CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

• Course Instructor
• Professor John BARFORD
• Room 4552
• ext 7237 (2358-7237)
• barford_at_ust.hk
• Teaching Assistant
• Ms XU Jing Jing
• Lab 7104
• Ext 7149 (2358-7149)
• kejing_at_ust.hk
• Mr Kelvin WONG will assist with some tutorials /
  computations during class times
• Lab 6114
• kelvwong_at_ust.hk
• ext 8828 (2358-8828)

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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

• Class Times
• Monday and Friday
• 4505 (Lift 25/26)
• 4.30 pm - 5.50 pm
• Also booked
• Monday and Friday
• Computer Barn C (Room 4578 Lift 27/28)
• 4.30 pm - 5.50 pm
• (Students will be advised when sessions in the
  Computer Barn will be held)
• There are no formal tutorials assigned to this
  course some tutorials may replace some lecture
  time and these will be advised. Thursday 6-7pm is
  available for additional tutorials, if necessary.
  Room 3006 (Lift 4) has been reserved for this
  purpose.

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Conduct in the Classroom

• Classrooms are for learning. Teachers and
  students must work together so that the classroom
  is a good place to learn. You can help by
  following a few simple rules. These rules are
  mostly just common sense and common courtesy. By
  following them, you show respect to your fellow
  students as well as your teachers.

Please try to get to class on time. When you
come in late, you disrupt your class. As a
general rule, if you are more than 10 minutes
late, you should not enter the classroom. If you
arrive late, but need to see the instructor or
pick up lecture notes, please return at the end
of the class period.
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Conduct in the Classroom

• Once in class, you should stay until the class is
  over. If you know you have to leave early, ask
  the instructors permission before the class
  starts.

You should not do things during class that
disrupt the class or distract your classmates
such as talking while the instructor is
lecturing. If you have a pager or cellular
phone, turn if off when you are in class.
And please pay attention to the signs that tell
you not to eat or drink in the classrooms.
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Conduct in the Classroom

• Assignments, tests and examinations are an
  integral part of the learning experience.
  Students who cheat disrupt this process. The
  instructor has a responsibility to make cheating
  difficult, but cheating is wrong even when you
  can get away with it. Dont give in to the
  temptation to cheat, and be critical of those who
  do.

Your instructor has the authority to make other
rules that he or she feels are necessary to help
you learn. For example, some instructors may
require that you attend a minimum number or
percentage of their classes. If you do not
follow these rules, it may affect your grade.
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Conduct in the Classroom

• You are investing several years of your life in
  your university education.
• Learning to accept responsibility is an important
  part of that education.
• The classroom is a good place to begin
• showing that you are ready for the
• responsibilities of being an adult.

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Conduct in the Classroom

• Class attendance is highly recommend and
  participation in the classroom discussions are an
  important aspect of the learning process.
  Lectures are also where the important concepts
  are presented and the notes on the web put into
  perspective
• ATTENDANCE RECORDS WILL NOT BE TAKEN
• It also allows the instructor to monitor whether
  the major concepts are being understood
• It is essential that students give feedback to
  the instructor. An anonymous website will be set
  up for this purpose - http//www.cbme.ust.hk/cours
  e/ceng365/ceng365.htm
• In addition to identifying problems it is also
  very helpful to offer practical solutions /
  alternatives so that these can be considered.
  Please try to make this process a positive one.

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Previous Student Concerns and Proposed
Solutions

• Concerns
• Extensive Class Notes (Reading or Printing?)
• Instructors accent and speaking too fast
• Use of the white board during lectures writing
  too small or hard to read
• Solutions
• The major concepts will be clearly identified and
  stated in the lectures. Any material which may be
  considered supplementary will be identified as
  such. Material that is examinable will be clearly
  identified
• A summary of the main concepts of each lecture
  will be given. These concepts are the only
  examinable component of the course
• Students encouraged to interact in class and to
  raise concerns during the lecture (e.g. cant
  read the material written on the board)

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Examinations

• Examinations will test the understanding of
  concepts and will not require students to
  memorise major formulas or large amounts of
  qualitative information.
• When marking exams, I will be looking for the
  student to demonstrate that they understand the
  concepts both qualitatively and quantitatively.
  For example, when a short qualitative questions
  is asked, a direct answer to the question
  illustrates such an understanding. Writing large
  quantities of qualitative information, only a
  small fraction of which actually addresses the
  question asked, does NOT illustrate such
  understanding.

