Coastal Environmental Engineering

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The proposed research program will continue the development of the unique and vibrant program in coastal environmental engineering with a focus on oil pollution control at Memorial University. Through the integration of microbiology and environmental engineering, a series of bio-products have been generated and integrated with remediation technologies for oil mitigation in harsh marine and coastal environments in the past five years. The developed bio-products and technologies have been demonstrated through multi-scale tests as effective oil spill response options. They are able to contain, remove, and remediate the oil right after a spill and prior to its further transport into sensitive ecosystems and long-term weathering. The Chair's proposed Term 2 research program will continue to explore marine oil pollution towards the investigation of oil mitigation after the application of oil spill response operations. It will help to answer critical questions such as (i) how the microbes would further help to treat decanted water, which is the waste stream generated after mechanical marine oil spill response operations (e.g., skimming) and a technical bottleneck for oil response operations; and (ii) how the natural marine ecosystems, especially the microbes, react with the residue oil after the chemical oil response operations (e.g., application of dispersants). The program will aim to achieve the marine spilled-oil mitigation through entailing the following tasks: (1) generating innovative methodologies and green bio-products (e.g., bio-demulsifers) by microbes for oil removal from decanted water; (2) investigating bio-dispersed oil mitigation in marine ecosystems; and (3) exploring mitigation and impact of bio-dispersed oil in natural marine ecosystems with the existence of co-contaminants such as microplastics. The proposed research will enhance Canada's competitiveness, and create international impacts in the research field by contributing to the knowledge of coastal environmental engineering and generating promising products and methodologies in support of sustainable development and environmental protection along the coastline of the Arctic and Northern Atlantic oceans.