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Spyros Svoronos
Professor
Ph.D., 1981, University of Minnesota (1982)
Biological Wastewater Treatment
Particle Separations
Process Control
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Brief Description of Current Research
Biological Wastewater Treatment
As high quality water supplies worldwide have become increasingly
scarce, the reuse of treated wastewater is assuming a more
significant role in satisfying water demands, especially for
nonpotable uses. Nitrogen concentrations in the treated wastewater
are an important water quality indicator since various nitrogen
forms can cause toxicity as well as contribute to eutrophication of
receiving waters. Biological treatment systems are the most
important means of removing nitrogen from wastewater. Very often,
these systems utilize a single population of bacteria that are
alternately exposed to aerobic conditions conducive to nitrification
and anoxic conditions that allow denitrification. To maximize the
rate of nitrogen removal, it is important that the bacteria adapt
quickly to these changing conditions.
We have demonstrated that bacteria changing from dissolved oxygen to nitrate
as electron acceptors will experience a significant diauxic lag (period of no
bacterial growth and nitrogen removal), sometimes lasting several hours.
Obviously, significant lags can adversely affect the rate and, therefore, the
economics of biological nitrogen removing processes. The goal of our research
is to better understand the phenomenon of diauxic growth on oxygen and nitrate
as alternate electron acceptors.
Particle Separations
We are developing novel centrifugal classifiers for separating fine
particles. The research involves modeling using CFD software and experimental
testing of the classifier designs.
Process Control
Current research is focusing on modeling, optimizing and developing process
control algorithms for wastewater treatment plants.
Updated 08/14/05
Publications
- “A structured model for denitrifier diauxic growth”, R. Hamilton, A.
Casasús-Zambrana, M. Rasche, Atul Narang, S. A. Svoronos, B. Koopman,
Biotech. Bioeng., (to appear, 2005)
- “Significance of denitrifying enzyme dynamics in biological nitrogen
removal processes”, , D.-U. Lee, A. Casasús-Zambrana, R. Hamilton, B.
Koopman, and S. A. Svoronos, Water Science & Technology, Vol. 49,
265-274 (2004)
- “Apparatus and methods for separating particles”, US Patent
#6,739,456, Issued May 25, 2004)
- “Effect of dissolved oxygen on oxic/anoxic diauxic lag of P.
denitrificans”, K. Lisbon, M. McKean, S. Shekar, S. A. Svoronos and
B. Koopman, J. Env. Eng., Vol. 128, 391-394 (2002)
- “Effect of nitrate exposure history
on the oxygen/nitrate diauxic growth of Pseudomonas
denitrificans”, M. Gouw, R. Bozic, B. Koopman, and S. A. Svoronos
, Water Research Vol. 35, 2794-2798 (2001)
- “Column flotation of Florida phosphate: An optimization study”, H.
El-Shall, N.A. Abdel-Khalek, R. Sharma, S. Gupta, and S. A. Svoronos,,
J. Minerals and Metallurgical Processing, Vol. 18, 142-146 (2001)
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