International Research Fellowship Program: Onsite Treatment of Domestic Wastewaters

Logan Andrew J, Golden CO

Investigators

Abstract

0204868 Logan The International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a twenty-four month research fellowship by Dr. Andrew J. Logan to work with Dr. Petter D. Jenssen at the Agricultural University of Norway and with Dr. Trond Mahlum at the Norwegian Centre for Soil and Environmental Research in Aas, Norway. This project will explore the physical/chemical nature of soil treatment systems by measuring the changing hydrophobicity with depth and operation time and define how these changes affect pathogen collection. Pathogen surrogates including virus and bacteria, will be introduced to vessels and allowed to contact granular media with differing hydrophobicities. Collection behavior will then be measured and the treatment efficiency of the systems will be measured relative to pathogen removal. Results from this research can be used to provide a strategy for the construction and operation of such treatment systems to optimize pathogen collection and minimize the risk of pathogen discharge to groundwater. At these two institutions, current research includes developing enhanced treatment systems for domestic wastewater, exploring the effects of wastewater application regime on the treatment efficiency of soil-based systems, and investigating pathogen transport in porous media.