Scientist & Research:
Dr. Park, University of Massachusetts
Optimization of Algae-based Wastewater Treatment Processes
Challenges:
A symbiotic granule composed of algae and bacteria is being developed to optimize the wastewater treatment processes.
NMT Solutions:
1) Because of its great temporal resolution (a few seconds) and super sensitivity (pico level), NMT helped the project by measuring the transient changes of oxygen releasing or absorbing under different light conditions, which was crucial to understanding the relationships among the algae, the bacteria and the waste water;
2) Because NMT can tell people how fast and how much oxygen is released or absorbed by the granules, it was plugged into calculations to quantitatively optimize the wastewater treatment processes.