Merah Mas Blog

the fragile things are often more valued

etiolated |ˈētēəˌlātid|
adjective
(of a plant) pale and drawn out due to a lack of light.
• having lost vigor or substance; feeble : a tone of etiolated nostalgia.

This comes from a personal session with Ruth, but we see a good analogy with South Africa’s current situation – in our collective psyche as well as our politics. So I thought let’s bring it into the public space.

I find it very difficult to find a space of quietness. So I work harder and harder to not have to face myself standing still. The problem with going into the lab and do experiments, is that in the lab there is nothing else. Just you and the vast open space that you have to be quiet and meticulous in to generate data to answer your questions with. You need to also be quiet to get to the damn questions in the first place.

I am positively running away from the quietness. I’m addicted to the excitement, which is also disturbing, because then I don’t have to deal with whatever pops up in the space created by quietness (I don’t know what this is, seeing that I don’t allow it to pop up yet … it’s a process).

I need to learn to BE without DOing. I need to learn to trust myself. Now here is where the analogy with South Africa starts.

I had to fight to be me, in the face of multitudes of conforming forces, people who wanted me to be a good little Afrikaner, a good little girl, a good little NG kerk Christian-who-hates-black-people, a whatever. The struggle generation had to fight for freedom, to show that apartheid was wrong in a very conservative society. And we all still fight. For a better world environmentally, socially, economically …

We’re terrified that we will lose who we are if we stop fighting. That we will lose our creativity, our uniqueness. We don’t trust ourselves to be strong enough to still be so special  -the best place in the world! if we aren’t involved in some crisis / war anymore. We don’t want to give that fight up, because we are so afraid that we’ll lose what we’ve fought for. I guess the whole world maybe works like this a little.

I don’t trust that I can still be my creative, eccentric self, if I stop fighting. But I’m tired of fighting. I think South Africa is tired of fighting. The problem is that there is no clear easy, black and white way to go about things now. What will we revolutionise against? Who’s the enemy? Who will we BE if we’re not fighting? We can’t follow anyone else’s example – the global world is not working well either! The new ‘fight’ is not a fight, it’s learning how to be special quietly.

Ruth taught me a new word today: etiolated
etiolated |ˈētēəˌlātid|
adjective
(of a plant) pale and drawn out due to a lack of light.
• having lost vigor or substance; feeble : a tone of etiolated nostalgia.

It came up because this quiet, creative part of me is stuck underneath all these layers of fighting. The layers are the protective covers that stand up to the pressures to conform, but they also hide the really great parts, and prevents the hidden inner part to get nourishment. The layers make you seem like a violent destructive thing, dangerous (even if only to yourself). But this hidden inner part, is actually more acceptable, and more valued, if it could only get out and be robust.

This inner part is a perfect little thing, but it is now fragile because of all this fighting. South Africa needs to find and nurture this inner beautiful thing, just like I do. My job right now is to find a quiet space to give this little thing, let’s call her Bella, a place to get strong.

One way in which the outside world can help with this is a process called ‘mirroring‘. A parent needs to build her child’s sense of self esteem by mirroring his experience. For example, when he touches a block of ice, his mom says, oh, wow, look how cold that felt! And he becomes robust through learning. South Africa’s challenge is that that mirroring role is lost, as we find a third way forward – not ‘african suffering’, not ‘capitalist destruction’. What we as caring people for this wonderful nation can do, for ourselves as inhabitants tired of fighting, and as nurturers of this miracle continent, is to mirror good things and affirm good practice. And not to tolerate the layers that cause etiolation.

well, that’s what I think right now.

A bit of a muse on democracy and anarchy, but I’m very emotional lately, chewing through the farce that was the M&G ‘Critical Thinking Forum’ – watching the political comedy of patronage meeting puppetry. So read with a critical mind please. Form your own opinions.

