Water Environment and Sanitation

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	Prof. NAGARE Hideaki E-mail: nagare-h [at] okayama-u.ac.jp  water environment/water treatment/resource recovery/chemical substances Directory of Researchers 　Link to homepage

As the world’s population increases, the demand for food and fertilizers is expected to rise, leading to food shortages.　On the other hand, environmental pollution is expected to increase due to the runoff of fertilizer from agricultural lands resulting from food production and the increase in the amount of wastewater from cities. We are developing technologies to treat urban wastewater containing pharmaceuticals and other chemical substances in a hygienic manner while recovering resources (mainly fertilizer components) and reusing them in food production.

	Asst. Prof.HASHIGUCHI Ayumi E-mail: hashiguchi-a [at] okayama-u.ac.jp ） water environment/water treatment/resource recovery/chemical substances Directory of Researchers

Improvement of Sulfate-reducing bacteria-based wastewater treatment by utilizing quorum sensing.

I am currently working on improving Sulfate-reducing bacteria-based wastewater treatment by adding the autoinducer. It is well known that
autoinducers (AIs) are utilized by microorganisms for their communications, and exhibit their microbial functions such as biofilm formation, luminance,
and so on. However, details of the mechanisms and functions caused by the addition of AIs to diverse microorganisms like activated sludge are unclear.
The aim of this study is to accelerate wastewater treatment by clarifying which AIs contribute efficiently to improving water treatment capacity in the wastewater treatment process.