The DairyWater project has been featured in the Spanish online magazine iAgua. DairyWater researcher, Beatriz Gil Pulido who is based in UCC, writes a brief introduction on her work and its potential impact for the dairy industry in a blog entitled: From macrophytes to the IASBR systems for treating industrial wastewater. The overall aim of the work is treat dairy wastewater more effectively by exploring the role of the microorganisms in the biological systems. The article discusses biological nutrient removal systems, particularly the removal of nitrogen and phosphorus, and how the impact of knowing the microbial community structure of the system will aid in increasing its efficiency and stability.

http://www.iagua.es/blogs/beatriz-gil-pulido/macrofitas-sistemas-iasbr-tratamiento-aguas-residuales-industriales

The Ryan Institute Annual Research & Open Day took place last Friday, 25th Sept 2015, in the Orbsen Building at the National University of Ireland, Galway. DairyWater were well represented at the event, along with DairyWater Researcher, Kelly Fitzhenry, been awarded ‘Best Poster Presentation’ at the event for her presentation entitled ‘Tertiary treatment technologies for water reuse and rainwater harvesting in the Irish dairy industry’. Additionally, Emma Tarpey presented a poster at the event entitled ‘Treatment of dairy processing effluent using IASBR technology’ and Dr. William Finnegan gave an oral presentation entitled ‘Environmental lifecycle assessment of Irish dairy products’.

Congratulations to Kelly on her award and, hopefully, this is the first of many during her PhD study!

Kelly’s poster at the poster exhibition at the Ryan Institute Annual Research & Open Day

In the recent issue of the Engineers Journal, Engineers Ireland online publication, DairyWater researcher, Dr. Jamie Goggins (NUI Galway), details one of his recent projects entitled: Building better in Ireland: Exploring nearly zero-energy building retrofit technologies.

With the percentage of new buildings representing one per cent of the total building stock and the low efficiency levels of the older building stock, retrofitting is recognised as the most immediate, pressing, and cost-effective mechanism to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions in the building and construction sector, writes Jamie Goggins. To read the full story, click here.

The DairyWater project’s Advisory Board meeting took place on the 4th June 2015 in the Engineering Building at the National University of Ireland, Galway. This meeting marked the first introduction of the four PhD students to the projects advisory board. The day was structured around five research presentations and each research topic was followed by an open discussion. The five speakers and research presentations were as follows:

• William Finnegan: Environmental lifecycle assessment of dairy products
• Emma Tarpey: Treatment of dairy effluent using IASBR technology
• Fei Gao: Nanotechnologies for dairy wastewater treatment
• Kelly Fitzhenry: Water re-use and rainwater harvesting
• Beatriz Gil Pulido: Molecular ecology analysis for bioreactors

The members of the advisory board that attended on the day was Rory Farrell (Lakeland Dairies), Kealan Reynolds (EPA), Liam Curran (Enterprise Ireland), Michael McCarthy (Carbery), Deirdre Gray (Aurivo CO-Op) and Mark Fenelon (Teagasc). The entire research team are indebted to these members for their insight and constructive comments throughout the day and look for ward to working closely with them as the project progresses.

DairyWater Advisory board and research consortium, June 2015