Wastewater treatment is an energy intensive process that removes contaminants and protects the environment. While some wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) recover a small portion of their energy demand through sludge handling processes, most of the useful energy available from wastewater remains unrecovered. Efforts are underway to harness energy from wastewater by developing microbial fuel cells (MiFCs) that generate electricity. Key challenges to the development of microbial fuel cells include inefficiencies inherent in recovering energy from microbial metabolism (particularly carbon metabolism) and ineffective electron transfer processes between the bacteria and the anode. We explored the prospects for constructing microaerobic nitrifying MiFCs which could exhibit key advantages over carbon-based metabolism in particular applications (e.g., potential use in ammonia-rich recycle streams). In addition, we evaluated nanostructure-enhanced anodes which have the potential to facilitate more efficient electron transfer for MiFCs because carbon nanostructures, such as nanofibers, possess outstanding conducting properties and increase the available surface area for cellular attachment. In the initial phase of this project, we investigated the performance of a novel nitrifying MiFC that contains a nanostructure-enhanced anode and that demonstrated power generation during preliminary batch testing. Subsequent batch runs were performed with pure cultures of Nitrosomonas europaea which demonstrated very low power generation. After validating our fuel cell hardware using abiotic experiments, we proceeded to test the MiFC using a mixed culture from a local wastewater treatment plant, which was enriched for nitrifying bacteria. Again, the power generation was very low though noticeably higher on the nanostructured anodes. After establishing and monitoring the growth of another enriched nitrifying culture, we repeated the experiment a third time, again observing very low power generation. In the absence of appreciable and repeatable power production from pure and mixed nitrifying cultures, we focused on the second major objective of the work which was the fabrication and characterization of carbon nanostructured anodes. The second research objective evaluated whether or not addition of carbon nanostructures to stainless steel anodes in anaerobic microbial fuel cells enhanced electricity generation. The results from the studies focused on this element were very promising and demonstrated that CNS-coated anodes produced up to two orders of magnitude more power in anaerobic microbial fuel cells than in MiFCs with uncoated stainless steel anodes. The largest power density achieved in this study was 506 mW m-2, and the average maximum power density of the CNS-enhanced MiFCs using anaerobic sludge was 300 mW m-2. In comparison, the average maximum power density of the MiFCs with uncoated anodes in the same experiments was only 13.7 mW m-2, an almost 22-fold reduction. Electron microscopy showed that microorganisms were affiliated with the CNS-coated anodes to a much greater degree than the noncoated anodes. Sodium azide inhibition studies showed that active microorganisms were required to achieve enhanced power generation. The current was reduced significantly in MiFCs receiving the inhibitor compared to MiFCs that did not receive the inhibitor. The nature of the microbial-nanostructure relationship that caused enhanced current was not determined during this study but deserves further evaluation. These results are promising and suggest that CNS-enhanced anodes, when coupled with more efficient MiFC designs than were used in this research, may enhance the possibility that MiFC technologies can move to commercial application.

A laboratory study was conducted to elucidate the source-effect relationships for seven chemicals (sources) that can cause activated sludge process upset (effect). These chemicals were studied over a range of concentrations using both nitrifying and non-nitrifying laboratory-scale activated sludge sequencing batch reactors. Effects were characterized according to traditional methods of evaluating process effluent and mixed liquor quality. A range of process effects were observed for both biomass sources. Overall impact was assessed and the degree to which a chemical caused an impact on process performance was considered to be more detrimental than if a chemical had multiple process effects that were moderate. The order in which chemicals caused adverse effects for the nitrifying biomass was: ammonium < octanol < DNP < cyanide < CDNB < cadmium - pH 11. For the non-nitrifying biomass, the order in which the chemicals caused adverse effects was: octanol < ammonia < DNP < cyanide < CDNB < cadmium < pH 11. Almost all chemicals caused multiple process effects, but the intensity and type of process effect was not always predictable based on the chemical applied. The findings show that there are multiple ways that chemicals can impact activated sludge plants, and suggest that corrective action practices need to be tailored based on the nature of the chemical causing the upset. This publication can be purchased and downloaded via Pay Per View on Water Intelligence Online - click on the Pay Per View icon below

Ever wonder what it would be like with no electricity, no phones, no machinery or automobiles? The Armstrong family found themselves forced into this strange and dangerous place when the Earth is struck repeatedly by solar flares. The world is thrown into a 19th Century environment, where much of the population has no idea how to survive without their machines. Chaos ensues, as food and water disappear and disease spreads like wildfire. Follow Charles Armstrong and his family, as they make the perilous journey from the city to his parent's home in the country where they know food and safety await. It's a fifty mile trip that has to be made afoot with unexpected dangers at every turn. "When Chaos Reigned," is a page turner from start to finish and will certainly have you asking the question, "What would I do, if suddenly the lights went out?"

