Steve Hart Award Winners Presentations

Sustainable management of food and other organic waste (FOW) is an unresolved environmental challenge for Canada. Technologies that can stabilize and transform waste to valuable products present a tangible solution to this challenge. Acidogenic fermentation is an emerging biotechnology that transforms FOW to high value biochemicals such as volatile fatty acids (VFAs).

This project investigated acidogenic fermentation of food waste in a leach bed reactor (LBR). The effects of different operational parameters including inoculum to substrate ratio (ISR, %) and micro-aerobic conditions were tested to improve hydrolysis of food waste. A higher hydrolysis rate with reduced fermentation time was observed with increase in ISR. An innovative design to create microaerobic conditions within the reactor further improved the hydrolysis rates even at low ISR conditions.

Wastewater effluents are often discharged as submerged jets. Little research has been done on interaction between submerged jets and river bend flows. This project investigates the effect that the river bend structure has on the mixing dynamics of an effluent jet, using data from dye tests later to be complemented with laser induced fluorescence data and Large Eddy Simulations (LES), as well as the effect that the jet has on the river bend flow, using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) experimental data and LES. Dye tests show that the jet does not mix the same in a bend as in a straight channel; the difference can be predicted using the location of the bend’s secondary circulation cell. PIV and simulated data show that the pattern of circulation cells may change in the presence of the jet, which in turn affects the momentum advection of the main flow in the river bend.