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Emerging Issues in Biotech > L2 Water > Flashcards

L2 Water Flashcards

1
Q

How many people in the world lack access to clean water?

A

785mn

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2
Q

What disease is the most common?

A

Cholera

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3
Q

What are 2 main water challenges?

A

Maintaining Ecosystem sustainability
Developing safe water systems

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4
Q

What is water stress?

A

Ratio between supply & demand due to water demand, mismanagement & climate change

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5
Q

What are water quality & societal wellbeing threatened by?

A

Emerging pollutants
Pathogens

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6
Q

What is a possible solution to water challenges?

A

Recycling of used water

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7
Q

What can waste water contain?

A

Trace chemicals of from chemical & pharma products

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8
Q

What do some trace chemicals disrupt>

A

Operation of hormonal system that governs growth, reproduction & behaviour

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9
Q

What technology is used to detect pollutants?

A

Sensor

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10
Q

What is WatchFrog?

A

French company that developed an in vivo test for identifying presence of endocrine disruptors in water

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11
Q

What does watchfrog use?

A

Transgenic tadpole that fluoresces when it encounters chemical contaminants in water that disrupt thyroid function

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12
Q

What is the degree of fluorescence measured by?

A

calibrated against a base level of fluorescence defined in a reference sample

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13
Q

Define bioeconomy.

A

Use of renewable resources from land and seas & use of waste to make value added products such as food, feed, bio-based products & bioenergy

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14
Q

What is a potential effect of a bio-based economy?

A

Intensification of agriculture, forestry & aquaculture

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15
Q

What are 3 examples of strong interactions between hydrology, agronomy, forestry science & plant breeding?

A

Nutrients from fertilizers
pathogenic m/o excreted by livestock
pesticides & metabolites

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16
Q

What 2 things does waste water treatment produce?

A

Clean water & sludge

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17
Q

What is sludge?

A

A biosolid substance that can be put into an anerobic digester to produce methane & organic fertliser

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18
Q

What is a key driver for competitiveness in water industry?

A

Water scarcity & need to protect natural resources

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19
Q

What are 3 constraints in water reuse?

A

Finance
human health
environmental safety standards & regulations

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20
Q

What can waste processing recover?

A

Energy & raw materials

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21
Q

What are the sustainable development goals?

A

Broad reaching targets from UN that aim to end poverty, protect the planet & ensure prosperity for all

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22
Q

What does goal 6 of the SDG relate to?

A

Clean water & sanitation for all

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23
Q

What is a recent directive in new EU legislation?

A

Quaternary treatment

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24
Q

What is quaternary treatment?

A

Additional & advanced treatment of urban wastewater biotech-based eliminate the broadest spectrum of micropollutants
Physical or chemical

