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Synthetic membranes, molecular sieves, are the safeguards that clean up a lot of water around the world clean. Yet, they come with a considerable problem: washing of dirt that sticks upon filtration is easy, but troubles start when bacteria and other microorganisms attach and hug the system to death. Find out who hard-working bug-lover Rik de Vries is and how he battled these bitsy beasts.
The person behind the science, and the science behind the person.
The world of water technology has made massive progress ever since the first application of membranes. The filters are of dire necessity in global water cleaning efforts. They have one major drawback though, the clinging of bacteria.
Despite aggressive cleaning measures taken, the microbes attach to the porous surface. Groups of minute microorganisms grow even stronger as they adapt to their strongly varying surroundings. “It’s a unique environment,” Rik explains, “nowhere to be found naturally. That makes it an interesting target to study.”
And with it, new challenges arise. “To combat the drop in feed pressure caused by the blocking bacteria, we first needed to find out the composition of their communities,” the scientist explains, “if we can develop a method to identify the microorganisms growing in such films, we can effectively environment them. But as of yet, no gold standard has been discovered.
“It’s a unique environment, nowhere to be found naturally. That makes it such an interesting environment to study”
Before there were some efforts to determine the film makeup – through molecular methods, but such attempts have their own limitation. That’s why we were determined to change to another method, a more flexible method, and it turned out to be quite a challenge.
We tried to grow the films, caused by a single bacterium, in the lab using a miniaturized model of a spiral wound membrane. This way, we could monitor what would happen to that bacterial community, as we changed the water pressure and other variables,” the researcher says. Such setups come with some hardships though, as the bacteria that are normally all around us can occupy and highjack the lab tests. Rik: “we had to make a closed-off system, that was free of surrounding bacteria, yet one in which we could still alter the inputs. A unique setup that was challenging to run, but we got it working in the end.”
The next step was characterizing, or identifying the bacteria that would inhabit the system. “We were able to get films growing in the turbulent, yet controlled, lab setup,” Rik states,” and we were even able to sample the different communities as we changed the input of nutrients in the stream, or did an aggressive washing step with acid.
We could make clear lists of the micro residents that inhabited the city that is our system, including the roles of each class of bacteria. And with it, we figured out that the molecular analyses were not quite as accurate as we thought before.”
Future steps could conclude ways to combat the microbes. “With this information, and even this method, we can develop environmentally friendly ways to battle these bugs to solve global water purification problems.”
His fascination has always been with Rik. “I used to catch bees and bumblebees with my bare hands, only to let them slowly escape from my fingers to study how they looked like. I once tried that with a wasp, and well, never again,” he tells laughingly.
From there, Rik’s interest in bacteria grew. Once graduated from high school, he started his studies in applied microbiology. “The complexity of bacterial films has interested me for a long time. At the university of applied sciences, I studied the growth of bacteria in incubators. Here I learned about the immense intricacy of the bug communities and I’ve been driven by it ever since.”
“I used to catch bees and bumblebees with my bare hands to study them – once tried that with a wasp, and well, never again…”
I’m glad to have done my PhD done on the topic here at Wetsus, especially as I could feel connected with industry. It was certainly hard – and hard work – to do this research, but hey I pushed through and it has landed me a lovely job.”
Now, Rik works as a biological innovation analyst at WLN. “I feel such at home,” he says, “I’m truly connected with applied microbiology. It’s a lovely job in which I can analyse the applicability of the latest and the greatest. A job I can carry on doing for quite a while.”
Abstract
The realisation of a circular economy has thus far unfolded under the assumption that it would fit within existing economic arrangements. In practice, we witness many circular initiatives struggling to give shape to their ambitions, let alone develop to maturity. These past months, various material recycling organisations terminated their activities, seeing virgin alternatives from other parts of the world flooding the market at prices against they cannot compete. If the transition towards a circular economy (i.e. an economy of value preservation) is to be taken seriously, a new perspective on value in our economic system seems unavoidable, as the rewriting of the rules of the economic game. At this moment, current perceptions of value stand in the way of this transition both at micro as well as macro levels. Several contours for a collective exploration of new directions of value and economic configuration that foster circular transition will be addressed.
Abstract
In his key note he will conclude after a life of innovations that it is impossible that humanity will stay within the save planetary boundaries with innovation only. We should be more critical about the behaviour of the rich population in the world and more critical about new innovations that prove to be dangerous, like the PFAS crisis shows at this moment. In his keynote he will investigate how to look at the world that can stay within the save planetary boundaries, how should we change ourselves? It is clear if we only talk about the words of science and systems we miss the essential words of how we should cooperate and change ourselves. And his search for coherent save innovations. Which innovations will be save and will lead to a fair and sustainable world? And will lead to a world we want to live in.
Abstract
There is a growing number of new sustainable, inclusive, cohesive, participatory, just and humane economic models. A possible next step in the discourse about them is the comparative analysis in order to find out key commonalities, potential synergies, and “requirements” for a future-fit economic model. The author and initiator of the Economy for the Common Good provides an overview of these „new sustainable economic models“ and compares them according to underlying values, principles, and practical ways of implementation. The keynote addresses the cooperative spirit of the conference and prepares the ground for its public highlight on the eve of June 3rd, the round table with representatives of diverse future-fit economic models.
Abstract
The scientific debate on whether economies should always continue to grow increasingly becomes a political and societal debate. On the one hand further growth for the most affluent countries seems neither possible nor valuable, but on the other hand there is still lack of understanding and knowledge what a non-growing economy should look like and could best be governed. In this lecture we discuss various policy measures that can be realistically implemented, take into account government finances and aim at a higher quality of life despite a non-growing economy.
Abstract
Democracy is under pressure, and less and less able to stir the economy into a sustainable direction. Therefore, to stabilize democracy and to make possible the socio-ecological transformation of the economy, democratic principles need to be implemented directly in the economy. This is not only a matter of morality, but also has practical advantages. Democratizing the economy can increase legitimacy and take advantage of the “knowledge of the many” to accelerate the transformation. Democratic practices, especially deliberation, allow bringing together different forms of knowledge, which is crucial for the local implementation of principles of social and ecological sustainability. This talk explores what this idea means in more concrete terms, from democratic participation in the workplace to the democratization of time.
Abstract
Over the past decades, markets have conventionally been seen as the best instrument to stimulate economic growth and enhance prosperity and well-being. The automatic link between markets and economic growth is increasingly questioned, however, as well as the automatic link between economic growth and enhancement of well-being. This has led to attempts to capture well-being development more directly than through GDP per capita figures and has produced a more variegated picture of well-being growth. Also, this has led to a shift of focus to other coordination systems than the market, as primarily the state but increasingly also the association. Analyses of the historical record suggest that especially the latter could be a vital component in future well-being.
