Author: Duncan Peabody
The important people upstairs had some questions about the kinetics curves that we produced with our first experiments. Those were the experiments where we spent 12 hour days holed up in a closet. We found in our original experiments that Calcium levels were much lower in samples with Arsenoic V than in samples with Arsenic III. To get a better understanding of what the calcium is doing I am running some new batch experiments, half with Arsenic and half without. Then we can compare how much Calcium is adsorbed with and without Arsenic. In order to preserve my sanity I have developed a more active set-up for the experiment this time. Rather than bring all of the equipment I need into the small room where my experiment is, I have located different parts of my expriments in different parts of the lab. That way I get to walk around a lot. It's called Excercise Science. For the next experiment I will locate things in different parts of town and jog between the stations. I think this is going to catch on. You may find it ironic that I am doing something not very sane to preserve my sanity. But you're wrong. I'm a scientist.
Yesterday I played in the UNESCO IHE Football (soccer) Tournament. I was an honorary memeber of the Latin American team since there was no team for the United States. We made it to the semi-finals and got 3rd place out of 10 teams. Now my back hurts and I have to contort my body in funny positions to pick things up in the lab. Maybe I'll include it in my excercise science routine.
I broke my bike. The pedal fell off. And when I was trying to fix the pedal I got the brilliant idea to try to fix the back tire as well because it was wobbly. 30 minutes later the tire looked like it had been run over by a car. Now I would be glad to get it back to the condition it was in before, but I don't know how. I suppose I could bring it to a bicycle repair shop but that would be admitting defeat. Instead it will remain on the floor in my room and we'll call it a stalemate.
Showing posts with label Duncan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Duncan. Show all posts
Friday, July 17, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Two Roads Diverged in a Lab....
Author: Duncan Peabody
...and I took the one with adsorption isotherm batch experiments. We're at about the half-way point in terms of research and Sam and I are splitting up the work to try to get more accomplished. Sam is going to continue with the Rapid Small Scale Column Tests (RSSCT), which sound very exciting but I think it's false advertisement. The effluent just drips from the columns. There's nothing rapid about it. I am going to start some more batch experiments to produce Adsorption Isotherms. These are even less rapid than the RSSCT but at least they don't offer false hopes of high velocity science. I would tell you what exactly these isotherms are but I don't fully understand it yet. Hopefully Professor Cunningham isn't reading this because he would be very upset to hear that I've already forgotten how to do isotherms. I'll know again soon.
What I do know is that the isotherms will compare the sorption of Arsenic at various pHs, with and without Calcium, and with two different sorbents. The first sorbent is a commercially available Granular Ferric Hydroxide (GFH). The problem is that GFH is quite expensive for a family in a rural village in Bangladesh where Arsenic concentrations are naturally present at dangerous levels. The second sorbent is Iron-Oxide Coated Sand (IOCS) which is a byproduct of some water treatment plants. Usually the IOCS would just be disposed of but it has been found to be a very good sorbent for Arsenic and other heavy metals. The IOCS can be used in a filter for point-of-use drinking water treatment. The research now is focused on how various water quality parameters will affect the effectiveness of the filter. The particular parameter that we are focusing on is Calcium.
We met with Professor Gary Amy today to go over the results we've produced so far. I was kind of nervous to see his reaction because I wasn't sure if our results were any good. He told us that we had just solved the world's Arsenic crisis and we could go home now. Well not exactly but he also didn't tell us to throw away our results and start over so it's almost the same thing. He gave us some good advice on how to proceed with our new experiments. I think we have a good idea of what we will try to accomplish in our remaining time here. Unfortunately we won't be able to accomplish everything that we had planned on at the outset but we will at least have a solid start on this subject for somebody else pick up in the future. I blame the delays on the AAS which seems to have a personal vendetta against us. Or actually it's just broken but I'm going to take it personally.
...and I took the one with adsorption isotherm batch experiments. We're at about the half-way point in terms of research and Sam and I are splitting up the work to try to get more accomplished. Sam is going to continue with the Rapid Small Scale Column Tests (RSSCT), which sound very exciting but I think it's false advertisement. The effluent just drips from the columns. There's nothing rapid about it. I am going to start some more batch experiments to produce Adsorption Isotherms. These are even less rapid than the RSSCT but at least they don't offer false hopes of high velocity science. I would tell you what exactly these isotherms are but I don't fully understand it yet. Hopefully Professor Cunningham isn't reading this because he would be very upset to hear that I've already forgotten how to do isotherms. I'll know again soon.
