Phone
Karthikeyan is a professor in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at UW–Madison. His research interests include water quality chemistry, soil decontamination, and applications of GIS/water quality models.
Graduate student (pictured above): Brayan Daniel Riascos Arteaga received his bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering from the Universidad de Cunidinamarca and master’s of environmental sciences from the Universidad de Salamanca. Through prior experience Arteaga has become skilled in physiochemical and microbiological analysis of wastewater. His research interests include waste water management and environmental education. Arteaga is currently pursuing a PhD in civil and environmental engineering and is mentored by Krishnapuram Karthikeyan.
Anaerobic digestion is a well-regarded manure treatment and management practice that adds value through biogas generation and provides a mechanism to control the release of various manure constituents to the environment. However, large fractions of manure are not converted to biogas and remain as cellulosic fibers post-anaerobic digestion (post-AD fibers). This project aims to evaluate whether chemical treatment of post-AD fibers could be used for either increasing biogas production from dairy manure or producing value-added chemicals such as lactic acid, succinic acid, or medium chain fatty acids.