Our ABC biofilter presents user scenario in various product forms, which can be transformed into a product with high consumer accessibility.
We intend to design a product using two main elements.
They are "MBBR" and "Porous membrane". We intend to maximize utility by applying a porous membrane in the MBBR method.
First, while applying the MBBR method, a biofilter that performs a bioreactor-like function can be manufactured.
MBBR is a technology developed by combining a biomembrane method and an activated sludge process, and is actually used in a bioreaction tank in a sewage treatment plant. MBBR has a plastic biofilm carrier up to 67% of its total volume, which is installed in one MBBR wall to pass through wastewater. Here, a plastic biofilm carrier is a collection of small structures used in the MBBR method, which helps the action of aerated state and anoxic MBBR on screens such as cylinderical or flat-panel to purify wastewater. At this time, the plastic biofilm carrier is continuously mixed with air flow or mechanical mixing energy.
Using this MBBR's plastic biofilm carrier, we can increase access to our ABC biofilter. The MBBR, which combines anoxic and aeration processes, is perfect fit for our design, which includes anammox pathway. By giving various variations to the morphological part of the plastic biofilm, such as density and surface area, it can be changed so that it can be applied to various environments. In other words, it is possible to further maximize efficiency by forming a personalized form for each region and for each agricultural drainage structure. Our ABC biofilter can also keep the MBBR-like structure long because it can degrade the formation of biofilm using Superoxide Dismutase (SOD). This is also useful for continuous management because the number of periodic replacements of the structure decreases. In addition, if the plastic biofilm carrier is made of a high-density biodegradable material, the environmentally harmful plastic debris is not excessively discharged during the replacement period of the system, and sustainability can be improved by washing and recycling it.
MBBR의 Plastic biofilm carrier에 porous membrane을 적용하여 Cell free system(CFS)을 지닌 device를 완성할 예정이다. Porous membranes are solid-nets of meshes which contain molecular size-pores(3). By applying porous membrane with enzymes that would be synthesized by designed parts, we can get new prototype of bioreactor system. Our synthesized enzymes will be loaded on the porous membrane and the influent passes through the pores of the membrane. Then, the enzymes on the membrane enhance the quailty of the effluent, removing nutrients that gonna be the nitrogen source through anammox enzymes and green algae by generating hydrogen peroxide through the work of superoxide dismutase(SOD). According to the expriment(2), the MBBRs with sponge-attached plastic carrier showed higher efficiency than the one without sponge. The porous membranes would function as the sponge of the study(3) and not only do they improve the ability of MBBR system, but can cultivate and provide the foudation of CFS at agricultural effluent-purifying technology.
Figure 1. Various kinds of plastic carrier (McQuarrie, J. P., & Boltz, J. P., 2011)
As you can see (Figure 1), there is a variety of types for plastic carriers. So, we can choose any forms of carriers depending on the environment where the device should be installed, the size and length of the blanket drains, and the way you want to use this form. This diversity for choosing the carrier will promote the incresed performance for MBBRs system by customized-plastic carrier.
Figure 2. A variety of biofilms by 4 MBBRs at anoxic and aerobic cases (McQuarrie, J. P., & Boltz, J. P., 2011)
We can implement this idea by anammox, thanks to the fact that MBBRs could be utilized at both anaerobic and aerobic conditions simultaneously(Figure 2). At the same time, it will provide the new path to the cleaning-effluent system by removing green algae by SOD.
Figure 3. The setting of sponge-modified MBBR (Deng, L. et al., 2016)
Sponge-applied biocarrier will enhance the filtering capacity to clean the effluent.(2) Compared to the sponge-modigied ones that don't have defense against algal bloom, the treatment performance for our device would be greater than them as we make use of SOD to prevent algal bloom.
