Dynamics of the Morphological Features of Microbial Structures in Engineered Environmental Systems

2014年将是活性污泥法诞生100周年，活性污泥法仍是生物废水处理的主导技术。今天，加拿大和全球的废水管理问题包括基础设施更新和运营成本，减少能源消耗，改善新污染物的处理要求，水的再利用，能源和资源回收以及先进技术的开发和采用。工程师和科学家认识到，水管理问题的新解决方案将利用新工具的整合以及微生物学和生物技术的进步。 该研究采用了我们实验室开发的新型先进分析和实验方法，以研究微生物结构和群落的形态特征和理化性质。重要的是，重点是在结构的动态特征和变化：作为絮体成为颗粒，结构的不稳定，包括定期脱落事件在混合集成固定膜活性污泥系统（IFAS）;和悬浮形式（絮体和颗粒）和IFAS系统中的生物膜之间的相互作用。这些不仅与理解这些结构的基本特征有关，而且与颗粒污泥（形成颗粒的时间及其稳定性）和IFAS反应器（生物膜厚度控制和稳定性）应用中的重要设计和操作标准有关。 在基本水平上，实验室规模的IFAS反应器的操作允许有机会在控制良好的条件下操作的同一反应器中检查絮凝物、颗粒和膜。我们对细胞外聚合物的作用的理解正在改善，但不完整。蛋白质的作用，特别是粘附素，和多糖在胞外聚合物的复杂的微生物群落与絮凝物和膜和微生物界面内的工程环境系统中的相互作用将进一步探讨。 研究计划的一个关键作用是在HQP的发展和转让的专业知识的应用重要的新的和新颖的技术和方法，年轻的学员和调查人员（科学家和工程师）对环境问题的工作。培训一直是申请人研究计划的核心，这将通过参与NSERC支持的CREATE-TWNER（水净化和营养和能源回收清洁技术）计划得到进一步加强。

2014 will mark the 100th anniversary of the activated sludge process-the dominant technology still applied to biological wastewater treatment. Today, wastewater management issues in Canada and globally include the costs of infrastructure renewal and operations, reducing energy consumption, improving treatment requirements for emerging contaminants, water reuse, energy and resource recovery, and the development and adoption of advanced technologies. Engineers and scientists recognize that new solutions to water management issues will draw upon integration of new tools and advancements in microbiology and biotechnology. The research proposed employs novel advanced analytical and experimental approaches developed in our laboratory to study the morphological features and physicochemical properties of microbial structures and the communities within. Importantly, the focus is on the dynamic features and changes in structures: as flocs become granules, destabilization of structures including periodic sloughing events in hybrid integrated fixed-film activated sludge systems (IFAS); and the interactions between suspended forms (flocs and granules) and biofilms in the IFAS system. These are relevant not only to understanding fundamental features of these structures but to important design and operating criteria in the application of granular sludge (time to develop granules and their stability) and IFAS reactors (biofilm thickness control and stability). At a fundamental level the operation of laboratory-scale IFAS reactors permits the opportunity to examine flocs, granules and films in the same reactor operated under well-controlled conditions. Our understanding of the role of extracellular polymeric substances, is improving but incomplete. The roles of proteins, and adhesins in particular, and interactions with polysaccharides in the extracellular polymeric substances of complex microbial communities associated with flocs and films and at microbial interfaces within engineered environmental systems will be explored further. A key role for the research program is in the development of HQP and the transfer expertise on the application of important new and novel techniques and methods to young trainees and investigators (scientists and engineers) working on environmental problems. Training has been central to the applicant’s research program and this will be further enhanced through participation in the NSERC supported CREATE-TWNER (Clean Technologies for Water Refining and Nutrient and Energy Recovery) program.