitude greater than bacterial systems and that they can also efficiently remove nitric oxide contaminants. In addition, fungal bioreactors can tolerate much greater extremes in operating conditions and thus provide more stable performance than bacterial systems. One of the key features of the PI's research program is that it provides unique opportunities to integrate industry links into the classroom. In this project, the PI will build on this integration in order to expose students to real world applications, introduce them to different career possibilities and promote interactions between engineering professionals, graduate and undergraduate students and faculty. To this end, two educational activities are planned: "project based" instruction and a mentoring program for undergraduate women engineers. Thus, the proposed project will improve the educational experience for undergraduate and graduate engineering students, will enhance industry-academia interactions and will lead to advancements in air pollution control technology.