{"596881":{"#nid":"596881","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Waste Not, Want Not","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGrowing up in China, \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.eas.gatech.edu\/content\/tang-dr-yuanzhi\u0022\u003EYuanzhi Tang\u003C\/a\u003E has directly experienced the recycling of human waste. In the building where she lived, the toilets discharged to an underground tank, where the waste mixture was digested anaerobically, a process that produces methane. Through gas lines, the fuel went back to the stove in the kitchen.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETang says she didn\u0026rsquo;t think much of the recycling she experienced every day when she lived in China. Now, Tang is an assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. One big question she addresses is recovery of resources from wastes \u0026ndash; and not just carbon-based waste that yields methane as an energy source. She\u0026rsquo;s aiming for a system that also will recover wastewater and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, while performing other tasks. \u0026ldquo;When we\u0026rsquo;ve figured this out,\u0026rdquo; she says, \u0026ldquo;I can think of many ways to apply it to wastewater treatment plants, farm sites, or even community buildings.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETang has partnered with scientists in Georgia Tech and beyond to attack the problem of integrated contaminant elimination and resource recovery from biological wastes. The National Science Foundation has awarded Tang and her collaborators over \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nsf.gov\/awardsearch\/showAward?AWD_ID=1739884\u0026amp;HistoricalAwards=false\u0022\u003E$2.4 million over three years\u003C\/a\u003E to figure out how to integrate and optimize multiple technologies to recover energy, water, and nutrients from biological wastes, while simultaneously reducing waste volume and removing the heavy metals, pathogens, and organic contaminants.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe system Tang envisions sounds like a giant machine. Wastes would enter at one end. Various products could emerge on the other side, including methane, nitrogen- and phosphorus-containing slow-release fertilizer, clean water, and biochars for use as solid fuel or soil conditioner. In addition, the machine would perform key environmental services, such as degrading waste-borne pathogens, organic contaminants, and toxic metals; reducing waste volume; and discharging clean water.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAccording to Tang, the individual technologies to treat wastes to environmental standards or to obtain a particular product are already available. These include hydrothermal reactors, anaerobic digesters, membrane distillation units, and a wastewater treatment system enabled by magnetic nanoparticles. What\u0026rsquo;s different is the integration, which would require a lot of new science and engineering, she says. Tang also intends to develop a database and models that can be used to predict the best combination and operating conditions of technologies for particular waste characteristics and treatment goals.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETo get started, Tang and her colleagues are conducting experiments with various types of wastes, including sludge from the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.hazenandsawyer.com\/publications\/wastewater-to-energy-the-f.-wayne-hill-water-resources-center\/\u0022\u003EF. Wayne Hill Water Resources Center\u003C\/a\u003E, a Gwinnett County wastewater treatment facility; cow dung and pig waste slurry from \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.grassfedgeorgia.com\/\u0022\u003EMountain Valley Farm\u003C\/a\u003E, in Ellijay, Georgia; and poultry litter from a family-owned farm near Atlanta. They also have tested the methane production system and are growing corn with the produced fertilizers. \u0026ldquo;The results look promising,\u0026rdquo; Tang says.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETang will work with four co-principal investigators.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cul\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/engineering.vanderbilt.edu\/bio\/shihong-lin\u0022\u003EShihong Lin\u003C\/a\u003E, an assistant professor at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Vanderbilt University, brings expertise in membrane distillation, which can utilize low grade heat to transform wastewater to high-quality distilled water.\u003C\/li\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.ce.gatech.edu\/people\/Faculty\/961\/overview\u0022\u003ESpyros Pavlosthatis\u003C\/a\u003E, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will lead the research on anaerobic digestion.\u003C\/li\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/people.umass.edu\/bx\/\u0022\u003EBaoshan Xing\u003C\/a\u003E, a professor of soil science and agriculture at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, will spearhead the plant growth tests and soil characterization using the produced slow release fertilizers and soil conditioners.