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25
Describe primary - tertiary treatment?
Primary treatment - separates solid from liquids Secondary - takes liquid waste & reduces pollutant level Tertiary - further removal of nutrients eg. Nitrogen
26
What is a con of Quaternary treatment?
chemical oxidation produces bio-products - harmful or even more harmful than prior product
27
What have microbes been shown to do?
breakdown complex molecules (eg. Carbon compounds) into innocous things like CO2
28
What does water stress cause?
Deterioration of freshwater resources in terms of quantitiy & quality
29
What is the dominant process for WW treatment?
Activated sludge
30
What process is activated sludge?
Attached growth/biofilm/fixed film process
31
What is water purification dominated by?
Physical and/or chemical treatment processes with minimal use of biological treatment
32
What are m/o the primary mediators of?
Geochemical change
33
What are m/o the primary mediators of?
Geochemical change
34
What characteristics of m/o make them key recycling agents for the biosphere?
Small size ubiquitous distribution high specific SA high rate of metabolic activity
35
What is effective biotreatment based on?
The harnessing & acceleration of microbial mediated transformation process
36
What are for drivers for WW innovation?
Lower emission limits Compliance with new directives on nutrient removal Economics/energy costs Sludge disposal Need for better process reliability
37
What are 3 objectives of WW treatment?
Remove max. amount of pollutant At min. hydraulic residence time With minimal production of biomass
38
What can attached-growth or biofilm based systems achieve?
High cell densities through natural immobilization
39
When was it observed that bacteria can adhere & grow on surfaces?
1978
40
Why are biofilms often seen as a problem?
Form of biofouling
41
What can replicating adherent bacteria secrete?
Insoluble gelatinous exopolymers (EPS) forming a 3D cell:polymer matrix
42
What 3 processes does biofilm formation comprise of?
Physical, chemical & biological - change through development & depend on environmental conditions
43
What % do m/o account for in biofilm dry mass?
10%
44
What is the self produced matrix responsible for?
Cohesion & adhesion of cells Development of microenvironment - allows for cell-cell interaction & communication Reservoir of metabolic substances, nutrients & energy
45
What is the EPS mainly composed of?
Polysaccharides Also contain Proteins, lipids, EC DNA & other biopolymers
46
What are 5 common features of microbial biofilms?
Adherence EPS matrix Architecture Viscoelasticity Heterogeneity
47
What mechanisms do biofilms use for adherence?
Specific - bacterial adhesin-host receptor interactions Non-specific - hydrophobic or electrostatic forces
48
What does the EPS provide?
Mechanical stability Compartmentalized chemical & physical microenvironments (protection)
49
What is the architecture of biofilms?
Flat patches, mounds, 'mushrooms', towers, ripples & streamers
50
What does viscoelasticity allow biofilms to do?
Enables biofilm to absorb & dissipate energy
51
What does natural immobilization allow for?
Excellent biomass retention & accumulation without need for separate solid-separation devices
52
What are 3 advantages two natural immobilization?
High volumetric productivity Ability to completely uncouple SRT from HRT Less susceptible to irreversible damage
53
What are 3 factors of biofilms in WWT?
Spatial complexity Temporal complexity Regulation
54
What can carriers do with biofilm tech?
Carries (sometimes called filter media) can retrofit this tech to an activated sludge process
55
What is the 'Trickling Filter' method?
Bed of crushed rock or synthetic media supports biofilm Liquid waste sprayed over the bed
56
What is the mature trickling filter biofilm a complex community of?
Bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematotes & rotifiers
57
What does the rotating biological contactor consist of?
Series of closely spaced circular disks that are submerged in WW or rotated through it
58
What do BAFs contain?
Granular medium that provides large SA for biofilm development
59
What are 3 characteristics of BAFs?
Completely submerged in WW Oxygen supplied by diffusers at base Regular backwashing
60
What 3 things can EPS be transformed into?
Starting material as a wood adhesive Starting material for bio flocculant Corrosion inhibitor
61
What are 3 ways to control biofilm amount?
Enzymes - proteases, cellulases, polysaccharide depolymerases Biosurfactants - short chain FAs Quorum quenching
62
What is Quorum sensing?
Cell-to-cell orchestrated communal behavior in response to microbial threshold density mediated through QS signals
63
What 3 things is QS involved in?
Collective gene expression for adhesion EPS production Biofilm formation
64
What are 3 QS signals?
Acyl-homoserine lactone c-di-GMP Diffusible signal factor
65
What is Quorum Quenching?
M/o produce functional enzymes/inhibitors to degrade/inhibit QS signals
66
What is QQ an emerging technology for?
Controlling biofilm average thickness (WWT) & manage biofouling in water treatment processes
67
What are 3 future avenues for water & biotech?
Water Energy Nexus Synthetic bio New processes like Anammox
68
How much water is taken for energy sector?
583 billion m^3 15% of global water withdrawls
69
What are 3 growing challenges for the energy water interface?
Water scarcity Increased costs & adaptive measures Pollution of water supplies & water bodies
70
What can advances in SynBio improve?
Efficiency of microbes for eliminating pollutants such as hydrocarbons & plastics or extracting valuable resources from environment
71
What are challenges with SynBio?
Scale Addressing ethical, regulatory & public acceptance Understanding microbial interactions within engineered microbial communities
72
What is Anammox?
organism isolated from a mine in The Netherlands - doesn’t require o2 & carbon but is a slow growing organism
73
What is Anammox currently?
Side stream (digester supernatant)
74
What is medium term?
Mainstream - combo of nitridation - annamox & AD
75
What are 3 challenges with Anammox?
Acceptable process rates & stability at low temps Suppress heterotrophic denitrifies & NOB under elevated C/N ratios Ensure sufficient annamox biomass retention to offset slow growth rate

Emerging Issues in Biotech (9 decks)

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