What I do know is that the isotherms will compare the sorption of Arsenic at various pHs, with and without Calcium, and with two different sorbents. The first sorbent is a commercially available Granular Ferric Hydroxide (GFH). The problem is that GFH is quite expensive for a family in a rural village in Bangladesh where Arsenic concentrations are naturally present at dangerous levels. The second sorbent is Iron-Oxide Coated Sand (IOCS) which is a byproduct of some water treatment plants. Usually the IOCS would just be disposed of but it has been found to be a very good sorbent for Arsenic and other heavy metals. The IOCS can be used in a filter for point-of-use drinking water treatment. The research now is focused on how various water quality parameters will affect the effectiveness of the filter. The particular parameter that we are focusing on is Calcium.
We met with Professor Gary Amy today to go over the results we've produced so far. I was kind of nervous to see his reaction because I wasn't sure if our results were any good. He told us that we had just solved the world's Arsenic crisis and we could go home now. Well not exactly but he also didn't tell us to throw away our results and start over so it's almost the same thing. He gave us some good advice on how to proceed with our new experiments. I think we have a good idea of what we will try to accomplish in our remaining time here. Unfortunately we won't be able to accomplish everything that we had planned on at the outset but we will at least have a solid start on this subject for somebody else pick up in the future. I blame the delays on the AAS which seems to have a personal vendetta against us. Or actually it's just broken but I'm going to take it personally.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Analysis Troubles
Author: Duncan Peabody
We finished our week of 12 hour days in the lab last week and we have been trying to analyze our results ever since. So far we have had no success. For one thing the sign-up list for the Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) is like the reservations book for a fancy restaurant in New York City. (I think. I've never actually tried to make reservations at a fancy restaurant in New York City.) We have managed to sneak our way onto the list twice and have had complications both times that have prevented us from obtaining useable results. But it's all part of the learning experience. At least that's what I tell myself. Hopefully we will be able to analyze all of our samples by the end of the week so that we can begin the next round of experiments. If for some reason our results are not satisfactory I will be forced to conclude that the science is flawed, not our experimental methods. Denial is much easier than another 48 hours spent adjusting pH in a tiny room.
Luckily we have found a way to keep ourselves busy while waiting for the AAS: Table Tennis. We discovered a Table Tennis room on the third floor (4th floor to us Americans) and we have been honing our skills over the past few days. Not to worry, it hasn't affected our work in the lab. If anything it has improved our hand-eye coordination, making us more effective laboratory scientists.
Bed and Breakfast in Cadier en Keer
We also discovered some hills in the Netherlands that weren't man-made. We had to travel 2.5 hours to Maastrict, near the borders of Belgium and Germany, to find them but it was well worth it. We rode our bikes through the small towns, up and down the hills and found a small bed and breakfast to stay for the night (after trying 9 other hotels which were all booked). We happened to show up in this small town on the night of a local festival. They explained the festival to us as a bunch of married men planting a tree to symbolize new life. This sounded like a great festival to me until I realized that they actually cut down a perfectly healthy tree and removed it roots and then planted it in cement. But it was a fun experience anyway.
We finished our week of 12 hour days in the lab last week and we have been trying to analyze our results ever since. So far we have had no success. For one thing the sign-up list for the Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) is like the reservations book for a fancy restaurant in New York City. (I think. I've never actually tried to make reservations at a fancy restaurant in New York City.) We have managed to sneak our way onto the list twice and have had complications both times that have prevented us from obtaining useable results. But it's all part of the learning experience. At least that's what I tell myself. Hopefully we will be able to analyze all of our samples by the end of the week so that we can begin the next round of experiments. If for some reason our results are not satisfactory I will be forced to conclude that the science is flawed, not our experimental methods. Denial is much easier than another 48 hours spent adjusting pH in a tiny room.
Luckily we have found a way to keep ourselves busy while waiting for the AAS: Table Tennis. We discovered a Table Tennis room on the third floor (4th floor to us Americans) and we have been honing our skills over the past few days. Not to worry, it hasn't affected our work in the lab. If anything it has improved our hand-eye coordination, making us more effective laboratory scientists.
Bed and Breakfast in Cadier en Keer
We also discovered some hills in the Netherlands that weren't man-made. We had to travel 2.5 hours to Maastrict, near the borders of Belgium and Germany, to find them but it was well worth it. We rode our bikes through the small towns, up and down the hills and found a small bed and breakfast to stay for the night (after trying 9 other hotels which were all booked). We happened to show up in this small town on the night of a local festival. They explained the festival to us as a bunch of married men planting a tree to symbolize new life. This sounded like a great festival to me until I realized that they actually cut down a perfectly healthy tree and removed it roots and then planted it in cement. But it was a fun experience anyway.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
pH practice
Author: Duncan Peabody
So as I predicted our carefully planned schedule for week 1 of research is already off course. We had planned on running the experiment Wednesday. And then it changed to Thursday. But we found that we needed a little more practice. The main problem we were having was stabilizing the pH. So Sam and I have spent the past two days practicing pH adjustment and I think that we've got it down to where we can control the pH at +/- 0.1. We also decided to divide our experiment up into 4 days with 6 batch experiments each day rather than an unwieldy 24 batch experiments in 1 mess of a day. This way we can control each batch with more precision.
