Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

Research equipment requested is going to be used in analysis of nutrients - nitrogen and phosphorus in water and wastewater.  Currently nutrient removal is the biggest issue on the environmental agenda in Manitoba.  The Applicant chairs the International Water Association's specialist group on Nutrient Removal and Recovery and has seen the nutrient problem (over-fertilization of lakes and streams also called eutrophication) becoming number one priority around the world.  The Applicants have been engaged in biological nutrient removal for the last two decades using a 30 years old colorimetric auto-analyzer, which although continuously refurbished and upgraded, has reached the limit of its functional life and cannot provide quality required nor process the numbers of samples that are analyzed in the environmental engineering laboratories.   The Civil Engineering and Biosystems Engineering students share the laboratories (the environmental laboratories are contiguous) and all need the new equipment to conduct research for example on: nitrification (ammonia oxidation) in cold temperatures (Mr Hwang) and after anoxic stress (Ms Wong); total nitrogen removal after ozone treatment of the biomass (Ms Dytczak); nitrogen removal in biofilm reactors (Ms Celmer); autotrophic denitrification (Ms Celmer, Mr Hwang, Dr Rezania); use of industrial waste or generation of carbon for denitrification (Mr Chen); macrophyte harvesting to prevent nutrient recycle in the Red River delta (Mr Grosshank); nutrient removal in granular activated sludge reactors (Ms Zhou); anaerobic ammonia removal (Mr Jaroszynski); manure treatment in membrane bioreactors (Mr Yang).   Our work has economic benefits.  Winnipeg alone is facing over $1 B potential expenditures on wastewater infrastructure and upgrades to its three plants.  Any improvements in the nutrient removal process and associated solids management will be translated to lower burden to the Canadian taxpayer.