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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

• Bioremediation
• Application of Biological Process Principles To
  The
• of Groundwater, Soil and Sludge Contaminated
  With Hazardous Wastes
• Bioremediation is defined by the American
  Academy of Microbiology as "the use of living
  organisms to reduce or eliminate environmental
  hazards resulting from accumulations of toxic
  chemicals and other hazardous wastes" (Gibson and
  Sayler, 1992).
• Biotechnology
• Biotechnology The Application of Scientific
  and Engineering Principles to the Processing of
  Materials by Biological Agents to Provide Goods
  and Services
• Environmental Biotechnology
• Application of Biological Process Principles and
  Engineering Principles For The Treatment of
  Liquid, Solid and Gaseous Wastes

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Biotechnology and the Environment

• Red biotechnology is biotechnology applied to
  medical processes. Some examples are the
  designing of organisms to produce antibiotics,
  and the engineering of genetic cures to cure
  diseases through genomic manipulation.
• White biotechnology, also known as Grey
  biotechnology, is biotechnology applied to
  industrial processes. An example is the designing
  of an organism to produce a useful chemical.
  White biotechnology tends to consume less in
  resources than traditional processes when used to
  produce industrial goods.
• Green biotechnology is biotechnology applied to
  agricultural processes. An example is the
  designing of transgenic plants to grow under
  specific environmental conditions or in the
  presence (or absence) of certain agricultural
  chemicals. One hope is that green biotechnology
  might produce more environmentally friendly
  solutions than traditional industrial
  agriculture. An example of this is the
  engineering of a plant to express a pesticide,
  thereby eliminating the need for external
  application of pesticides. An example of this
  would be Bt com. Whether or not green
  biotechnology products such as this are
  ultimately more environmentally friendly is a
  topic of considerable debate.
• Blue biotechnology has been used to describe the
  marine and aquatic applications of biotechnology,
  but its use is relatively rare.
• .

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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

• O.E.C.D. (Organisation For Economic Cooperation
  and Development)
• 1994 Biotechnology For a Clean Environment
• Estimated the worldwide potential market for
  environmental biotechnology at
• 1990 40 billion
• 2000 75 billion
• In 2000, USA there are about 130 biotreatment
  companies
• U.S Market for Environmental Biotech Products
  for Waste Treatment Worth 261.3 million by 2013
• http//www.przoom.com/news/34779/
• Environmental biotechnology accounts for about
  30-40 of all environmental technologies

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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

• Example of Potential
• Petroleum contaminated soil and groundwater
  resulting from leaking underground storage tanks
• USA
• About 750,000 exisiting sites
• Over 50 contain petroleum hydrocarbons
• Over 1/3 of these are leaking
• Cost per site for clean-up 100,000-250,000
• If 10 undergo biological treatment
  billions

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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

• HOW BIG IS THE INDUSTRY ??
• The water industry mat be compared in size and
  capital to the pharmaceutical industry and the
  oil industry
• In 2005 ,waste water treatment plants in China
  numbered 2000 with a value of 40 billion Yuan

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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

• China Wastewater Treatment Market
• http//www.ide.go.jp/English/Publish/Ideas/pdf/mac
  hine_02_1.pdf

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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

• WHY BIOTECHNOLOGY?

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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

• Biotechnology approaches are replacing /
  augmenting chemical production due to
• Higher specificity
• Lower temperature , pressure
• Less energy
• Less waste products
• Less harmful end products

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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

• 2001 OECD (Organisation of Economic Cooperation
  and Development) asked the following question
• What if Industrial Biotechnology were used more
  widely??
• In posing this question, they attempted to
  undertake an initial, but limited, analysis of
  potential environmental and resource conservation
  benefits that might acrue to certain targeted
  industrial sectors

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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY
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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY
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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY
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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY
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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY
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What Basic Skills are Required?

