Environmental Biotechnology

1.    Characteristics of biochemical and physico-chemical processes and consequences of the difference

2.      Importance of biodegradation: environmental and economical considerations

3.      General and detailed definitions for biodegradation, their determination, contradictions and problems of measurements

4.      Main factors influencing biodegradation

5.      Classification of substrates on the basis of their biodegradability and origin

6.      Classification of substrates on the basis of concentration dependence of biodegradation rate (graph, parameter definitions)

7.      Relationship between microorganism and its environment (definitions), and its effects on biodegradation

8.      Potential effects of co-substrate: the co-metabolism

9.      The effects of temperature and pH on metabolism rate

10.  Substrate utilization, Monod kinetics of microbial growth

11.  Basic possible bioreactor configurations and arrangements. The effects of bioreactor arrangement on the metabolism of organics according to the Monod kinetics

12.  The description of metabolism of biodegradable and toxic compounds by Andrews kinetics and its practical consequences regarding experiments and technology

13.  Description and comparison of Monod and Andrews kinetics, practical consequences (equations, parameter definitions, graphs)

14.  Alternative utilization of oxygen and nitrate, practical consequences regarding bioreactor arrangement and operation

15.  Spontaneous denitrification in secondary clarifiers, causes and possibilities of prevention

16.  Multistep nature of anaerobic biodegradation, main reactions and compounds

17.  Competition of sulfate reduction and methanogenesis and occurrence in practice

18.  Formation of odor (basic steps of biodegradation and key products) and corrosion (mechanism) in sewer systems. Factors enhancing production of compounds having bad smell. Prevention possibility through nitrate addition (biotechnological reason), and necessity and way of appropriate application.

19.  Description of conventional activated sludge technology (scheme, role of the technological units)

20.  Definitions of sludge age and hydraulic retention time. The role of SRT in efficiency of wastewater treatment (appropriate equations explaining the reason)

21.  Measurement of activated sludge settling, calculation of sludge volume index (SVI). Characteristics and advantages/disadvantages of different typical activated sludge floc structures, regarding settling, compactibility and effluent suspended solids concentrations.

22.  Sculpturing of AS flocs through application of selectors. Basic considerations (graph) and bioreactor arrangement (flow scheme) with and without selectors.

23.  Steps of biological nitrogen removal in wastewater treatment, basic characterization and differences.

24.  Definition and steps of nitrification, and its influencing factors, practical consequences.

25.  The process of denitrification and its influencing factors, comparison of different denitrification technologies (flow scheme, advantages/disadvantages), the role of available readily biodegradable carbon sources.

26.  The mechanism of excess biological phosphorus removal, way of detecting its presence, technological implementation in UCT process, competition between PAOs and denitrifiers, role of readily biodegradable carbon source availability.