Arnold Mindell mentions in his book Sitting in the Fire, that politics and psychology is the same thing. They both deal with power. In Saul Newman’s book The Politics of Postanarchism he mentions that politics is some sort of engagement with relations of power (I think I agree with this author’s view that we need to reconsider aspects of anarchy, but I did not manage to get past page 7: I have yet to find a book on anarchism that is not fantastically pretentious, goes round in circles, and is written with words I have never come across before).

It looks like anarchy is defined as the transcending of power, the rejection of political authority, saying that power and authority are unnatural and inhuman. Mikhail Bakunin seems to be the originator of the ‘rebellious impulse’, the ‘urge to destroy’. To me, ‘anarchy’ (which I now argue should then rather be called deep democracy or something else) is to do whatever you feel needs to be done, IF you take responsibility for the consequences. I don’t see anarchy as the use of violence and destruction as a way to rebel against power. I see it as doing your own thing in spite of oppressive forces. Power is a natural aspect of a social species. It’s not going to go away, even as a utopian vision. Making the undesired power irrelevant, or even laughable is best described in a gorgeous little book called Small Acts of Resistance (It’s not an academic analysis, it’s a good read for the average Joe needing inspiration to deal with fucked up governments). Guerilla Gardening fits in here, and I think is a very important way to express our frustration while addressing what I believe is an imminent threat of politically induced food insecurity. The Water quote for TEDxCapeTown fits in well here too, as does the passive resistance used to overcome apartheid.

Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

 Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend. – Bruce Lee

Now for some issues that this thinking raised in my mind:

From a workshop on integrated coastal management, I realised first hand another thing discussed by Mindell: that legal systems do not take into account rank – human being’s natural power. Democracy fails spectacularly to deal with rank. So my version of anarchy/deep democracy will have to involve bringing legal systems and human systems closer together – by embracing and acknowledging elders, group processes etc. Arnold Mindell’s book is great at explaining this.

I’ve heard a rumour that governments exist because of capitalism. Centralised control makes making money easier, I guess. The development of ICT either makes it easier to have decentralised money making schemes (aka decentralised government), or makes ‘anarchy’ easier to gain ground, or, likely, a bit of both (judging by the global governmental clamp down on media freedom). And this is the interesting times we live in.

80/20

I want to argue for a 80/20 principle of local/central governance, and am well aware that this goes along with a bit of a rethink of capitalism (In my mind our current economic models are gone. Finished and klaar). The 80% is about self sufficiency on a community by community basis – ‘sustainable communities, transition towns, etc’ (as Denis Beckett tries to explain – see below). Local governance / community structure here has NO predetermined ways of functioning. If the community is happy with it, then it goes. Be that communism, nudism, cannibalism, whatever.

The 20% is interaction with outside influence – trade import/export, disposable income, ‘capitalism’, genetic material (aka the social scene, people!) etc.

I do think this system will be in continuous flux and there will always be tremendous pressure on outside forces to gain more control. I think the only defence is in the 80% sense of  community. The balance lies, for me, in the interplay between legal systems – the way to communicate with the outside, and the human systems – the way the community communicates within itself. Community is a very flexible term, and again, totally dependent on each community. In my mind you need around 1 000 – 10 000 people to be self-sustaining. Hence my interest in Prince Albert as an experiment in Transition Towns.

On Denis Beckett’s struggle to define deep democracy:

Denis Beckett wrote Redeeming Features, which I loved. In this book he hinted at the deep democracy. Then he wrote Magenta, in which he tried to tell the deep democracy story through fiction which I thought failed miserably. I think he thought so too, because he was back as his unapologetic self explaining the concept in a no nonsense way in Temba’s Head. Awkward read, but worth it. (His latest book recounts stories again, in Radical middle : confessions of an accidental revolutionary.)

