Microbial Addition Technology for Enhanced Biological Wastewater Treatment

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Why is it important?Domestic and industrial wastewater has contributed to a large amount of pollution, particularly within freshwater systems. It is known that many of these wastewaters are highly toxic to the surrounding environment and therefore it is necessary to create a cost-effective method of trying to cope with the complex compounds found within these wastewaters.Bioaugmentation is such a method that involves the addition of microorganisms that are selected specifically for their specialized characteristics, with the aim of enhancing removal of target pollutants (Raper et al, 2018). With the addition of supplementary micro-organisms, the process has the capabilities of improving performance within certain wastewater treatment systems. The technology also has the potential to reduce the capital cost of wastewater treatment plants, both centralised and decentralised. In particular, this could make the cost of decentralised plants installed in low- and middle-income countries more affordable to improve sanitation in local areas.What don't we know?Current bioaugmentation studies have mainly focussed on laboratory-scaled research with synthetic wastewater, rather than the process performance directly in large-scale wastewater treatment system.How will the project be carried out?The research will initially involve laboratory-based experiments investigating microbial growth (particularly using a respirometer) and survival in aerobic and anaerobic bioprocesses relevant to wastewater treatment. In the latter stages of the project, we will focus on implementing a "snake oil" bioaugmentation product into a full-scale WWTP, to test the effect it has on the final product. A side-stream reactor will be used for bacterial growth as to allow the inoculated microorganisms to become fully acclimatised to its environment.What will be the impact?To meet net zero carbon targets, reduce capital and operating costs of WWTS, removal of certain contaminants effectively and quickly and finally meet better effluent compliance in WWTS's.