News 2015
UCC Student Wins Best Water Presentation at ENVIRON 2015
A BEES PhD researcher has scooped a prize for his recent presentation at ENVIRON.
Greg Beechinor, a PhD student in School of BEES/ERI, won the prize for Best Water Related Presentation at the 25th Irish Environmental Researcher’s Colloquium (ENVIRON 2015) which took place in Sligo Institute of Technology.
Mr Beechinor’s was awarded the prize for his presentation on “Bios and filters: Influence of filter media on biolayer development and filter efficiency.” Drinking water remains a major global challenge with 1 in 10 people remaining without access to a safe drinking water supply. As the challenge relating to the access of safe drinking water is concentrated in developing nations, this project looks at biosand filters, which are one of the most sustainable domestic drinking water treatment techniques available.
The project involves assessing the operational parameters, such as filter media characteristics, on the development of the biological community within the filter and ultimately the filters performance in the removal of contaminants including pathogens of human health concern. The identification of the operational conditions that enhance filter performance will ultimately improve drinking water quality for those in developing nations, resulting in improved health amongst biosand filter users. The research project is supervised by Dr Debbie Chapman and funded by the Irish Research Council.