INTERDISCIPLINARY PRACTICAL ACTIVITIES IN FIELD

The Interdisciplinary Laboratory is a highly qualifying, teaching and training experience, based on a practical experience about the evaluation of: the wastewater characteristics; the process performance of a full-scale plant (treatment plant of Treviso, 70000 AE ); the effects of releases in the atmosphere and in the receiving water body (river Sile, in the natural Park). All in terms of carbon and nutrients impact, bio-ecological indices and inorganic and organic micro-pollutants/proxies.

The student will learn the analytical techniques related to the monitoring procedures of a waste water treatment plant and its impacts on the environment in which it is located, acquiring the necessary tools to carry out a critical evaluation of the current state of a plant.

Basic knowledge of Chemistry and Biology.

The laboratoy will be divided into three topics as follow:

i) Chemical Plants: dimensional check of the secondary clarifiers by means of the theory of the solid flow; Biomethane potential test (BMP) for the evaluation of the organic matter conversion into biogas; monitoring analysis of water/ waste according to applicable legislation; measurement of the gas-liquid transfer coefficient in biological systems.

ii) Ecology: 1) Evaluation of the possible impacts on the receiving body through the study of freshwater macroinvertebrates communities and the application of ecotoxicological monitoring tecniques. Sampling of macroinvertebrates in the river Sile upstream and downstream of the discharge; sorting and subsequent determination of macro-invertebrates in the collected samples; classification of trophic-functional groups; calculating EBI (Extended Biotic Index). Application of effluent toxicity testing with Vibrio fischeri e/o Daphnia magna. 2) Evaluation of biological performance of activated sludge process through microbial community analyses and SBI (Sludge Biotic Index) application.

iii) Analytical Chemistry: sampling of different environmental matrices, such as: a) aerosols in the plant; b) water upstream and downstream of the plant discharge in the river Sile and water input / output to / from the treatment plant: c) surface sediment upstream and downstream of the discharge in the river Sile. In such matrices the content of specific organic pollutants and/or pollution tracers determined by advanced analytical techniques, such as GC-MS.

Materials provided by the teachers.

At the end of the laboratory a technical report of the analytical tests will be evaluated.

The course includes sampling at the wastewater treatment plant of Treviso and in the receptor body (river Sile). The samples will then be analyzed both at the laboratory located inside the WWT plant and in the analytical chemistry, microscopy and ecotoxicology laboratories of the scientific campus.

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