Sarah let me borrow fifteen 500 mL bottles to use as photobioreactors for the algae. I labeled and washed them, then set them up in rows in a large plastic bin. There will be 3 trials for each chemical, as well as for the control.
I am trying to find more data on concentrations of PPCPs in U.S. wastewater, but I'm not having much luck. I've seen data from Germany, China, Spain, and other countries, but only one or two reports from U.S. wastewater treatment plants. Many articles also show graphs of the removal rates of certain compounds after treatment, but the exact concentrations in micrograms/L are unclear. Julie says I may have to directly contact a few of the authors, asking them for the raw data. My goal is to make the experiment as relevant and true to real life situations as possible, so I need to have data from a variety of wastewater sites across the U.S. Ideally, once I average the concentrations, I can calculate how much of each compound to put in the algae.
Julie helped me to think through how to dilute the compounds I have into the desired concentrations of migrograms/L. It is quite confusing, because we have to make stock solutions to add to the bottles and therefore calculate how much of each compound to add to the stock solutions. Also, we took a long time to research the density of the antibacterial soap so that we could convert a certain volume into mass. Luckily, the density was almost equal to that of water. I hope we have scales precise enough to measure out fractions of milligrams!
The algae is supposed to arrive on Friday. To-do for Thursday:
- Find more data, especially for DEET, so that I can make accurate averages
- Sterilize water
- Set up grow lights
- Make dilutions
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