Thesis topic:
Microbial ecology of activated sludge in the system of biological removal of nutrients
Motivation
The issue of phosphorus removal from wastewater and its further use has been unquestionably important in recent years because of the demand for reduction of inorganic phosphate sources. One of the ways to remove phosphorus from wastewater is using microorganisms. The polyphosphate-accumulating and glycogen-accumulating bacteria species are a part of the activated sludge and, depending on the conditions, these bacteria species are able to accumulate phosphates inside their cells as well. As each wastewater treatment plant has different parameters of the wastewater influx along with their technological parameters, the abundance of these bacteria in the active sludge can differ and thus change the effectiveness of the biological removal of phosphorus, which must then be chemically precipitated.
Solution
The study is focused on further observation of mixed cultures of poly-P and GAO bacteria. Emphasis is placed primarily on the application of the FISH method for the determination of species abundance of these bacteria as well as their number and relationship to the total removal of phosphorus from wastewater. Another focus of the study is the selection of suitable techniques for the quantification of bacteria. The acquired knowledge is to be applied to the parameters of inflowing wastewater. The prevalence of the individual bacterial species and their ability to accumulate phosphates is necessary for the subsequent change of technological parameters in order to maximize the accumulation of bacteria and to reduce the number of raw materials for chemical precipitation.
Another area of interest/Projects:
- Fluorescence in-situ hybridization, permeabilisation techniques, using and combining gene probes in order to acquire suitable intensity of fluorescent light and high-quality results.
- Research of filamentous organisms in the activated sludge and their influence on the separation properties
Education:
- 2020 - present: ICT Prague, FTOP, Department of Water technology and environmental engineering, Ph.D. Student
- 2018 – 2020 ICT Prague, FTOP, Department of Water technology and environmental engineering, diploma thesis: „ Application of the FISH method for the detection of filamentous bacteria of the GALOs type “.
- 2015 – 2018 ICT Prague, FTOP, bachelor thesis: “Methods of isolation of norovirus for its determination in the water “.
Participation in teaching:
- Laboratory Course in Water Technology (Kinetics)
- Laboratory Course in Water Analysis