Major
Environmental Engineering
Anticipated Graduation Year
2020
Access Type
Open Access
Abstract
The Brookfield Zoo (BZ) has been experiencing algal growth in the Great Bear Wilderness exhibit pools. BZ employees currently drain, scrub, and refill the pools every six weeks, which wastes water. A design that increases water conservation would better fulfill BZ’s mission of environmental sustainability. We propose a denitrifying attached growth bioreactor for BZ’s current wastewater system. The high ratio of surface area in the bioreactor compared to the pool walls will encourage biofilm to grow within the reactor at a higher rate than in the pools and the biofilm growing inside will uptake nutrients that the algae feeds on.
Community Partners
The Brookfield Zoo
Faculty Mentors & Instructors
Dr. Gajan Sivandran, Advisor, Engineering Science; Dr. Gail Baura, Director, Engineering Science; Dr. Rodney Dale, Professor, Biology Department; Dr. Jeremy Rtizert, Professor, Biology Department; Zach Waickman, Researcher, Biodiesel Lab; Dr. Timothy Hoellein, Professor, Biology Department; Dr. John Kelly, Professor, Biology Department; Dr. Christopher Peterson, Professor, Biology Department
Supported By
Dave Derk, John Kanzia, Dr. Tom Meehan, Anne Nichols, Amy Roberts, Scott Ryan, Doug Szarzynski, Sponsors, Brookfield Zoo
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Denitrifying Attached Growth Bioreactor
The Brookfield Zoo (BZ) has been experiencing algal growth in the Great Bear Wilderness exhibit pools. BZ employees currently drain, scrub, and refill the pools every six weeks, which wastes water. A design that increases water conservation would better fulfill BZ’s mission of environmental sustainability. We propose a denitrifying attached growth bioreactor for BZ’s current wastewater system. The high ratio of surface area in the bioreactor compared to the pool walls will encourage biofilm to grow within the reactor at a higher rate than in the pools and the biofilm growing inside will uptake nutrients that the algae feeds on.