I'm starting to remember how bipolar doing research can make you. When things are going well you feel great and as soon as something goes wrong the world is coming to an end. But right now things are going pretty well. The apocalypse will have to wait until our next blunder.
I'm hesistant to make a new schedule...but it goes something like this. We won't start our experiments until Monday, so tomorrow we will do a couple more practice batches just to make sure we're prepared. We're also going to meet with Valentine to talk about a big picture timeline for the rest of our time here. Then all of next week will be spent on batch experiments and analysis with the Atomic Absorption Spectrometer. Hopefully next Friday we will have our first set of results to share. That is if the world doesn't end first.
On a sad note, my soccer ball deflated so I can't go out and play right now.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Start of Arsenic Research
Author: Duncan Peabody
Yesterday (Friday) we began work on the first part of our research. As I mentioned in my last blog it will focus on the effects of Calcium on the sorption of arsenic onto iron oxide-coated sand. We are working with Valentine, a Phd student from Rwanda. Valentine introduced us to a modeling software called PhreeQC. The software allows you to input all of the parameters of your various solutions and then tells you what species will exist when you mix the solutions and if there will be any precipitates. Basically the software does all of the things I learned in Aquatic Chemistry, except faster and better.
We have a long weekend this week so hopefully the momentum we've generated will carry over to tuesday. Tuesday we will hopefully be able to get trained on the Atomic Absorption Spectrometer so that we can analyze our samples. We will also begin preparation for our experiments. Wednesday we will run the experiments, sampling every two hours for ten hours and then again after 24 hours. Thursday and Friday we analyze the samples and see what we came up with. So that's the timeline for our first experiment. It doesn't allow much time for errors so we'll see how much it has changed come Thursday of next week.
I officially integrated into the Dutch culture this week with the purchase of a bike (above). Her name is Pegasus and she's purple. I'm going to go take her out for a spin now.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Research topic for Duncan and Sam, Field Trips
Author: Duncan Peabody
Dr. Yeh, Sam, and I met with Dr. Branislav Petrusevski and his Phd student Valentine. We decided to narrow our research to the effects of Calcium on the adsorption of Arsenic onto iron oxide-coated sand. We all agreed that we wanted to produce something useful for Valentine's research and with only 10 weeks (now 9) we had to keep the research goal focused and achievable. Calcium has been shown in some studies to aid the sorption of Arsenic to iron oxides however the full extent of its effects aren't yet clear. This is pretty exciting because we will have the opportunity to produce some unique results in the coming months.
We won't officially begin work until Friday because we've been touring around the Netherlands for the past few days, experiencing some of the massive engineering projects undertaken by the Dutch to keep their country from becoming part of the North Sea. The Dutch appear to be relatively fearless is making huge alterations to the land and sea. Part of me wants to condemn them for their complete disregard for environmental sustainability but I'm just too awestruck by the shear size and audacity of the projects. Ecosystem destruction seems to be a secondary concern of Dutch engineers; worth mentioning but nothing to dwell upon. But perhaps it is a bit early for me to begin making massive generalizations like that.
We had a delicious dinner tonight and heard a talk from the member of the Zeeland Water Board, called waterschap here. I won't begin to try to explain the entire Dutch water system but the history of the water boards is pretty interesting. Polders are an area of land outlined by dikes and dunes which surround a network of canals. Dikes and dunes protect the land inside from flooding since the land is below sea level. The operation of the canal system requires the cooperation of each landowner in the polder. So water boards were developed to govern the operation and maintenance of the polders (this includes maintaining water levels, water quality, and water quantity). The water boards are independent of the national or provincial governments. They can decide their own taxes and water regulations. To make along story short, mergers of water boards since 1850 have shrunk the number from 3,500 to only 26 (and still shrinking). I asked a Dutch engineer if it worried him that their "decentralized"water system was becoming more and more centralized. His response was that they should do away with water boards altogether and put water management under the control of the provincial governements. I don't know how many of the Dutch he speaks for, but he seemed to think that water boards were kept around only because they've been around for so long, but that they are losing their effectiveness.