End note:

My view of anarchy was mostly formed by the Wiki page on anarchy, and further informed by the Wiki page on Panarchy. Panarchy skirts at being an awesome way to talk about resilience and cover systems thinking, then swiftly moves into complexity, and shortly thereafter we’re stuck in the pretentiousness of Complexity thinkers again (I once spent a whole day listening to someone arguing the definition of Transdisciplinarity. I think they are very very good at talking in circles. I was profoundly irritated.) To harp on about this a moment longer, I think it’s atrocious for people who call themselves philosophers to not be able to express profound concepts to the average person, who has the unenviable job of living that complexity. To contrast this, the BSEI Conference (Business of Social and Environmental Innovation), either by chance or design, saw academics and practitioners discuss very complex issues together. When a hectic term popped up, the whole room stopped and someone explained what it meant in common knowledge. It was the best conference EVER, and it was, in my view, truly transdisciplinary. (I do think that ‘transdisciplinarity’ is not suited to academic analysis, and that it should be renamed life. In other words: get over yourself). I also think, gasp, that UCT is much better at tackling these complex stuff than SUN, who just goes all academic and irrelevant about it, starts a centre or some research grouping, and then manages expertly to gloss over the main issue that they ‘aimed to address’ in the first place. But that’s just my opinion and my own issues. I had to get this little opinion out after four very annoying incidents in the last year.

A PhD report that could just be my proudest achievement to date has just been submitted. This is the closing remarks section. The Executive Summary was posted in a previous post. If you want the full report, please let me know.

8. CLOSING REMARKS

The concept of industrial metabolism requires the maximisation of resource productivity by ensuring that all resources exploited provide the maximum possible products and services. This approach is a key premise to achieving sustainable systems for our society and minimising the environmental burden associated with anthropogenic acitivity. In addressing this, it is valuable to view wastes, including wastewater, as a potential raw material resource. This approach can be used through the wastewater biorefinery concept which is centred on two major outcomes: the treatment of wastewater to the desired water quality and the simultaneous production of products of value, as either commodity or energy products. Unit operations in such a wastewater biorefinery include reactors that can reduce nutrient loads in wastewater in a variety of environments, while producing a range of valuable bioproducts that can potentially sustain jobs, meet commodity needs and fund capacity building through their revenue. This review addresses the requirements of such reactor systems in which microbial bioprocesses are used for the production of commodity polymers while reducing nutrient loads. Because of the non-sterile nature of the wastewater environment, it is best to select micro-organisms for product formation that also fulfill a role in the microbial ecology and culture conditions and product which contribute a selective advantage to the microbial population. Hence, wastewater biorefineries are not suitable for all bioproducts. The overall project considers this application in terms of the model system in which microbial communities enriched for Bacillus species are used for the production of poly-glutamic acid.

Poly-glutamic acid (PGA) is hypothesized to fulfil an ecological role to give Bacillus (or other species producing PGA) a competitive advantage that can be exploited for bioproduction through microbial community engineering in wastewater biorefineries. The reactor design is crucial to achieve this microbial community engineering. In order to achieve the production of relatively pure, N-rich PGA from wastewater, the following need to be addressed:

• Establishment of Bacillus as the dominant organism in the mixed microbial community used for PGA production;
• Determining a reactor configuration suited to retention of biomass while processing large volumes of dilute wastewater;
• Selection of a downstream process train that takes cognisance of the dilute product environment, and intercalates with the reactor system in the optimal manner;
• Selection of a reactor configuration and associated downstream processing unit operations that are appropriate for the production of a low value product in dilute solution.

Two reactor designs have been highlighted that are proposed to fulfill this function as well as contribute to effective product recovery: the Aerobic Granular Sludge (AGS) process, and the HYbrid Bacillus ACtivated Sludge (HYBACS) process.

The AGS process is defined by the characteristics of the sludge particles. The granules are defined as “aggregates of microbial origin, which do not coagulate under reduced hydrodynamic shear (‘sludge bulking’) and which settle significantly faster than activated sludge flocs” (15 sec vs 20 min) (de Kreuk et al 2007a).

