SEWAGE PLUS: Second Life of Sewage as a Matrix for Dilution of Organic Waste Streams

Using sewage diluted waste streams as blending different raw waste streams results in a complex mixture with unknown chemical compounds which have toxic effect on aquatic ecosystem. Characterization of waste streams is mostly based on chemical analytical analysis. Monitoring chemical concentrations of pollutants in complex waste streams as a means to assess environmental impact however has a major drawback as a number of factor like bioavailibity, mobility or toxicity of pollutants.Complex wastewater can contain many unknown pollutants which are not detectable using routine chemical assays. Therefore behind the chemical toxicity analysis,new approaches for monitoring toxicity of sewage and wastestreams are needed to experiment by using bioassays. Bioassays present a more detailed way of evaluating environmental samples. One of this bioassay method is using geneticaly engineered bacterias to detect the compounds causing ecological pollution and toxication.In this project these enginered transgenic cells that are induced by a toxic compound or by stress will be used. at same time new aproaches for screening wastertoxicity will be investigated and developed such as a bisensor device with portable design for in-situ toxicity detection by immobilizing geneticly engineered stress responsive bacteria onto tapered fiber optic tips. The knowledge which will be acquired with this new toxicity detection investigations will be used for an optimal effluent treatment as well as a development of an early warning system.