1. Basic Understanding of Microbiology
2. Basic Understanding of Biochemistry
3. Quantitative Understanding of Microbial Growth
   and Metabolism
4. Quantitative Understanding of Biological
   Reactions and Reactors
5. Ability to make relevant design calculations
   (e.g. reactor size etc)
6. Ability to synthesise 1-4 above to quantitatively
   understand existing and new biological
   metabolisms and processes

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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

• What are the Engineering Issues??
• Alternatively what are chemical engineers
  interested in ??
• Rates v- Yields (That is HOW FAST a process
  works and HOW EFFICIENTLY it works)
• A quantitative understanding of a process or
  operation , so that relevant design calculations
  can be made to ensure optimal performance (for
  example, reactor size, oxygen requirements,
  heating / cooling requirements, nutrient
  supplementation requirements
• The use of computer design packages are now
  commonplace in environmental biotechnology. The
  activated sludge models (ASM), mathematical
  descriptions of flocs and films, computational
  fluid dynamics etc are some examples of these.

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Rates and Yields Relevant Engineering Questions

• Rate
• What if the maximum rate possible?
• What factors influence it?
• Yield
• What is the relevant yield?
• What is the maximum growth associated and
  non-growth associated yield?
• Is there a relationship between rate and yield ?
  That is, is the a trade-off?
• Is it desirable to achieve the highest yield??
  What problems does high yield create?

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Microbiology Why?

• Common Organisms for Bioremediation Type of
  Contaminant (Genus)
• Petroleum
• Pseudomonas, Proteus, Bacillus,
  Penicillum,Cunninghamella
• Aromatic Rings
• Pseudomonas, Achromobacter, Bacillus,
  Arthrobacter, Penicillum, Aspergillus, Fusarium,
  Phanerocheate
• Cadmium
• Staphlococcus, Bacillus, Pseudomonas,
  Citrobacter, Klebsiella, Rhodococcus
• Sulfur
• Thiobacillus
• Chromium
• Alcaligenes, Pseudomonas
• Copper
• Escherichia, PseudomonasFungi are italicized

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Microbiology Why?

Public Health Microbiology (Bacterial Pathogens,
Opportunistic Bacterial Pathogens, Viral
Pathogens, Protozoan Parasites, Blue Green Algae,
Exotoxins and Endotoxins)
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Biodegradation of Problem Environmental
Contaminants

• Synthetic Detergents
• Pesticides
• Hydrocarbons
• BTEX, MTBE
• Poly Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs)
• Chlorinated Solvents
• Halogenated Aliphatic Hydrocarbons
• Polychlorinated Biphenyls
• Explosives

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Biochemistry Why??

• ENZYMES and PATHWAYS
• The CARBON Cycle
• The NITROGEN cycle
• The PHOSPHOROUS Cycle
• The SULFUR Cycle

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hydrolysis
Acidogenisis
Organic C (aq)
VFA
CH4 CO2
Organic C (s)
Biological Carbon Cycle in Wastewater Treatment
Aerobic
Anaerobic
Anoxic
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Biological N - Mechanism
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Biological P - Mechanism
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Sulfur Metabolism

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Anaerobic Digestion Process An Example of Multi
-organism and Multi-pathway

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Integration of Microbiology, Biochemistry

• Microbial Growth Kinetics
• Energy Formation
• Electron Acceptance
• Degradation Pathways
• Co-Metabolism
• Integration of Pathways

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Environmental Factors

• Biological process are very significantly
  affected by environmental factors such as pH,
  temperature, presence of sufficient carbon,
  nitrogen, phosphorous , growth factors, vitamins,
  salt etc.
• In addition, actions taken during biotreatment
  may also have an influence on the biological
  processes. For example, pH modification using
  NaOH or NH4Cl may have very different
  consequences (Na inhibition or increased oxygen
  demand by NH4).

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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

• Course Aims
• Understand the role of microorganisms in the
  treatment of solid, liquid and gaseous wastes
• Understand the range of bioremediation
  technologies available and the practical benefits
  and limitations of bioremediation
• Apply the knowledge of (1) and (2) above, to
  address a series of real life environmental
  problems by class problems, homeworks ad
  supervised project work
• Undertake quantitative calculations using Excel
  and PolyMath
• Modern computer design packages will be
  demonstrated since they are either not available
  or are beyond the scope of this course. In
  addition, specific programs developed in Excel,
  Excel VBA and PolyMath will be developed and/or
  demonstrated.
• Understand how molecular biology is impacting on
  environmental biotechnology processes

