Acid whey is the largest byproduct of the dairy industry but to date has few useful applications and is frequently discarded as a result. However, acid whey has a high carbon content, making it a suitable co-substrate for anaerobic co-digestion with raw sewage sludge. The synergistic effect of co-digestion has...
Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) has recently appeared as a promising approach for removing nitrogen from landfill leachates because it requires less oxygen and no organic carbon compared to traditional nitrification-denitrification system, and it produces low sludge volumes, thereby reducing operating and biological sludge disposal costs by over 60%. Anammox bacteria...
Despite decades of cleanup efforts, chlorinated solvents are some of the most common groundwater and subsurface contaminants of the industrialized world. These compounds include chlorinated ethenes (CEs) such as trichloroethene (TCE) and chlorinated methanes (CMs) such as carbon tetrachloride (CT). Dehalococcoides mccartyi belongs to a class of microorganisms called organohalide-respiring...
Two methanotrophs, M. trichosporium OB3b and M. buryatense 5GB1, were encapsulated using two methods to investigate the potential of methane conversion for biofuel production. Ca-alginate and low melt agarose were used to immobilize the methanotrophs for batch and continuous flow column testing. Varying protein concentrations, residence times, and immobilization methods...
Identifying the inhibition of ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) by emerging organic contaminants is crucial due to the importance of AOB in wastewater treatment, the widespread use of antibacterial agents such as triclosan (TCS) in consumer products, and the sensitivity of N. europaea to inhibitors. Triclosan inhibition of nitrification by AOB...
Use of basalt aquifers for aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) systems is increasing in the Pacific Northwest due to the large aerial extent of the Columbia River Basalt Group and the suitability of basalts as ASR reservoirs. However, the degradation of trihalomethanes (THMs), potentially carcinogenic disinfection by-products present in the...
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of contaminants of great concern due to their toxicity and ubiquity in the environment. Remediation efforts historically have focused on granular activated carbon (GAC) because of its low maintenance and relatively low cost. However, GAC is not PFAS selective and is especially...
Methane is a flammable gas that is the main component of natural gas. It is a highly potent greenhouse gas, and accounts for about 20% of greenhouse gas emissions. Methane is routinely flared in many industrial processes without harnessing any of its energy. The environmental impact and wasted energy potential...
1,4-dioxane, a probable human carcinogen at low (< 1ppb) concentrations, has emerged as a groundwater contaminant due to its historical use as a stabilizer for the chlorinated solvent 1,1,1-trichloroethane. Aerobic cometabolism, the use of a primary substrate to induce the production of microbial enzymes that fortuitously degrade other compounds, is...
Carbon tetrachloride (CT) and chloroform (CF) were transformed in batch reactor experiments conducted with anaerobic dechlorinating cultures and supernatant (ADC+S) harvested from continuous flow reactors. The Evanite (EV-5L) and Victoria/Stanford (VS-5L) cultures capable of respiring trichloroethene (TCE), 1,2-cis-dichloroethene (cDCE), and vinyl chloride (VC) to ethene (ETH) were grown in continuous...