Development of innovative biosensors for biochemical oxygen demand and E. coli

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We will develop innovative biosensors using principles of microbial electrochemical cells (MECs) for measuring biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) concentration and enumerating the number of live E. coli in water and wastewater. Current methods for BOD measurement and enumeration of E. coli depend on culturing techniques, which are periodic, labour-intensive, and expensive. New MEC-based BOD sensors will be designed and optimized for synthetic and real wastewater. A prototype of the BOD sensors will be tested in wastewater treatment facilities and lakes through collaborations of the University of Waterloo and OZ Optics, Ltd. Field tests will allow us to assess the sensitivity and accuracy of the BOD sensors to fluctuations of water quality parameters in water and wastewater. In parallel, an innovative biosensor for counting live E. coli will be designed and tested to prove a hypothesis that electric current in MECs can represent the number of live E. coli. The success of the proposed research enables us to monitor BOD concentration and the number of live E. coli in water and wastewater as semi-continuous manners (data collection at every hour), which will significantly improve current water quality monitoring systems and help protection of water resources and human health against contaminants for Canada.