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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

• Topic 1
• Introduction (Engineering Design Using
  Biological Systems, What are the Engineering
  Issues?)
•     Topic 2
• Waste Characteristics / Standard Methods
•     Topic 3
• Microbiology (Types of microorganisms)
• Topic 4
• Biochemistry (Structure of the Cell)
•     Topic 5
• Metabolism (Major Metabolic Pathways),
• Topic 6
• Metabolism (Degradation of Aliphatic, Aromatic,
  Halogenated Compounds, Genetic Manipulation)
•    

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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

•     Topic 7
• Reactor Systems (Liquid, Gas and Solid)
  including reactors specific to waste treatment
  (Trickling Filter, RDC, Biofilms etc)
•     Topics 8-12
• Bioremediation Technologies (Anaerobic
  Digestion, Aerobic Treatment Processes,
  Biological Nutrient Removal, Composting,
  Landfill, Large Scale Municipal Soild Waste
  Treatment Systems, Biofiltration, Artificial
  Wetlands)
•     Topic 13
• Introduction to Molecular Biology and its
  application to Environmental Biotechnology
  (selection of microbes for treatment of
  particular target chemicals gene probes
  fluorescent markers etc)
•     Topic 14
• Other Industrial Applications (Bioleaching /
  Sulfate Reducing Bacteria, Biominerals,
  Sediments, Biomonitoring, Biosensors,
  Biopesticides, Biodiesel etc)

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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

• Textbook
• Extensive Lecture Notes will be provided. These
  will be posted on Teaching Web
• http//www.ust.hk/intranet/
• then Teaching and Research then Teaching then
  Course List on Teaching Web then CENG365
• These may be supplemented by the following
  reference books.
• Environmental Biotechnology
• Principles and Applications
• B.E.Rittman and P.L.McCarty
• McGraw-Hill,2001
• Bioremediation Principles
• J.B.Eweis, S.J.Ergas, D.P.Y.Chang and E.D.
  Schroeder
• McGraw-Hill, 1998
• Environmental Engineering
• G.Kiely

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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

• Major Reviews etc
• 1, New Biotech Tools For a Cleaner Environment
• 2. Microbial Degradation
• 3. OECD The Application of Biotechnology To
  Industrial Sustainability
• 4. Maximum Biodegradation Rate and Half
  saturation Constant
• 5. Bacterial metabolism in Waste Water Treatment
  Systems
• These reviews/notes will be posted on the web and
  are put there to further stimulate your interest
  in the topis they will NOT be examinable

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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

• Web Resources
• Biochemistry bich122
• (webpage to be advised)
• Microbiology esce500
• (available on LMES through HKUST webpage)
• https//access.ust.hk/cas/login?servicehttp3A2
  F2Flmes2.ust.hk3A802Flmes-login-tool2Fcontaine
  r

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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

• Other web resources
• University Of Minnesota Biocatalysis /
  Biodegradation Database
• http//umbbd.ahc.umn.edu/
• Useful Internet Resources For Microbial
  Biotechnolgyhttp//umbbd.ahc.umn.edu/resources.h
  tmlpathways
• Molecular Biology http//www.lib.berkeley.edu/BI
  OS/molebio.html
• Databanks http//www.brenda-enzymes.info/
• Pathways http//www.genome.ad.jp/kegg/pathway.ht
  ml
• EPA Reach It http//www.epareachit.org/
• Federal Remediation Technologies Roundtable
  http//www.frtr.gov

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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

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CENG 365 ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

• Course Assessment
• Homework 15
• Classwork 7
• Project 20
• (Report / Powerpoint Submission)
• (Biodegradation Pathways)
• (Bioremediation Technologies)
• Mid-Term Exam 25
• Final Exam 33

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Assessment

• Homework and Classwork will be due TWO WEEKS
  from the date of issue and should be handed to
  the Course Instructor in the Classroom or left in
  the Course Instructors mailbox in the CENG
  Administrative Office (Room Lift 27/28). They
  should NOT be left under the Course Instructors
  office door.
• All homeworks will be marked and count towards
  the course assessment. A selected number of
  classworks will be marked and contribute to the
  course assessment.
• Solutions will be posted on Teaching Web after
  the due date and no further submissions will be
  possible once the solutions have been posted.