The HYbrid Bacillus ACtivated Sludge (HYBACS) process is a modified Rotating Biological Contactor (RBC) system. RBC’s are non-submerged, attached growth bioreactors, similar to trickling filters, with circular media mounted (approx 3.6m in diameter for standard units) on a horizontal shaft, partially submerged (typically 40%) in the wastewater, and rotated at a speed of one to six revolutions per minute (Grady et al 2011). The circular support media is modified to form a high surface area mesh disc to support an active biofilm.

These reactors were selected for detailed discussion because the management of biofilm detachment – and hence product recovery – are controllable. The support material of the HYBACS is relatively planar, while the granular system does not have a carrier, with settling properties that make product recovery possible. In addition, the biofilm zonation in both reactor types (allowing for heterotrophy, nitrification, phosphate removal and denitrification zones intrinsic in the biofilm) is advantageous.

The AGS process is operated as a Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR). It is a time-oriented process that can be designed and operated to simulate virtually all conventional continuous-flow activated sludge systems, from contact stabilization to extended aeration, making it a useful approach in a laboratory environment. This aspect, combined with the rapid sedimentation velocity possible with aerobic granules allows product formation and downstream processing to form part of the reactor design at discrete steps (Johnson, 2010).

The HYBACS process can accommodate a wider range of substrate loads and is a simpler process to operate than the AGS process. The combination of the meshed internal structure and planar disk macro structure gives product recovery options that compliment the AGS process, and the overal operation of the HYBACS promotes Bacillus dominance.

PGA is generally accepted to be a product excreted into the bulk solution and not even weakly associated with the biomass. Several biofilm-based approaches allow cultivation at relatively low flow rates and may be used to minimise the separation of the weakly associated polymer from the biomass. In terms of considering PGA recovery, three potential scenarios have to be considered:

1. PGA is excreted into the bulk solution and is not associated with the biomass at all
2. PGA is excreted, but weakly associated with the biomass. This association is easily disrupted
3. PGA is excreted, but strongly associated with the biomass. Significant physical or chemical means need to be employed to disrupt this association.

The AGS and HYBACS processes will have different utility towards PGA product recovery depending on which of these scenarios come into play. Scenario 1 and 2 are more suited to the HYBACS, while scenario 3 favours the AGS process.

This work carries significance in arguing for a different approach to waste, and serves to introduce the discussion on how to use significant infrastructural limitations to the advantage of wastewater biorefineries. Challenges in optimising the system rather than individual unit processes are highlighted, which include the different hegemonies present in the interface between environmental and bioprocess engineering disciplines. This review particularly considers the aspects to consider when reactors are designed as unit processes in a wastewater biorefinery, and contributes to a better understanding of reactor selection in areas where systems are required to meet the needs of biomass retention, processing of large volumes and integrated product recovery.

This work has broader applicability by complementing current research to understand and better control erosion and abrasion while minimising sloughing (considered in this project as product recovery). The remaining challenge in the engineering of these wastewater biorefinery systems, as with the wider body of work on biofilm processes is directed towards the control of biofilm structure and morphology, which depends on, and at the same time affects, the reactor hydrodynamics and mass transfer characteristics.

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This review discusses bioreactor considerations to leverage the value to be obtained from waste. Section 2 gives a general introduction to the wider project, which takes lessons from both environmental and bioprocess engineering. This project is concerned with proving the technology to produce valuable products from dilute waste streams, and less concerned about the performance and application of the produced material. Reactor design is the main area that can be optimized for bioproduction, to place greater emphasis on the optimal functioning of the system as a whole. The energy utilisation of reactors needs to be improved, and the reactor needs to be designed with downstream processing in mind.

Section 3 introduces the reader to the concept of wastewater biorefineries. The wastewater biorefinery is established to maximize biomass productivity by ensuring that, not only is the wastewater treated to the necessary standard (yielding the outgoing water product), but that components removed from this wastewater are converted to products of value (economically or socially or both). The concept of a wastewater biorefinery is built around the overarching ability to function in the face of significant infrastructural limitations and, through its operation, improve these limitations.