\u003C\/li\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/atrp.gatech.edu\/people\/Jie-Xu.html\u0022\u003EJie Xu\u003C\/a\u003E, a principal research scientist at Georgia Tech Research Institute, brings expertise in wastewater treatment using magnetic nanoparticle system.\u003C\/li\u003E\r\n\u003C\/ul\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EFive other Georgia Tech personnel will contribute to the project:\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cul\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.me.gatech.edu\/faculty\/hailongchen\u0022\u003EHailong Chen\u003C\/a\u003E, an assistant professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering\u003C\/li\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/biosci.gatech.edu\/people\/thomas-dichristina\u0022\u003EThomas DiChristina\u003C\/a\u003E, a professor in the School of Biological Sciences\u003C\/li\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ce.gatech.edu\/people\/Faculty\/461\/overview\u0022\u003EChing-Hua Huang\u003C\/a\u003E, a professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering\u003C\/li\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.eas.gatech.edu\/content\/huang-dr-rixiang\u0022\u003ERixiang Huang\u003C\/a\u003E, a research scientist in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences\u003C\/li\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cli\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.fptd.gatech.edu\/people\/Alexander-Samoylov.html\u0022\u003EAlexander Samoylov\u003C\/a\u003E, a senior research scientist at Georgia Tech Research Institute\u003C\/li\u003E\r\n\u003C\/ul\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETang sees applications of this research within Georgia Tech itself. \u0026ldquo;In designing new buildings at Georgia Tech,\u0026rdquo; she says, \u0026ldquo;we can incorporate small-scale recycling modules to recover energy or achieve specific goals.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Georgia Tech researchers take aim at a super-multi-tasking waste treatment system "}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EYuanzhi Tang and collaborators won a grant of over \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nsf.gov\/awardsearch\/showAward?AWD_ID=1739884\u0026amp;HistoricalAwards=false\u0022\u003E$2.4 million over three years\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;to figure out how to integrate and optimize multiple technologies to recover energy, water, and nutrients from biological wastes, while simultaneously reducing waste volume and removing the heavy metals, pathogens, and organic contaminants.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The goal is to recover energy, wastewater, an nutrients while performing other tasks."}],"uid":"30678","created_gmt":"2017-10-03 17:05:08","changed_gmt":"2017-10-03 17:07:08","author":"A. Maureen Rouhi","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2017-10-04T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2017-10-04T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"596882":{"id":"596882","type":"image","title":"Yuanzhi Tang","body":null,"created":"1507050377","gmt_created":"2017-10-03 17:06:17","changed":"1507050377","gmt_changed":"2017-10-03 17:06:17","alt":"","file":{"fid":"227486","name":"Yuanzhi Tang.download.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Yuanzhi%20Tang.download.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Yuanzhi%20Tang.download.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":9450,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Yuanzhi%20Tang.download.jpg?itok=ZgBDxoQ7"}},"596880":{"id":"596880","type":"image","title":"Integrated system to treat biological wastes (Courtesy of Yuanzhi Tang)","body":null,"created":"1507049672","gmt_created":"2017-10-03 16:54:32","changed":"1507049672","gmt_changed":"2017-10-03 16:54:32","alt":"","file":{"fid":"227485","name":"Integrated treatement system.Tang_.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Integrated%20treatement%20system.Tang_.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Integrated%20treatement%20system.Tang_.png","mime":"image\/png","size":1155291,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Integrated%20treatement%20system.Tang_.png?itok=ULSe7SK3"}}},"media_ids":["596882","596880"],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"175752","name":"waste treatment"},{"id":"175753","name":"nutrient recovery"},{"id":"175754","name":"Yuanzhi Tang"},{"id":"166926","name":"School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences"},{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"},{"id":"39531","name":"Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure"},{"id":"39491","name":"Renewable Bioproducts"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA. Maureen Rouhi, Ph.D.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nDirector of Communications\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCollege of Sciences\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["maureen.rouhi@cos.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}