Wastewater and Hazardous Waste Treatment Research Group

 

Director: Professor Makram T. Suidan

 

Location: The research group consists of several laboratories that are located on the 7^th floor of Engineering Research Center (ERC) and Rhodes Hall.

 

Research Areas:

 

·        The fate and transport of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in natural and engineered systems.

·        Fundamentals and process innovation of biofiltration system for the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from waste gas streams.

·        Fundamental understanding of the application of ultrafiltration membranes in waste treatment.

·        Fundamentals of the use of electrolytic reactors for the dechlorination of low levels of contaminants.

·        Development of the expanded-bed GAC anaerobic bioreactor for the treatment of hazardous wastes.

·        Bioremediation of oil contaminated beaches, with emphasis on fate assessment, vehicles for nutrient delivery, and protocol development for the testing of bioremediation agents.

·        Fundamentals of adsorption of natural and synthetic organic chemicals on GAC.

·        Physical, chemical and biological remediation of contaminated soils.

 

Major Pilot-Scale Equipments:

 

·        Two pilot-scale activated sludge wastewater treatment plants, currently used for the study of biological treatment of several major EDCs.

·        Three rotating drum biofilters for the development of innovative biofiltration systems.

·        Permeable barrier reactor for MTBE treatment

·        Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) for wastewater treatment.

 

Major Analytical Instruments:

 

·        Seven gas chromatographs (GC) for analyzing a wide variety of volatile species.

·        Two high performance liquid chromatographs (HPLC) for analyzing nonvolatile compounds such as organic acids and ionic species.

·        Two gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) for specific compound determination in complex environmental samples, such as for identification and quantification of PAHs and biomarkers in oil-contaminated samples for our oil bioremediation project.

·        Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) system, a molecular technique, for determining the diversity of bacterial communities in our biological treatment systems.

·        Four respirometers for microbial kinetic studies.

·        Liquid scintillation analyzer for analyzing radiolabeled substances.

·        Other major analytical and sample handling instruments include total organic carbon (TOC) analyzer, diode array spectrophotometer and anaerobic chamber.

 

Group Homepage: http://www.eng.uc.edu/~msuidan/research/index.html