Emily's Notebook

From Living Building Science

Spring 2021 (2nd Semester)


Week One

VIP Group Meeting (1/19/2021)

-Introductions and subgroup presentations

-Interested in Liquid Waste Nitrification, Air quality, and greywater.


Week Two

VIP Group Meeting (1/26/2021)

-Subgroup Decision & Subgroup Breakout (Liquid Waste Nitrification)

- Set group meeting time for Sunday at 12:00 PM on Bluejeans

- Possibly with hold experiment in Kendeda VIP lab or Ecology lab.

- Semester goal: scale up last semester's experiment

Sunday Meeting (1/31/2021)

-Prepped for this week's presentation

- Updated/edited Google Slides presentation

- Got access to Google drive/one note

-Brought up future questions:

  • Budget for this semester?
  • Need to complete Lab safety 101, RTK, Biosafety

-Future Goals:

  • Determine a regular meeting time

Tuesday (2/2/2021) - Finished Lab safety 101, RTK, and General Biosafety trainings


Week Three

VIP Group Meeting (2/2/2021)

- Weekly Presentations - first presentation! -

-Presented our past achievements and future goals/ plans for this semester

- Feedback

- Budget= $125

- consider other factors that would affect the metabolism of the bacteria to make it more efficient

- consider community of microorganisms found in the system

- campus is a small sample

- see if there is existing literature on conditions of community

- vary variables like temperature, level of bubbles etc.

- cannot use real waste still, due to COVID protocols

- Because team is so large, consider scaling up even more/ doing two groups

- Materials

- 500 gallon plastic tub because leachate tank is plastic

- last semester supplies in a stock room in Boggs

- get access to Kendeda

Post Tuesday Response Meeting (2/5/2021)

- Semester Goals

- Finish research paper

- use a larger scale tank for experiment to better mimic leachate tank

- Preform lit review on Phosphate use in the nitrification process

- Get Phase III proposal approved

- Create a materials list.

- determine size of tank needed for statistically significant results.


Week Four

VIP Group Meeting (2/9/2021)

- We did not present this week

Mini Group Meeting (9/12/2020)

- Long Term Goal: engineer a redesign of the current waste management system in the Kendeda Building

  • Currently, just a plastic tub,
  • Want to propose a R&D

- Short Term

  • w/in a month (March 1st) Project Proposal
  • Design set up, standard procedure, materials list, operating cost list
  • < $250

- Phase III

  • Per Dr. Glass recommendation, we are looking into phosphate extraction, as it is in high demand but low supply
  • there are natural phosphates in liquid waste and if we can extract them
    • makes our process economically favorable, which will incentivize its use.
  • Sub teams
    • Project Proposal: Maria and Shalini
    • Phosphate and general Research: Mia, Sam and myself
  • Goals
    • investigate phosphate cycle as phosphate is extracted through crystallization and erosion, we want to streamline if possible
    • find a way to manage pH as phosphate is accepts hydrogens from the water to stabilize itself
    • need buffer?
    • Create a comprehensive list of acid base reactions, catalysts etc. done by March
  • To do (me)
    • determine who w/in sub team is going to be focused on phosphate and who will focus on general
    • Email Dr. Glass

Week Five

VIP Group Meeting (2/16/2021)

-Presentation Day

- presented our phase III set up

- introduced our additional focus of the semester (Phosphate retrieval)

- explained how we broke team into two subteams

- budget shouldn't be an issue

- Questions from the panel

- where would we get the phosphorus from because it isn't present in our current solution of urea

- suggested we try animal manure (cow, elephant)

- Goals:

- get solidified materials list

- research phosphate retrieval and consider a experiment

- create an educational video

- enter VIP competition

Weekly Meetings: Friday's at 3:00 PM

Mini Group Meeting (2/19/2021)

- we calculated the materials needed for our scaled up experiment

-32.22 g TAPSO buffer

- 0.54 g Manure

- 110.76 g Urea

- we created a procedure

- 6 2L tubs

- 3 with just urea mixture, 3 with manure urea mixture

New Information:

- The sludge in the leachate tank is semi solid

- phosphate retrieval will be difficult, so continue with lit reviews

- We do not know the chemical makeup of the leachate tank

Questions for Leavey:

- Will we need a BSL 2 lab because we are working with cow manure?

Goals:

- Short term:

-Create phase III document by Monday, 22nd

- visit Kendeda building

- Long term:

- verify conclusions from Phases I and II

- eliminate errors in data from Phases I and II

- track the life cycles of the bacteria

- enter VIP competition

Sunday (2/21/2021)

  • Created and edited Phase III doc
  • Created Phase III operating procedure outline
  • Confirmed meeting time with Dr. Glass
  • Sent Phase III doc to Aravind and Maria to get suggestions

Week Six

VIP Group meeting (2/23/2021)

- We did not present today

- I did research on phosphate recovery based on Dr. Glass' suggestions and resources.