Wastewater biorefineries move away from the traditional wastewater treatment objectives. Section 4 discusses how the system objectives change, and are affected by the differences in approach between the different stakeholders involved in their design and operation. From a process point of view multiple aspects need to be considered, including

• Efficient product recovery of both the bioproduct and water product;

• Energy efficiency through utilising both biomass retention and product retention;

• The ability to be retrofitted into existing plants;

• The implications of maintaining product productivity in non-sterile, mixed, cultures.

The social implications that arise when a new discipline emerges needs to be considered. These develop from disciplines that differ in their approach to reactor design, the objectives that the reactor is designed for and the prevalent culture and values. Emerging disciplines often co-incide with changing generations, which influence the preferred technologies used and ease of adapting to more advanced forms of analysis. The different backgrounds in especially the younger generation often leads to tensions, where bioprocess engineers often have a stronger scientific background, which leads to a different professional discourse. As the field of wastewater biorefineries develops its own language and discourse, supportive technologies mature and the boundaries between the parent biotechnologies are reduced, development of new design parameters and the development of new design approaches will occur, leading to a new generation of professionals. Section 4.3 highlights some of these tensions in the research environment, where data obtained in the laboratory for bioprocessing purposes often cannot be applied directly to wastewater bioprocesses. Section 4 also highlights emergent phenomena that arises when existing systems are adapted for use that they were not originally intended for.

Section 5 illustrates the suitability of Bacillus as a production organism in a mixed culture, specifically in its capacity to produce polyglutamic acid (PGA). Section 5.1 gives a brief introduction to the widespread use of Bacillus in industry. PGA’s role in serving an ecological function is highlighted, which supports its value towards contributing to Bacillus dominance and hence higher potential productivity. The rationale of this project is illustrated by highlighting the uses of PGA in industry, most notably that of bioflocculant and soil conditioner. Section 5.4 argues for the production of PGA in wastewater biorefineries by showcasing previous work that produced PGA from waste resources. The value of using Bacillus in wastewater biorefineries is used as an example to show how working with Nature can give overall benefit to both humans and the environment. In Section 5.5 the positive role that Bacillus plays in wastewater treatment is discussed, alluding to the possibility to improve the natural system while providing opportunity for economic gain. Section 5.6 shows how producing PGA, using Bacillus, from a dilute waste can provide benefits over using conventional bioprocessing.

The first half of this review considers which factors are crucial to develop a bioreactor in a wastewater biorefinery. Section 6 provide the required review of reactor systems available to meet the needs of biomass retention, processing of large volumes and integrated product recovery. While not considered in this project, solid substrate fermentation (SSF) reactors are included for its potential in using biosolids to produce valuable products. Based on the combination of the need for biomass retention and the need for product recovery, the two reactors that were selected for further discussion is the aerobic granular sludge (AGS) process, an example of a particle based biofilm reactor (Section 6.6) and a hybrid rotating biological contactor (RBC) based on the HYbrid Bacillus ACtivated Sludge (HYBACS) process (Section 6.7). Scale up will not be considered in this project, but where possible the relevent calculations and data will be included to develop scale-up effectively and build confidence in reactor types as viable alternatives to the stirred tank reactor (STR). Specifically, laboratory data will be generated with an awareness of that required to inform scale-up.

This review focuses on the reactor configurations to produce PGA-containing product to be used for bioflocculant or soil conditioning applications. Downstream processing (DSP) is often only considered after the reactor is designed and separately to it. This may lead to an unoptimised system. To design the reactor system with DSP in mind to facilitate their combined optimisation, a brief overview and proposed DSP options are given in Section 7.

Closing remarks are given in Section 8, and Section 10 lists the numerous acknowledgements, illustrating that with the more transdisciplinary approach required when optimising the system as a whole, more and more players become important. The greatest value in wastewater biorefineries lies not in the technology or adequate engineering design, but in the connections between people, adequate communication and a willingness to engage.