The motivation for the proposed research is to improve bioreactor performance by developing an innovative bioreactor that uses immobilized fungal species to treat volatile organic and nitric oxide (NO) contaminants. The overall goal is to gain insight into the fundamental environmental, biological and mass transfer processes that affect bioreactor performance and to use this information to improve process design and operation. Specific research objectives include: (1) Assess the capability of immobilized yeast and filamentous fungi to degrade volatile organic compounds found in contaminated air streams, (2) Determine the mechanism of NO removal in fungal bioreactors, (3) Develop a fundamental understanding of how fungal biomass development in vapor phase bioreactors affects volatile organic compound degradation and (4) Optimize the configuration and operation of a fungal bioreactor to treat air contaminated with volatile organic compounds or nitric oxides. Preliminary results obtained by the PI indicate that fungal bioreactors have the potential to achieve VOC elimination capacities up to an order of magnitude greater than bacterial systems and that they can also efficiently remove nitric oxide contaminants. In addition, fungal bioreactors can tolerate much greater extremes in operating conditions and thus provide more stable performance than bacterial systems. One of the key features of the PI's research program is that it provides unique opportunities to integrate industry links into the classroom. In this project, the PI will build on this integration in order to expose students to real world applications, introduce them to different career possibilities and promote interactions between engineering professionals, graduate and undergraduate students and faculty. To this end, two educational activities are planned: "project based" instruction and a mentoring program for undergraduate women engineers. Thus, the proposed project will improve the educational experience for undergraduate and graduate engineering students, will enhance industry-academia interactions and will lead to advancements in air pollution control technology.
