Research Projects
Fate
of enteric micro-organisms in advanced waste water treatment processes: Flotation, filtration chemical and UV disinfection
in treatment of municipal wastewaters has been studied in some research
projects funded by Tekes, Maa-
ja vesitekniikan tuki ry and companies. In
the projects, applicability and costs of flotation process for tertiary
and primary treatment of municipal wastewaters has been studied. The
disinfection of wastewaters by PAA (peracetic acid) has also been studied
in different waste waters such municipal, artificial and fish breeding
waters. The research concerning
the chemical disinfection of wastewaters is continuing. We have also
interest to understand the destruction mechanisms of PAA. Contact persons:
Helvi Heinonen-Tanski and Anna-Maria Veijalainen.
Animal
manure: We have conducted studies about horse manure and
its utilization in agriculture. In the resent study our consideration is
in composting process of horse manure with woodchip bedding and horse
manure with woodchip bedding mixed with cattle slurry. Earlier we have
studied mostly composted horse manure with peat bedding. Besides the
composting process our interest is in the use of composted horse manure
as a fertilizer for different vegetables and berries. The fate of cattle
manure has also been studied in co-work with Finnish Agrifood
Research. Contact person: Helvi Heinonen-Tanski.
Treatment of animal slurry and food
wastes aerobic and anaerobic methods: Animal slurry
has been treated aerobically or anaerobically.
We now study aerobic thermophilic treatment of
liquid organic wastes: We study the suitability of thermophilic
aeration for processing liquid organic wastes (i.e. sewage sludge and
food wastes) to improve product stability and hygienic quality. The work
focuses on the process control and eradication faecal pathogens during
aeration. The project was supported in 2008 – 2009 by Maj
and Tor Nessling
Foundation. Contact persons: Helvi Heinonen-Tanski and Anna-Maria Veijalainen.
Ecological
sanitation and human urine: Ecological sanitation, solid
waste treatment and drinking water is studied in EU founded research
project Women/Waste/Work/Welfare & Sanitation (4WS), where
non-governmental organisations and universities in Bangladesh, India and
Sri Lanka are worked with us as hygiene specialists and the role of
International Water and Sanitation Centre from the Netherlands has been
as a coordinator. One village in each country has been selected as pilot
village and another as a control village. The pilot villages gets
guidance 1) how to build latrines possible by using urine as fertiliser, 2)
harvest rain water, 3) use SODIS (sun radiation) for water treatment, 4) how
to compost or treat solid waste etc. and the role of women is important
in all these activities. The control village doesn't get the same help.
After the study time the environmental progress was evaluated. See more: http://www.irc.nl/page/227.
The report is available at
http://www.uku.fi/ympti/julkaisuja/Backstopping_2006.pdf. EU has presented
in more detail the results in its www-pages http://ec.europa.eu/research/dossier/do220307/asia_en.html,
since the project has really helped the local people and
its influence has reached to larger areas. In addition the project was
economical.
Use
of human urine and wood ash has been studies as fertiliser in order to
give people a new resource and to protect hygiene by giving the people a
reason to build a toilet. We have determined the hygiene quality of plant
products as well as the yields have been measured and tastes assessed.
All the results pure human urine has been promising. The use of pure
human urine with or without wood ash is very close to ecological
sanitation since it gives a reason to build a toilet in poor areas, too.
One of our publications has been high lighted. See http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070922/note15.asp
Contact persons: Helvi Heinonen-Tanski and Surendra Pradhan.
Side-effects
of pesticides: Side-effects of pesticides on a
growth of soil micro organisms and nutrient cycling have been studied
both from forestry and agriculture point of view. Laboratory test have
performed with pure cultures of ectomycorrhizal
fungi and with Scots pine seedlings inoculated with ectomycorrhizal
fungi. Field experiments with pesticides have been done in a forest
nursery of METLA, and in agricultural fields in a project coordinated by
Finnish Agrifood Research. Contact person: Tarja Laatikainen.
Eco-efficient
solutions for wastewater treatment in rural areas: The
project aims to find small scale wastewater treatment systems, which are
suitable for households located in rural areas. Different treatment
systems are compared, including microbial removal efficiency, eco-efficiency
and environmental impacts of the systems. The goal is also to yield
information that assists manufacturers in developing systems to meet the
national and EU-wide regulations. The research project is founded by Tekes, Savo-Karjalan
vesiensuojeluyhdistys ry and several companies, and conducted in
co-ordination with Finnish
Environmental Institute, Geological Survey of Finland, National Institute
for Health and Welfare, Savonia Polytechnics and University of
Kuopio during 2009 – 2011. Contact persons: Helvi Heinonen-Tanski,
Anna-Maria Veijalainen and Hannu Poutiainen.
Better control and management of
wastewater, water, electricity and district heating networks, with
special reference to wastewater characterisation: We
work in cooperation with Helsinki University of Technology, University of
Vaasa and National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) to improve
the whole water-wastewater-energy supply system including the piping
networks. Our role was to concentrate on wastewater sewer systems and
wastewater treatment. The wastewater treatment plants should know much
better the flow patterns and loads of wastewater already before it enters
the treatment plant in order to treat it as much as is needed. We tried to
find new methods that could be applied to improve the monitoring of
wastewater loads, and this way gain better control of the system. The use
of new on-line methods, wireless data transportation and intelligent
computational methods will be explored.
Modern Methods in Municipal Wastewater
Treatment Optimization: (2009-2011)
is a continuing from the previous studies. The effectiveness and security of
wastewater treatment processes will be improved on the whole, by applying
modern modelling methods to sewer networks, the wastewater treatment
process and energy generation. Also tertiary treatment processes and side
stream utilization possibilities will be studied. The Project is financed through Tekes by
the European Regional Development Fund, and other partners in the
consortia are the National Institute
for Health and Welfare and Agrifood Research Finland. Contact
persons: Helvi Heinonen-Tanski and Hannu Poutiainen.
Environmental mycobacteria:
The
occurrence of environmental mycobacteria and
the associated environmental factors are studied in different waters from
the beginning of the drinking water systems to the wastewaters.
Currently, the occurrence of mycobacteria is studied in drinking water
with different raw water sources and treatments. We also study mycobacteria
in the community and forest industry wastewaters and their spread from
active sludge basins with aerosols
in
the projects run by National
Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).
(http://www.ktl.fi/portal/suomi/ktl_tutkii/tutkimus/ymparistoterveys/vesi/).
Development of detection methods based on molecular biology is going on
within the projects. Contact person: Eila Torvinen.
Enteric microorganisms as occupational
risk: We have previously studied enteric microorganisms in wastewater
treatment plants. In 2009-2011 we will do cowork with other groups to
study if enteric microorganisms from baby diapers would be a risk for kindergarden
personnel. This work is financed by The Finnish
Work Environment Fund. Contact
persons: Piia Huttunen and Helvi Heinonen-Tanski.
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