Ph.D.-student position open at MDH

School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology is seeking a doctoral student in the research process and resource optimization and research Mälardalen Safety Science Lab. Engagement involves work in research on systems for micro-biological degradation of explosives. It essentially means laboratory work, but also full-scale experiments and data processing. The results will be presented at meetings, seminars and conferences and in reports and scientific papers. The service includes major elements of collaboration and co-production with the surrounding businesses, research colleagues and other stakeholders. Engagement is a fixed-term employment for 5 years on condition that 20% of the time used for teaching.

Prerequisites
For appointment required Masters degree (or equivalent) in chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering, environmental engineering, biology or microbiology. The applicant must have a basic understanding of chemical and microbiological processes.
Meritorious is also:
- Experience of teaching at university level
- Laboratory experience
- Previous studies with emphasis on enzymatic processes
- Interest on trust and co-production

Notices
For further information on recruitment please contact Emma Nehrenheim 021-10 14 84, emma.nehrenheim @ mdh.se or research coordinator Thomas Wahl, 021-15 17 66, thomas.wahl @ mdh.se. Trade union representatives are Ove Larsson (OFR), 021-10 16 46 and Fredrik Wallin, (SACO), 021-10 31 90. Application You are welcome to send your application addressed to Mälardalen University, Personnel Division, Karin Johnson, Box 883, 721 23 Västerås, Sweden or by e-mail at ansokan@mdh.se. Other documents such as diplomas or certificates are presented at any job interview. Enter the reference number on your application. .

Planned field experiment during summer

During summer, we are planning to conduct field experiments at Bofors Testcenter in Karlskoga as well as Vingåkersverken in Vingåker.

A swedish presentation about BIOREX

You can now listen to a presentation about BIOREX in Swedish. We plan to produce an english version of the presentation shortly.

Welcome to BIOREX new webpage!

The BIOREX project runs for three years with financial support from the Knowledge Foundation and our industrial partners; Nammo Vingåkersverken, Bofors Testcenter, Eriksson Patent AB, KCEM and Cesium AB.

Polluted Peace

With the support from SIDA, we are currently starting to build the important large scale project Polluted Peace.

Polluted Peace is a inter disciplinary project founded at Mälardalen University, in collaboration with our partner researchers at Örebro University, The Swedish Research Agency and KCEM (competence center for energetic materials). Other than that, the project has partners within the Swedish demil industry, environmental technology industry as well as foreign research groups in Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Georgia. The overall aim with the project is to develop methods to export knowledge and technology for identification and restoration of the resources. Specific aims are to:

· Perform inventories concerning societal issues, environmental risk assessments and estimation of resources and business potentials.
· Develop and modify environmental and demilitarization technology to be applicable in the proposed countries.

Read more about Polluted Peace

Micrbiological degradation of TNT in a bioreactor

The production, testing, use and disposal of high explosives have extensively contaminated the soil and water at a large number of sites. Several laboratory and field studies have indicated that explosives are toxic at relatively low amounts to a number of organisms, including humans. There is at the time being an urgent need for a simple, cheap and effective technique where explosive compounds in soil and sludge can be degraded in an ecologically sound manner. In the present study a two-step microbiological method was developed where explosive compounds were degraded under shifting anaerobic and aerobic conditions. The method was optimized in a small-scale bioreactor where TNT was mixed with soil, water and substrate and subject to continuous stirring. For the first 8 days anaerobic conditions were applied to the bioreactor and for the remaining 12 days aerobic conditions were applied. Preliminary results show that 75% of the TNT was degraded after four days. The conclusion from the study is that TNT is effectively degraded by the bioreactor technique, and the efficiency can probably be even more improved by certain modification measures.

Filtration of TNT and heavy metals by using pine bark

Pine bark is a low cost sorbent originating from the forest industry. In recent years, it has been found to show promise as an adsorbent for metals and organic substances in contaminated water. In a new study. an industrial effluent, collected from Nammo Vingåkersverken demilitarization factory, was diluted to form concentration ranges of contaminants and shaken with pine bark for 24 hours. Metals (e.g. Pb, Zn, Cd, As and Ni) and explosives, e.g. 2,4,6-trinitrotoluen, TNT, were analysed in the effluent. The aim of the experiment was twofold; firstly, it was to investigate whether metals are efficiently removed in the presence of explosives and secondly, if adsorption of explosive substances to pine bark was possible. It was found that metal uptake was possible in the presence of TNT and other explosive contaminants. The uptake of TNT was satisfactory with up to 80 % of the TNT adsorbed by pine bark. Further studies are, however, necessary before any recommendation to substitute active carbon for pine bark can be made.