October 28 - November 3 Weekly Update

[DominicGrasso]

Monday (10/28) Team presented at fall symposium. UASB wants to follow up with the Sensor Development team in order to help implement their device in one of our reactors once a sensor prototype is completed. This sensor helps to track the height of the sludge blanket and its formation. UASB also wants to continue following up with the String Digester team when planning implementation as the string digester system will be treating UASB effluent.

Wednesday (10/30) Kyra, Lydia, Dominic, Valentine, and Emily W. visited the Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Facility (IAWWTF)

1. Added measuring tape to the outside of the PFR (measures from the lip of the flange upwards).
2. The sludge blanket in the PFR was measured at 55.5 cm
3. We do not know where the actual bottom of the sludge sits in the reactor.
4. Added a peristaltic pump head for the continuous flow reactor. Stacked the second peristaltic pump head on top of the first. It is not connected for water inflow yet, but it is ready to go.
5. Added a sampling funnel to the effluent pipe. We discussed different alternatives for measuring sludge heights in the opaque (continuous flow) UASB reactor.

Thursday (10/31) The team did literature review. Professor Richardson and Egidio emailed asking us to invite them to our next presentation.