Hardware

     To make the constructed bacteria work in the reality, we made a few hardwares to fit the series of waste water treatment. We’ve planned to design a cellulose membrane as substation of those chemically synthesized membranes in Experiment. In this way, we have to test the effectiveness of using cellulose membrane to filtrate. And we chose cotton and filter paper, which are both rich in cellulose, as our tested subjects.

     To begin with, we made an easy-making water purification device, which consists of materials we can find everywhere, such as activated carbon, sponge and so on. Some big particles and a few chemicals will be filtered. And we also put cotton to bind our bacteria, providing the place for it to reduce the organohalides



Figure 1 An easy-making water purification device. The waste water goes into the device from the bottom of the bottle, then go through the layers of different filters, the last is the cotton with the WOW bacteria.

     However, the 1.0 device we made is not efficient enough to treat huge quantities of water, so we made the 2.0 device based on HMBR.

     The membrane separating the bacteria and water after management is of vital importance in that it can not only prevent the bacteria from getting into the managed water, but also bind some bacteria on it to keep reducing the organic waste to promote the effects of operation. By introducing this cellulose membrane, the bacterial mass is more concentrated in addition to activated sludge and suspended carriers, making the device more efficient in treating organohalide-contained wastewater. And the engineered bacteria are supposed to start working when we put the biological sludge and suspended carrier in the device (not put in the device yet).

     Although, we used the filter paper and cotton to take the place of the special membrane, and we made a primitive device of the HMBR. The clean water goes through small hole covered by filter paper on the pipe, pass through the white pipeline and will be pumped out of the container. There are also cotton in the pipeline to bind the bacteria once they escape from the container. To keep enough oxygen in the water, we use another pump (blue one) to pump air in.



Figure 2 The HMBR model. The bacteria stay and react with the halogenated organics in the container. The clean water will be pumped out through the white pipeline, and also there is another pump to keep enough oxygen in the water.