Multifunctional Biofilm

标题：多功能生物膜 如上所述，传统的废水处理包括许多微生物过程。在目前的环境工程实践中，最广泛使用的技术是活性污泥法和厌氧消化，每个微生物过程都被设计在一个单独的单元中进行，因为它将为每个过程提供最佳条件。近年来生物膜研究的进展正在改变我们对污水处理和环境工程中生物过程的理解。生物膜是附着在表面或界面上的微生物生长，微生物细胞嵌入胞外聚合物基质中，导致微生物生长的分层环境。生物膜与活性污泥法中的悬浮生长有明显的区别。经过多年的努力，本课题组和其他课题组对环境生物膜结构和功能的研究已经实验证明，生物膜通常包括好氧和缺氧层，在适当的条件下，好氧氧化、硝化、反硝化和硫酸盐还原可以在一片生物膜中共存。从生物膜研究中发展出来的新知识正在慢慢地渗透到环境工程的设计实践中，并改进其设计实践。随着甲烷生成作为最后一个主要微生物过程的增加，我们将能够在实验上演示多功能生物膜的完整概念。 该NSERC-Discovery计划的目标是通过实验演示一种新的概念--“多功能生物膜”，这对于废水处理和其他环境应用是至关重要的。多功能生物膜的概念是，在一片生物膜中，在适当的条件下，通常涉及生物废水处理的几个或所有主要微生物过程(即功能)可以共存。这项研究将提供其他方面没有的实验证据，以阐明环境生物膜的结构和功能。它可能会引入一个新的角度来看待工程化生物膜反应器的设计，从而有可能导致可申请专利的工程研究。研究结果将对采用生物膜技术的废水处理设施的设计和运行特别有利。该计划还将培训具有独特技能的HQP。

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.