Investigation on Methods and Mechanisms of Bacterial Reduction in Agricultural Wastewater

Abstract

Large animal farms produce tremendous amounts of manure and manure which are obvious sources of pathogenic bacteria. In addition, antibiotic consumption in modern livestock industry has significantly increased, resulting in a substantial presence of residual antibiotics in the manure and manure effluent. As a doctoral research thesis, two methods using 1) the activated iron media (AIM) created from zero-valent iron (ZVI) and aqueous ferrous ion (Fe2+); and 2) cationic polymers, were investigated in terms of their ability to remove those contaminants in water system. The research is composed of two parts: 1) effect of AIM on indicator bacteria removal and its bacterial removal mechanism; 2) effects of cationic polymers on manure separation, bacteria and antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and its synergistic effect against E. coli removal when the polymer is applied with hydrogel. The results obtained from this study will help us with better understandings of the fate of bacteria and antibiotics in animal farm industry.