Just Another Snake Oil?

November 23, 2020 By
by Heather Jennings, PE

For years, the wastewater industry has been plagued with products that meet only half the expectations of the users or make matters worse. I get it. I personally questioned the efficacy of Micro Carbon Technology® (MCT—the nutrient carrier for all our liquid nutrient and biostimulant products) when I started with Probiotic Solutions®. Because I was the Doubting Thomas of the group, I was assigned to conduct data analysis of projects and to work with our R&D group. My training is Chemical Engineering, so I was not looking for the easy answers. My customers deserve the best answers I can give them! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog Post, Technology Tagged With: , , , , ,

Nitrification and Denitrification in Wastewater Activated Sludge

June 11, 2020 By

By Heather Jennings, PE

The great teeter–totter of wastewater is the nitrification and denitrification cycle in activated sludge wastewater systems. It takes both to convert ammonia to nitrogen gas! Both processes feed off of and support each other but, in some ways, they have competing needs.

Nitrification consists of ripping off the hydrogen in ammonia and adding oxygen to make nitrates and nitrites: this is accomplished by bacteria that we call nitrifiers. You might be already familiar with some of these nitrifiers, such as Nitrosomonas, Nitrobacter, etc. I, personally, call nitrifiers the “divas” of wastewater. They can only tolerate specific conditions to really thrive—such as a pH range of 6.5–8.0. They also require 7.1 lb of alkalinity for every 1 lb of ammonia that is oxidized, and they prefer temperatures at 77°F with DOs (dissolved oxygen levels) above 2mg/L. Retention times need to be longer than five hours, and the F:M (food to microorganism) ratios must ideally be less than 0.25. Basically, nitrifiers are screaming for their lattes to be a specific temperature and everything just right or they will refuse to work! Sadly, we can’t fire them. We have to learn how to meet their needs to get any nitrification done.   [Read more…]

Filed Under: Biology, Blog Post, Technology Tagged With: , , , ,

Nitrification 101

June 4, 2020 By

By Heather Jennings, PE

Today we are going to focus on nitrifiers, those wastewater treatment autotrophs that get energy from oxidizing ammonia. (Autotrophs are microorganisms that produce complex organic compounds using inorganic carbon from simple substances as a food source.) Oxidizing ammonia is a fancy way of saying ripping off hydrogens to stick oxygens onto nitrogen—the essence of nitrification.

In wastewater treatment we rely on bacteria to perform nitrification. While Nitrobacter and Nitrosomonas are the most commonly recognized, they are only part of a suite of autotrophic nitrifying bacteria that do the job. Mind you, there are also heterotrophic nitrifiers that are part of the floc-forming bacteria that help in the oxidation of ammonium, but we’re going to focus on the autotrophs this time around. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Biology, Blog Post, Technology Tagged With: , , ,

Bargaining for Clean Water: Why Dean Kamen Invented the Coca-Cola Freestyle

December 7, 2018 By
The Coke Freestyle

The technology Kamen used to develop the Freestyle Coca-Cola soda fountain is similar to that in his prescription pumps.1

By Jael Batty

When Kamen asked Coke for help distributing his water purifier, Coke challenged Kamen to develop a better soda fountain first.

Dean Kamen, Inventor of Medical Technology

The inventor of the Segway, Dean Kamen is known in the scientific community for developing medical equipment. His inventions include a wearable prescription pump for insulin and chemotherapy, a microdosing prescription pump for infants, and a home dialysis machine.1 When Kamen realized his dialysis machine required too much distilled water and energy for home use, he developed a system to purify tap water that would run on less power than a hairdryer. Continue reading

Filed Under: Current Events, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
Translate »
>