Multifunctional Biofilm

标题：多功能生物膜

Title: Multifunctional Biofilm Traditional wastewater treatment includes a number of microbial processes, as mentioned above. In current practice of environmental engineering, where the most widely used technologies are activated sludge process and anaerobic digestion, each microbial process is designed to happen in a separate unit, with the understanding that it will provide the best conditions for each process. Advances in biofilm research in recent years are changing the way we understand biological processes in wastewater treatment and environmental engineering. Biofilm is microbial growth attached to a surface or interface, with microbial cells embedded in a matrix of extracellular polymeric substances, leading to a stratified environment for microbial growth. Biofilm is distinctively different from the suspended growth as in activated sludge process. With many years' effort, previous studies on structure and function of environmental biofilm in this and other research groups have experimentally demonstrated that biofilm contains typically both aerobic and anoxic layers and that aerobic oxidation, nitrification, denitrification, and sulfate reduction can coexist in a single piece of biofilm, under appropriate conditions. The new knowledge, developed from biofilm research, is trickling into and improving the design practice of environmental engineering. With the addition of methanogenesis as the last major microbial process, we will be able to demonstrate experimentally the complete concept of multifunctional biofilm. The objective of this NSERC-Discovery program is to demonstrate experimentally a novel concept of “multifunctional biofilm,” which is fundamentally important for wastewater treatment and other environmental applications. The concept of multifunctional biofilm is that, in a single piece of biofilm, there could be co-existence of several or all of major microbial processes (i.e., functions) that are typically involved in biological wastewater treatment, when appropriate conditions exist. The research will provide otherwise unavailable experimental evidence to shed light on structure and functions of environmental biofilm. It could introduce a new angle to look at engineered biofilm reactor design, leading potentially to patentable engineering research. The results will be particularly beneficial to wastewater treatment facility design and operation that employ biofilm technologies. The program will also train HQPs with unique skills.