- Added to the lit review.

Subgroup Meeting (2/26/2021)

- I am now in the nitrification sub-team

  • We got a lot of research about phosphate retrieval done

- - - use MgCl and a stirred reactor to precipitate struvite

- best pH is between 8.5-10

- consider how this high pH will affect bacteria

  • Wrote and sent Leavey the Phase III document. Also sent Shalini's literature review.
  • made procedure outline
  • Formatted presentation for next week.

Week Seven

VIP Group meeting (3/2/2021)

- Weekly Presentation

  • gave presentation explaining the Phase III doc and our new research
  • Presented a possible experiment design for phosphate retrieval
  • TAPSO is ordered

FeedBack:

  • Talk to Dr. Grantham about phosphate precipitation
  • Talk to steve place about fertilizer economics

Lab Meeting (Friday 3/5/2021)

  • Sam informed us of the information that Dr. Grantham gave him.
  • We determined additional materials that we'd need
    • strainer-- home depot
    • 64+ oz plastic containers--ikea
    • aluminum foil-- Kroger
    • Maria and Shalini went to kendeda (we have access via backdoor)
      • couldn't find prep room with materials
      • put the supplies that could be found in Kendeda 280
  • We got information about phosphate precipitation from Dr. Tang
  • Hoping to get in the lab in one week.
  • Emailed Marlon Ellis (Kendeda Manager) about separation of waste and content of foam
    • foam is from Clivus Multrum
  • Goals
    • Create a spreadsheet of lab assignments.

Week Eight

VIP Group meeting (3/9/2021)

  • We did not present this week
  • Asked Leavey if she could order manure, paint strainer, and containers
    • got black 1 gal containers so we don't need aluminum
  • Rest of supplies are in Kendeda now
  • Goals:
    • Get in Lab next week
    • finish lab schedule

Mini Group Meeting (3/12/2021)

  • Mia and I went to Kendeda and got a tour from Mr. Ellis
  • Picked up soap sample (need more)
  • Learned that waste gets transported with the help of gravity through pipes to clivus composters
  • once in the composter, woodchips are added and the solid waste decomposed (over ten years)
  • this mixture of liquid and solid waste is strained and pumped into the leachate tanks
  • once over 3/4 full (1000 gallon) waste management service in Cartersville picks it up and recycles its nutrients

Week Nine

VIP Group meeting (3/16/2021)

- Wellness day so no class

Material gathering (3/20/2021)

  • Maria and I gathered all the materials to start the experiment
  • created the urea solution and put the manure samples into the respective beakers.

Week Ten

Mini Group Meeting (3/22/2021)

  • day 0, calibrated probes and completed VIP video
  • added buffer solution

VIP Group meeting (3/23/2021)

  • Presented findings from tour
  • explained Phase III experimental set-up group
  • updated on phosphate research

Continue ever other day measurements (3/24/2021)

  • Shalini and I took measurements
  • Still concerned about how pH is affected by the soap

Continue every other day measurements (3/26/2021)

  • Meet with Tang
  • Confirmed our previous findings
  • She suggested that we consider incubation of some sort

Week Eleven

VIP Group Meeting (3/30/2021)

  • did not present this week

Week Eleven Subgroup meeting (4/2/2021)

-*began our experiment (without bacteria or bubblers)

  • having a difficult time calibrating our nitrate and ammonium probes

Week Twelve

VIP Group Meeting (4/6/2021)

  • Presented this week, explained our issues (bubblers creating foam in beakers with soap)
  • Dr. Grantham suggested magnetic stir bars and plates because it will still oxygenate but without all the excess foam
  • Ph is raised significantly by the addition of soap (makes sense since soap is a base)

Week Thirteen

VIP Group Meeting (4/13/2021)

-Weekly Presentation

  • did not present this week
  • in smaller group, we discussed the issues with our probes (it appears despite length or redundancy of calibrations, readings are off)
  • discussed the process for the rest of the experimentation
  • should be done next week and can start compiling data

-

Weekly Meeting


* met to discuss VIP competition

  • analyzed data from trial
  • discussed shortcomings of the trial/ ideas for the future
  • created our final presentation

Week Fourteen

VIP Group Meeting (4/20/2021)


  • final presentations
  • gave a breakdown of the background of our experiment
  • explained our process
  • communicated our findings from this phase
  • pH increases with soap (base) but all pH are generally stable enough for nitrification to occur
  • pH increases over course of reaction
  • Irregularities with ammonium probe inhibited further data comparison as ammonium concentration helps provide context for the course of reaction

Week Fifteen

VIP Group Meeting (5/4/2021)

- we did not present - we won third place for our poster - we won first place (and $1000) for our project in the people and environment category.