Dr. Yeh, Sam, and I met with Dr. Branislav Petrusevski and his Phd student Valentine. We decided to narrow our research to the effects of Calcium on the adsorption of Arsenic onto iron oxide-coated sand. We all agreed that we wanted to produce something useful for Valentine's research and with only 10 weeks (now 9) we had to keep the research goal focused and achievable. Calcium has been shown in some studies to aid the sorption of Arsenic to iron oxides however the full extent of its effects aren't yet clear. This is pretty exciting because we will have the opportunity to produce some unique results in the coming months.
We won't officially begin work until Friday because we've been touring around the Netherlands for the past few days, experiencing some of the massive engineering projects undertaken by the Dutch to keep their country from becoming part of the North Sea. The Dutch appear to be relatively fearless is making huge alterations to the land and sea. Part of me wants to condemn them for their complete disregard for environmental sustainability but I'm just too awestruck by the shear size and audacity of the projects. Ecosystem destruction seems to be a secondary concern of Dutch engineers; worth mentioning but nothing to dwell upon. But perhaps it is a bit early for me to begin making massive generalizations like that.
We had a delicious dinner tonight and heard a talk from the member of the Zeeland Water Board, called waterschap here. I won't begin to try to explain the entire Dutch water system but the history of the water boards is pretty interesting. Polders are an area of land outlined by dikes and dunes which surround a network of canals. Dikes and dunes protect the land inside from flooding since the land is below sea level. The operation of the canal system requires the cooperation of each landowner in the polder. So water boards were developed to govern the operation and maintenance of the polders (this includes maintaining water levels, water quality, and water quantity). The water boards are independent of the national or provincial governments. They can decide their own taxes and water regulations. To make along story short, mergers of water boards since 1850 have shrunk the number from 3,500 to only 26 (and still shrinking). I asked a Dutch engineer if it worried him that their "decentralized"water system was becoming more and more centralized. His response was that they should do away with water boards altogether and put water management under the control of the provincial governements. I don't know how many of the Dutch he speaks for, but he seemed to think that water boards were kept around only because they've been around for so long, but that they are losing their effectiveness.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
pre-departure expectations
Author: Duncan Peabody
It's 1:30 am and I haven't started to pack yet. I did make a list though so that's half the battle, right? I'll be joining the group in Newark tomorrow afternoon so I have a bit of extra time for that. I've done enough traveling to where the actual travel doesn't make me too nervous anymore. I don't think the nerves will kick in until I have to start work in the lab. I'm not sure what to expect as far as research goes. Obviously I know that my area of research will be the competitive sorption of arsenic onto iron oxide, but as far as my specific duties in the lab are concerned, I'm in the dark. My science background is not in environmental engineering and, being the last student to sign on to the trip, I didn't have much time to get up to speed on arsenic research. I'm hoping that I will be given a fair amount of guidance in the beginning so that I can get my bearings set. Nonetheless, I've been reading as many papers on arsenic removal as I can find and I'm confident that I'll be able to add to the research they are already doing at IHE.
Other than that I'm just excited to see the Netherlands. I've heard amazing things about the people and the scenery. Granted, Delft is most famous for a dead painter and blue and white pottery. But it's a university city so I imagine that it will be a pretty fun place to be. I'm looking forward to meeting other students from all around the world, drinking some good european beers, and playing soccer. The Dutch may know more about arsenic removal than I do but I think I can give them a run for their money (even with the exchange rate) on the soccer field. Terrible joke. That's my cue to leave. Until next time.
It's 1:30 am and I haven't started to pack yet. I did make a list though so that's half the battle, right? I'll be joining the group in Newark tomorrow afternoon so I have a bit of extra time for that. I've done enough traveling to where the actual travel doesn't make me too nervous anymore. I don't think the nerves will kick in until I have to start work in the lab. I'm not sure what to expect as far as research goes. Obviously I know that my area of research will be the competitive sorption of arsenic onto iron oxide, but as far as my specific duties in the lab are concerned, I'm in the dark. My science background is not in environmental engineering and, being the last student to sign on to the trip, I didn't have much time to get up to speed on arsenic research. I'm hoping that I will be given a fair amount of guidance in the beginning so that I can get my bearings set. Nonetheless, I've been reading as many papers on arsenic removal as I can find and I'm confident that I'll be able to add to the research they are already doing at IHE.
Other than that I'm just excited to see the Netherlands. I've heard amazing things about the people and the scenery. Granted, Delft is most famous for a dead painter and blue and white pottery. But it's a university city so I imagine that it will be a pretty fun place to be. I'm looking forward to meeting other students from all around the world, drinking some good european beers, and playing soccer. The Dutch may know more about arsenic removal than I do but I think I can give them a run for their money (even with the exchange rate) on the soccer field. Terrible joke. That's my cue to leave. Until next time.
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