For My Brothers Sake follows the lives of three brothers from the hills of Arkansas to the City of Memphis and beyond. They lose their father at an early age and are forced to fend for themselves as their mother self destructs. There's Jonathan, the oldest and athletic one who finds his escape in sports and makes it all the way to the minor leagues of the Chicago White Sox. There's Lanny, the reckless one who can't seem to get a break. He appoints himself his little brothers protector and his efforts lead him to the Brushy Mountain State Prison System in the Mountains of East Tennessee. There's Michael, the youngest and brightest who experiences a traumatic event at the age of ten which changes every aspect of his life from that day forward. It sets forth a chain of events with devastating effects years in the future. For My Brothers Sake is a wonderful story of brotherly love and devotion. It is sure to hold your interest and touch your heart.

The Saga of Lucy Mcgregor is an inspiring story of a young grils life in rural Mississippi spanning the depression years through the Civil Rights movement of the sixties. Lucy's mother dies when she is only nine years of age. She has to leave school to care for her two younger sisters while her father roams the country side looking for work. Lucy leads a very sheltered life until her father dies when she is sixteen. Lucy meets and marries the Reverend McGregor's son, Junior, who is every woman's nightmare. Her days are filled with fear and desperation. Lucy bears twelve children by this man, raising them under the harshest of circumstances. Her life is spent caring for these children and trying to protect them from their abusive father. Lucy's only friend is a black woman she meets at the height of the Civil Rights movement. A woman is murdered and Lucy has to stand by in helplessness as her friend's innocent husband is accused. Lucy is racked with guilt as she suspects her own husband is the guilty party. The Saga of Lucy McGregor focuses on the stark realities of poverty and the hopelessness of it's victims. Lucy's story is one of resilience and courage and one you won't soon forget.

Sophie Sanford's story is one no child should ever know. Her father leaves for the Korean War and never returns. Sophie's mother is left with four small children to care for and in her desperation, marries a man who turns out to be an abusive monster. Sophie's younger sister dies at the hands of this man but goes free while another is blamed. Sophie is determined to see he pays for what he has done, not only to her sister, but for the brutal attack on her as well. With the help of her brother's and uncle, Sophie finally succeeds and her step-father is sent to prison. She vows to locate the family of the man wrongly accused of her sister's death, and in doing so, finds the love of her life. Travel through time with Sophie, who as a child is forced to mature much too quickly. In spite of her tragic start in life, Sophie grows into a beautiful, confident, young woman and eventually finds love and happiness beyond her wildest dreams.

Where The Magnolias Bloom is a thought provoking book about the South, slavery and it's long term effects on society. It spans three generations of Southern families from the Civil War Era through the Civil Rights Movement of the sixties. It's sure to hold your interest and touch your heart.

Seizure of the Gilberts and Marshalls deals with amphibious warfare as waged by American forces against the Japanese-held atolls of the Central Pacific during World War II. The word amphibious, as here used, includes the landing and supply of troops in combat as well as the air and naval support of the operations. The atoll operations described in this volume were amphibious from beginning to end. They were not simple seaborne hit-and-run raids of the Dieppe type. The objective was to secure the atolls as steppingstones to the next advance. The islands were relatively small, permitting continual naval and air support of the ground operations. Some outstanding examples of the co-ordination of fire support by artillery, naval gunfire, and air are found in this book. The advantages of simple plans and the disadvantages of the more complicated will stand out for the careful reader. The story of the capture of these atolls of Micronesia offers some of the best examples of combined operations that are available in the annals of modern war. Ground, sea, and air components were always present, and the effectiveness with which they were combined and co-ordinated accounts in large measure for the rapid success enjoyed in these instances by American arms. Units of the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps were active participants in the operations and the role they played is treated in this volume as fully as is considered appropriate in a series devoted to the history of the U.S. Army in World War II. From the point of view of strategy, the significance of this volume lies in the fact that it tells the story of the beginnings of the drive across the Central Pacific toward the Japanese homeland.This concept of defeating Japan by pushing directly westward from Hawaii through the island bases of the mid-Pacific was traditional in American strategic thinking, but had never been put to test and was seriously challenged in some quarters. As is shown here, the test was first made in the campaigns against the Gilberts and Marshalls, the outcome was successful, and the experience gained was of inestimable value in planning for the subsequent conduct of the war in the Pacific. Orlando Ward Washington, D. C.Maj. Gen., U. S. A. 9 January 1953Chief of Military History

In a nostalgic, yet nimble telling of his boyhood in Flushing, Michigan, Edmund Love notes that he was born into a world that ceased to exist almost as soon as he entered it. In the first twelve years of my life, he writes, rural America was swept away as though it has been a picture on a blackboard that had suddenly been erased. The Situation in Flushing is a humorous portrait of a place and people that have vanished from the American scene. With his unique brand of satire, Love provides sharp and amusing insight into the events and personalities that shaped his youth.