Oklahoma State University researchers are studying whether ozone carried in nanobubbles can break down antibiotic residues and resistance genes in livestock lagoon wastewater, in a project supported by a $214,277 U.S. Department of Agriculture award, according to a university release published 22 September 2026 (news.okstate.edu).
Key takeaways
- OSU researchers are comparing conventional ozonation with nano-bubble ozone for removing antibiotic residues from swine lagoon wastewater.
- The team will track how quickly four antibiotics and several resistance genes break down under each treatment.
- The project is funded by USDA under award 2026-67022-46023 for $214,277.
- Dr. Kiranmayi Mangalgiri, assistant professor in the Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, is leading the wastewater work.
- The stated goal is to make farm wastewater safer to reuse and limit the spread of antimicrobial resistance beyond livestock operations.
What happened
Antibiotics given to livestock are not fully metabolised, and traces of the medication can remain in wastewater held in farm lagoons, according to the OSU release (news.okstate.edu). From those lagoons, contamination can move into other waterways and food, contributing to the spread of antibiotic resistance in animals and people.
Mangalgiri, together with Dr. Douglas Hamilton of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering and Dr. Mark Krzmarzick of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will test whether ozone delivered inside nanobubbles can remove these contaminants more effectively than standard ozonation, the release states (news.okstate.edu). Nanobubbles are described as much smaller than the cavities used in conventional ozonation and as staying suspended longer, giving the ozone more time to dissolve and react in the water.
The team will run both treatments on laboratory-prepared water and on wastewater collected from swine lagoons, measuring how quickly four antibiotics and several resistance genes break down, the release reports (news.okstate.edu). The project is funded by USDA under award 2026-67022-46023 for $214,277, according to the same release (news.okstate.edu).
The work sits inside a wider OSU Agriculture grants package announced the same day, alongside a four-year, $616,000 USDA-NIFA bermudagrass breeding project shared with Kansas State University, the release notes (news.okstate.edu).
| Project | Funding | Award / scope |
|---|---|---|
| Nano-ozone for antibiotic removal in swine lagoon wastewater | $214,277 | USDA award 2026-67022-46023 |
| Winter-hardy bermudagrass breeding with Kansas State University | $616,000 | Part of 18 NIFA projects sharing $10.2 million; award no. 2026-67014-45977 |
Specification read
The reported funding is a research grant, not a capital line item: $214,277 buys a laboratory comparison of two ozonation modes on swine lagoon water, with no installed flow rate or population equivalent stated in the source (news.okstate.edu). For a real installation, a single swine farrowing-to-finish operation of roughly 2,500 sows typically generates on the order of 100 to 200 m³/day of flush and lagoon wastewater (general industry range, not from the sources), and the relevant train in this class of project is screening → solids separation in an anaerobic lagoon → biological treatment such as an MBR or sequencing batch reactor → tertiary ozonation → disinfection, with this research bearing on the tertiary ozonation step and on the fate of dissolved pharmaceutical residues and antimicrobial-resistance genes. If your plant runs an anaerobic lagoon followed by biological treatment, handles swine or other livestock manure-derived wastewater in the 100 to 500 m³/day band, and faces reuse or discharge limits on antibiotic residues and resistance genes, a nano-bubble ozone skid could be evaluated as a polishing stage between the biological step and final disinfection — relevant reading for buyers comparing packaged Industries We Serve wastewater trains and reuse-ready Food-sector effluent systems.
FAQ
What problem is the OSU nano-ozone project actually trying to solve?
It targets antibiotic residues and antimicrobial resistance genes in swine lagoon wastewater, which the team says can spread beyond the farm into waterways and food (news.okstate.edu). For an operator, that is a reuse-permit and corporate ESG issue as much as a discharge issue.
How is nano-bubble ozone different from a standard ozonation skid?
Both inject ozone into water, but nano-bubbles are much smaller, stay suspended longer, and give the ozone more contact time, according to the OSU release (news.okstate.edu). For a buyer, that typically means higher mass-transfer efficiency at a given gas dose — useful where contact-tower size or ozone generator capacity is constrained.
What is the project budget and what does it cover?
USDA award 2026-67022-46023 funds the work at $214,277, the release states (news.okstate.edu). At that level it is a research study, not a procurement contract, so installed cost, lead time and supplier selection sit outside the figure — packaged skid systems from established ozone vendors typically fall in the low six-figure to seven-figure USD range depending on flow and dose (general industry range, not from the sources).
When could a plant see commercial nano-ozone units if the research succeeds?
The release frames the work as a comparison study using laboratory-prepared water and lagoon samples, with no announced commercialisation timeline (news.okstate.edu). A buyer should treat any retrofit decision as a pilot project pending peer-reviewed results, not a guaranteed off-the-shelf upgrade.
