Week 6 - Electro What?

Electrocoagulation, that's what!

This has been a big week for my project moving forward. I was originally tasked myself with looking into ways to effectively remove microplastics from our water and thought reverse osmosis might be the best process to test. However, through further research and conversations I stumbled upon a process called electrocoagulation.  This is essentially a process in which you run a high voltage current through a water source using an aluminum cathode and copper anode. What happens is the free forming electrons and metal ions cause the dipoles of the plastics and other contaminants in the water to attract to each other. This in turn causes them to coagulate and create a sediment and floating mass of all the junk in the water making their removal easy. This has been an exciting development for me as it seems to be a plausible way to add to the wastewater treatment process if it is effective.

 

While this has caused there to be a delay in me starting the project I know I will be playing a little bit of catch up but am excited for the challenge. This week I met with a professor from the physics department and he helped demonstrate how this process works exactly. If you watch the video below you can see how the electrical current causes the metal balls to align themselves with each other. This is a great picture of how the process will work in water with microplastics. 

I am figuring out a few more details and am reworking my research proposal but have the true excitement for this science and cannot wait to see where it leads.

 

Sample Collection

    Traveling to the wastewater treatment plant was exciting this past week. Having been to the sample collection site before, I walked some of my colleagues through the different stages of the treatment process. In addition to the collection, I was able to have some very beneficial conversations with people who work in the water industry. This allowed me to gather some information about what other techniques are in use for wastewater treatment. This wealth of information will assist me as I create a project focused on possible solutions to our microplastic problem. I want the solution to be as plausible as possible. 

Lastly, I met with a mentor this week and have scheduled some meetings with other professors in the science field to solidify further how I will get my project done. It has been a very productive week, and I look forward to diving into the samples gathered and beginning to run my experiments.

Research Proposal and More!

     This week has been crazy busy but packed with fun! I had the opportunity to present my groups poster about microplastics at a NSF dinner this week. It went phenomenally well and I was surprised at the amount of interest people had in the topic we are researching which felt very good! In addition to the dinner, it was a very science focused week with writing my proposal. I am feeling better about it but also would like to narrow down the details a little more. Take a look at it below! 

    We are also going to collect samples tomorrow at a waste water treatment center and I am excited to get back out there with all the knowledge I now have! It should be a great time and I look forward to being able to share the experience with you all next week! Lots of pictures to come!

Proposal

Week Three: The Anticipation Builds

 This week has been a bit of a whirlwind when it comes to the amount of homework I have had. However I am also anxiously awaiting for next week as an opportunity to present our micro plastics research from last semester has come up! 

The opportunity is an NSF dinner and informal presentation of our posters on valentines day next week. This has brought with it my first time having to write an abstract and prepare to present mostly on my own for all of our group work. I am meeting with Dr. Cotter tomorrow to write the abstract and prepare for the event. It should be quite a great experience to add to my belt! 

In addition to that exciting opportunity I have been laying the ground work for what my research will look like this semester. After deciding to focus on the possible solutions for micro plastic removal during the water treatment process I had the idea to see if I could gather some water samples from a reverse osmosis water treatment facility. The one in question is Scottsdale and I have made an inquiry through Dr. Cotter to see if there was a way to do that this semester. I chose that as it seems to be the most effective removal tool that is in use for commercial water treatment. I won't know the efficiency for sure until samples are collected. So I am hoping that opportunity arises. 

Other than that I will also be doing some control work to see how effective our water filtration process is that we use in the lab. I will be creating some experiments to see how many micro plastics are still remaining in our water samples after filtering to see if we need to implement any changes to the process we are currently using. 

All in all, there is a lot to be excited about in the weeks to come. I am filled with anticipation and cannot wait to see where all of this takes me as the semester progresses forward!

Back To Work!

     This past week has been filled with anticipation and excitement. After the initial settling in to the new schedule, I finally had an opportunity to meet with Dr. Cotter and the rest of the research team to discuss what areas we would like to look into this semester when it comes to micro plastics. While I didn't have a strong inclination for one specific area, since I find them all very interesting, I was able to talk it through with Dr. Cotter and land on one. 

    I will be looking at and focusing on what some possible solutions are when it comes to effectively removing the micro plastics during the water treatment process. I am most excited about this outlook as I have always been someone who looks for a solution when presented a problem.

    We also have a date for when we are going to be returning to the water treatment facility; February 16th! I am very excited to have the opportunity to go collect samples and meet with someone from the industry to have a conversation that can hopefully cultivate some ideas when it comes to the removal of the micro plastics. It will also be nice to be at the facility, only this time, with a lot more knowledge about how the process works.