Energy, Environment and Resources Center

EERC ~ Waste Management Research and Education Institute

Launched in 1985 as a state Center of excellence, the Waste Management Research and Education Institute (WMREI), directed by Dr. Gary Sayler, has become a major university resource. The Tennessee Higher Education Commission provides base funding for the Institute, which acts as "seed money" for more substantial external or sponsored research. WMREI's external funding currently totals $4 million per year. WMREI is dedicated to solving waste-management problems affecting the long-term, sustainable use of environmental resources. WMREI research focuses on waste and environmental policy; environmental science, engineering, and biotechnology; and other waste-management and clean-products technologies. Much of the institute's current research supports the movement toward environmental sustainability.

WMREI's Policy Division is closely linked with the EERC and several of its subunits, including the Center for Clean Products and Clean Technologies, Pro-Dialogue, and the Center for Geography and Environmental Education. Policy research includes innovative approaches to

• pollution prevention, including life-cycle analysis, household and industrial waste reduction, and promotion of clean and "green" manufacturing;

• environmental management, such as private-sector certification/labeling, solid-waste management, analysis of the cost effectiveness of cleanup programs and comparative-risk projects;

WMREI's Environmental Science and Biotechnology Division is affiliated with the Center for Environmental Biotechnology and the Wastewater Treatment Consortium. WMREI's newest technologies include:

• use of microbial strains in various biotechnical applications,

• bioanalytical measurements and sensor technology,

• advanced bioreactors for chemical processing and degrading of recalcitrant compounds,

• technology transfer.

WMREI, which sponsors competitive graduate fellowships (for outstanding doctoral students pursuing environmental management research at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville), also created TN-SWEP, a program that introduces Tennessee K-12 students to solid-waste education and environmentally responsible behavior.

WMREI publishes InSites, a quarterly newsletter that highlights its researchers and projects, in addition to many books (e.g., Biotechnology in the Sustainable Environment by Sayler/Sanseverino/Davis and Chemical Ranking and Scoring: Guidelines for Relative Assessments of Chemicals by Swanson/Socha) produced by WMREI researchers. Among other accomplishments, WMREI research has produced the 16S rRNA Activated Sludge Database, Hazdata records, Wastewater Treatment Consortium, and biotreatability and microcosm evaluation.

In an effort to help solve decades-old waste water treatment plant (WWTP) operations problems, the Center for Environmental Biotechnology (CEB) is building a database of microbes commonly found in WWTP sludge. CEB is the technical wing of the Waste Management Research and Education Institute. Of main concern are conditions in which sludge bulks up and overflows into streams connected to municipal drinking-water systems.

Using RNA sequencing to decode sludge contents, staff at CEB are identifying each type of bacterium living in sludge. This method reveals a unique sequence or signature for each microbe; through a microscope, scientists can see only very indistinct, unidentifiable structures.

Because human populations are growing and WWTP budgets are shrinking, treatment plants must find ways to process higher loads with minimal problems at a lower cost. CEB researchers hope to collect RNA sequences on all microbes found in sludge. Says Curtis Lajoie, a research associate with CEB, "At some point, we should be able to say for sure what the bacteria mean to the plant's operations and which plant conditions we need to change to make waste water treatment more efficient." This research is being conducted for Dow Chemical and Eastman Chemical.

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