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

The applicants of this proposal are the wastewater treatment research team of the Environmental Engineering Group at UBC. While each applicant has unique specializations, we work and cooperate as a team. Our research projects have encompassed a broad spectrum of waste streams - for example, waste treatment effluents, biological nutrient removal systems, membrane treatment processes, food processing wastes, livestock wastes, septic tank effluents, agricultural runoff, landfill runoff, pulp mill effluents, and leachate from composting operations. Many projects have evolved from the conventional treatments of solids reduction and carbon removal to the advanced treatment methods of nutrient removal, recovery and management. The development of innovative cost-effective waste treatment technologies and methods of organic residues management is in demand. The microwave enhanced advanced oxidation process (MW-AOP) developed at UBC has shown great potential, and looks very promising in addressing the needs of organic solids and/or sewage sludge management. It is expected that with the requested equipment, a continuous flow microwave reaction system, a significant progress could be made to scale-up the work from a lab-scale to a pilot-scale.  If successful, this would have a major impact in the sector of wastewater treatment, and could make a very significant contribution to resource recovery from wastes.