Difference between revisions of "Team:NDC-HighRiverAB/Human Practices"

Line 1: Line 1:
 
{{NDC-HighRiverAB}}
 
{{NDC-HighRiverAB}}
 
<html>
 
<html>
−
<head>
 
−
<style>
 
−
.center {
 
−
    display: block;
 
−
    margin-left: auto;
 
−
    margin-right: auto;
 
−
    width: 50%;
 
−
}
 
−
 
−
</style>
 
−
</head>
 
  
 
<body>
 
<body>
Line 17: Line 6:
  
 
<div class="pagetitle">
 
<div class="pagetitle">
−
   <h1>Project Description</h1>
+
   <h1>Human Practices</h1>
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
  
 
<div class="title">  
 
<div class="title">  
−
   <h3>What is a Fatberg?</h3>
+
   <h3>High River Wastewater Treatment</h3>
 
</div>
 
</div>
 
<div style:"font-family: 'Quicksand', sans-serif">  
 
<div style:"font-family: 'Quicksand', sans-serif">  
−
   <p>After hearing on the news about giant "fatbergs" that have clogged sewer systems around the world, our team - Notre Dame Collegiate (NDC), decided to try to tackle the problem. A fatberg is a clump of non-biodegradable solid matter such as wet wipes with solidified grease or cooking fats holding it together. Local waste water treatment facilities experience issues with fats that cause inefficiency and extra steps in the treatment system, as they must mechanically break apart the fats which often end up coming back together. </div>
+
   <p>Our team has collaborated extensively with the High River Wastewater Treatment Plant; speaking with Jason Craigie (Treatment facilities supervisor) and Eugene Lund (Manager of Operational Services). We wanted to know where the best place in the Wastewater Treatment Plant to integrate our bacteria would be.  From meeting with the High River Wastewater Treatment Plant representatives we learned that the largest fat build up problem happened where sewage and drainage pipes met - called lift stations. We looked into integrating our bacteria there, but soon discovered that lift stations are anaerobic, with the average temperature below optimal temperature for our bacteria. This would hinder the production of our enzyme in bacteria, causing our solution to not be as effective. With the help of our local representatives, we found that our bacteria would work best separate from the current wastewater process. Currently, fat in our sewer system is manually remove through a vacuum, then physically broken down by high air pressure.  The problem with this method it that fat often clumps back together once reintroduced into the system. Our plan would be to introduce out bacteria to the phase in the current fat removal method where that fat is separated from the system. Our town’s local wastewater treatment system has separate concrete pillars, which the town has offered to let us use to introduce our bacteria to the removed fat. Our method would chemically break the trigliceride down, reducing the probability that they would join back up again. </div>
 
</p>
 
</p>
  
 
<div class="title">
 
<div class="title">
−
   <h3>Project Overview</h3>
+
   <h3>Cargill</h3>
 
</div>
 
</div>
−
<div  style:"font-family: 'Quicksand', sans-serif"> <p>Our team is working on getting our E. coli to express the EstA gene. The EstA gene codes for an esterase (an enzyme) that breaks bonds found in common fats so that the fats will breakdown. Our current promoter is BBa_R0011 that will be turned on by the addition of IPTG, but will hopefully one day be turned on by triglycerides in a sample.</p>
+
<div  style:"font-family: 'Quicksand', sans-serif"> <p>
−
<p> To test that our bacteria is working correctly, we plan to use a compound called esterified 4-nitrophenol that has the bond in fats that we are looking to break. When the bond is broken in this compound, it will turn green; the more green colour in our sample (bacteria and esterified 4-nitrophenol), the more bonds have been broken by our esterase. We are also exploring a few more ideas such as adding our bacteria to an agar plate with triglycerides (fats) on it, and  measuring the acidity of the sample (as one of the products of fat breakdown, fatty acids, will decrease the pH).</p>
+
We have also met with representatives of our local Cargill facility. Cargill is a local industrial plant located outside of our town (High River). As the factory produces lots of wastewater, they have set up their own wastewater treatment facility. We met with Sean Murray, (environmental superintendent) who is responsible for the wastewater treatment facility. Sean told us that the Cargill facility uses bacteria to produce a biofuel, which is then converted into power for the factory. Sean told us he would be interested in collaboration for the use of our e. coli in Cargill’s wastewater system.
−
 
+
</div> </p>
−
<p> We have a few options when it comes to delivering our bacteria into the system; one is to introduce it to the rich E. coli population that is already a part of the treatment process. The second will use their current method of vacuuming the fat layer off the wastewater, but instead of them mechanically breaking apart the fats and putting them back into the wastewater, they would put them into a separate container where we would add our bacteria. The benefit to the second option is that our bacteria are contained, and we can use the products for other things; A past iGEM team (MIT 2015) was investigating taking fatty acids and turning them into biofuel which would be a great way to use the products of our fat breakdown.</p> </div>
+
−
 
+
−
<img class="center" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2018/archive/2/2b/20181012005458%21T--NDC-HighRiverAB--FatbergImg1.jpeg" style="width:850px;height:478px;" alt="Image of a Fatberg" >
+
−
<h6 class="center">Credit: </h6> <h6> <a class="center" href="https://www.rt.com/uk/408737-fatberg-london-sewer-battle/"> https://www.rt.com/uk/408737-fatberg-london-sewer-battle/</a> </h6>
+
−
</div>
+
−
 
+
−
 
+
−
 
+
  
 
</body>
 
</body>
 
</html>
 
</html>

Revision as of 22:09, 15 October 2018

Human Practices

High River Wastewater Treatment

Our team has collaborated extensively with the High River Wastewater Treatment Plant; speaking with Jason Craigie (Treatment facilities supervisor) and Eugene Lund (Manager of Operational Services). We wanted to know where the best place in the Wastewater Treatment Plant to integrate our bacteria would be. From meeting with the High River Wastewater Treatment Plant representatives we learned that the largest fat build up problem happened where sewage and drainage pipes met - called lift stations. We looked into integrating our bacteria there, but soon discovered that lift stations are anaerobic, with the average temperature below optimal temperature for our bacteria. This would hinder the production of our enzyme in bacteria, causing our solution to not be as effective. With the help of our local representatives, we found that our bacteria would work best separate from the current wastewater process. Currently, fat in our sewer system is manually remove through a vacuum, then physically broken down by high air pressure. The problem with this method it that fat often clumps back together once reintroduced into the system. Our plan would be to introduce out bacteria to the phase in the current fat removal method where that fat is separated from the system. Our town’s local wastewater treatment system has separate concrete pillars, which the town has offered to let us use to introduce our bacteria to the removed fat. Our method would chemically break the trigliceride down, reducing the probability that they would join back up again.

Cargill

We have also met with representatives of our local Cargill facility. Cargill is a local industrial plant located outside of our town (High River). As the factory produces lots of wastewater, they have set up their own wastewater treatment facility. We met with Sean Murray, (environmental superintendent) who is responsible for the wastewater treatment facility. Sean told us that the Cargill facility uses bacteria to produce a biofuel, which is then converted into power for the factory. Sean told us he would be interested in collaboration for the use of our e. coli in Cargill’s wastewater system.