Professional - The Drafting Table

Batch Test to Evaluate Microbial Disinfectant Decay...

During 2020 - 2021, when there was less going on than normal, myself and the research group at the University of Waterloo where I did my Master's studies took the time to finally get a draft manuscript that had been sitting on the back burner for a while ready for

Economics

Legibility and the Firm

I recently took a sales course for my job. Some of the discussion there prompted some thoughts about ideas I've read/heard and how they relate to the modern business world. Legibility I initially came across the concept of "legibility" in a book review of Seeing Like A

Water

Words on Biofilm

The past couple of weeks I've been on some business trips and haven't had time to write any posts. However, I did have time on a flight to read a technical paper that I want to discuss below (I also finished reading a book that I'm planning to review in

Travel

fietspaden en droge voeten

This is my final post based off of my trip to the Netherlands. It focuses on reviewing a book about land reclamation and flood control infrastructure in the Netherlands and sharing a couple of bike trips I took out into the countryside around Amsterdam and Rotterdam to see some of

Professional

Delving into the fundamentals of anaerobic digestion

On the heels of my previous post, I wanted to write something else related to the science of wastewater treatment. The two papers I discuss below are ones that I've read in the past, but haven't shared any notes on before. The papers I discuss below are written by a

Professional

WEFTEC 2017

At the start of the month, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I attended a big wastewater conference in Chicago. Note: everything on this blog is solely my own view and is written in my own capacity. I was one of over 22,000 people to attend WEFTEC

Research

Research on MBR Costs

This post is a review of a paper reviewing the costs of membrane bioreactor (MBR) and reverse osmosis (RO) technology and how research could positively influence those costs. "Membrane technology costs and me", by Dr. Simon Judd was published in Water Research in 2017. Before I discuss it,

Professional

Most Probable Number

I wrote an R script for calculating MPN. The Most Probable Number (MPN) method is a long-standing way of calculating the concentration of bacteria in a sample (usually expressed as cells/100 mL). Its distinctive is that it doesn't require a quantitative lab assay; instead, it takes presence/absence results

Water

Water, Energy, Food

From time to time, I like to read a journal article and share a review. Toward the end of this post you can also find some related and random links. "The Water-Energy-Food Nexus and the Transboundary Context: Insights from Large Asian Rivers", by Keskinen, Guillaume, Kattelus, Porkka, Räsänen,

Graphical Methods

Deffeyes Diagram

This post is intended to complement the previous one with a more theoretical look at dissolving carbon dioxide in water. I wrote a script in R to draw a Deffeyes diagram. This diagram shows the interplay between CO2, pH, and alkalinity. My main reference was the venerable Water Chemistry textbook

Professional

Modelling in Engineering

This topic of mathematical modelling is something I looked at for a chapter in my thesis, and it is a tool I use in my job. I think it's good to reflect on the capabilities and limitations of the tools we use, so that's what this post attempts to do.

Water

A es para agua

This post is a collection of some Spanish wastewater-related vocabulary (I've previously done something similar in Arabic). I've been trying to increase my knowledge of Spanish. This has been partly inspired by travelling and partly by my company having some projects in Latin America. I've been using the app Duolingo

Professional

Hanging out my shingle

I recently became registered as a professional engineer with APEGNB so it seemed like a good time to write a post describing what I do in my job, which is in the field of industrial wastewater treatment. The company I work for provides wastewater treatment systems (typically via design-build delivery)

General

Influence of Water Quality on Nitrifier Regrowth...

As 2015 draws to a close, I wanted to share a recent accomplishment of mine: getting a paper published from my masters research. Here are the details: Title: Influence of Water Quality on Nitrifier Regrowth in Two Full-scale Drinking Water Distribution Systems By: Daniel B. Scott, Michele I. Van Dyke,

Professional

WEFTEC 2015

Following close on the heels of my vacation to the Pacific Northwest, I went on a business trip that included attending the WEFTEC wastewater treatment conference in Chicago (I also attended last year). Note: everything on this blog is solely my own view and is written in my own capacity.

Water

Understanding ORP

For this post, I'm sharing an infographic I made a while ago as a reference for key oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) ranges in water. Oxidation-Reduction Potential (ORP) is analogous to pH, except that it concerns the aqueous activity of electrons instead of protons (i.e. hydrogen ions). All life requires energy,

Water

2015 Industrial and Commercial Water Reuse Conference

As mentioned in my previous post, I had the privilege to attend a conference on water reuse in Austin, Texas last week. The travel to get there and home was more "adventurous" than I would have preferred (contributing to the lateness of this post), but the conference itself

Water

Water Quality Profile Along an Entire River

I previously blogged about an expedition to travel the entire length of the Rio Grande, by reporter Colin McDonald. That expedition has now come to an end, having reached its destination: the Gulf of Mexico. Introduction The Disappearing Rio Grande Expedition (DRGE) collected a lot of water quality data along

Water

A Fantastic Diagram of the Water-Energy Nexus

The Water-Energy Nexus is a concept that puts the spotlight on the relationship between water and energy use from a sustainability perspective. When I was at WEFTEC this year, one presentation included a fantastic graphic on the topic from the US Dept. of Energy (DOE) that I thought was worth

Water

Water and Wastewater Vocabulary in Arabic

First of all, my apologies to readers for being late with this post. When I was at the University of Waterloo, I took a couple of Arabic language courses at Renison College. I thought it would be a good exercise to look up translations for some of the vocabulary I

Water

ASM1 in Octave

This post contains an implementation of the IWA's Activated Sludge Model No. 1 (ASM1) in octave. Models are a widely-used tool in the design and operation of wastewater treatment systems. For my job, I use a commercial simulator, but I thought it would be a useful exercise to write an

Water

Open Access Journals for Water and Wastewater

This post is a short list of open-access journals in the fields of wastewater and water treatment and quality. Open-access journals follow a publishing model where content is made freely available to readers (often there is a fee for the researchers publishing in them). Although it is not without weaknesses

Water

WEFTEC 2014

This past week I had the opportunity to attend the WEFTEC conference and tradeshow in New Orleans, Louisiana. This post will hopefully convey a bit of this great experience. WEFTEC (the Water Environment Foundation's Technical Exhibition and Conference) is the flag-show annual event for the wastewater treatment industry in North

Water

Nutrient Cycle Infographic: Nitrogen

For this post, I made an infographic on the Nitrogen Cycle. Nitrogen's chemistry has been important for my Master's research (nitrification in drinking water distribution systems) and now in what I do professionally (removal of nitrogen from wastewater, among many other things). I've seen plenty of graphics of nutrient cycles,

New Brunswick

Timing of River Ice Formation and Break-Up in New Brunswick

Half a dozen years ago, I did a summer work term for Hydro-Com Technologies. I had a good experience there and learned a lot. One project I was involved in while I was there was an analysis in trends in rivers in New Brunswick related to streamflow, ice break-up, etc.