October 03, 2008 –
Micrographs – photos taken with the scanning electron microscope – capture a detailed view of sludge samples.
Enhancing understanding of water treatment and quality is the goal of a partnership between the Irvine Ranch Water District and CALIT2. Funded by a $10,000 seed grant from the Urban Water Research Center, scientist Jian-Guo Zheng uses an environmental scanning electron microscope in CALIT2’s Zeiss Center of Excellence to study sludge and effluents in different stages of water treatment.
Water district scientists analyze the sludge on a daily basis with optical microscopes and x-ray fluorescence. But Zheng says the SEM goes much further. Besides offering higher resolution and three-dimensional imaging, the Zeiss equipment provides higher spatial resolution that allows the composition of the sludge in the water to be analyzed.
“They (IRWD) can count the number of organisms in the water and see how they move, but we can observe much smaller details of the organism and analyze what is inside them to see what compounds (in the water) they’re eating and what they are composed of,” he explains.
“By doing these types of analysis, we can understand which areas need improvement.”
— Anna Lynn Spitzer
