Microalgae are fast-growing photosynthetic organisms which have the potential to be exploited as an alternative source of liquid fuels to meet growing global energy demand. The cultivation of microalgae, however, still needs to be improved in order to reduce the cost of the biomass produced. Among the major costs encountered for algal cultivation are the costs for nutrients such as CO₂, nitroge...

The leaching and/or accumulation of trace elements in sulfate reducing granular sludge systems was investigated. Two thermophilic up-flow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) reactors operated at pH 5 were fed with sucrose (4 gCOD l(reactor)(-1)d(-1)) and sulfate at different COD/SO(4)(2-) ratios. During the start-up of such acidogenic systems, an initial leaching of trace elements from the inoculum slu...

Application of fish sludge as fertiliser to agricultural land can contribute to closing nutrient cycles in fish farming. The effect of different treatment technologies on the nitrogen fertilisation effects of fish sludge was studied by a bioassay with barley (Hordeum vulgare), an incubation and a field experiment. Dried fish sludge resulted in relative agronomic efficiency of 50-80% compared wi...

Anaerobic digestion is widely applied for the recovery of energy from waste activated sludge. Pre-treatment methods are of high interest to increase the biodegradability of the sludge and to enhance the digestion efficiency. This paper studies the application of a microwave pre-treatment. An experimental set-up of two pilot scale semi-continuous digesters was used. During a long term experiment...

Detergent surfactants can be found in wastewater in relevant concentrations. Most of them are known as ready degradable under aerobic conditions, as required by European legislation. Far fewer surfactants have been tested so far for biodegradability under anaerobic conditions. The natural environment is predominantly aerobic, but there are some environmental compartments such as river sediments...

in the present study, the increase of organic loading rate (olr) influences the biomethanisation of sewage sludge. the research was conducted at technical scale in wastewater treatment plant in tyrowo (near ostróda, poland). it has been shown that the increase of olr, by adding co-substrates, cause the increase of biogas production but not biogas yield coefficient. the substrates used for anaer...

In recent years many researchers show a high interest in co-digestion, simultaneous anaerobic decomposition of a homogenous mixture of at least two biodegradable waste. Anaerobic codigestion is reported to offer several benefits over digestion of separate materials, such as increased cost-efficiency, increased biodegradation of the treated materials, as well as increased biogas production. Most...

In biological wastewater treatment high lipid concentration is known to inhibit microorganisms and cause active biomass flotation. To reduce lipid inhibition, a two-phase anaerobic system, consisting of an anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR) and an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor, was applied to synthetic dairy wastewater. During 153 days of operation, the two-phase system ...

Anaerobic digestion is an old biological wastewater treatment process, having first been studied more than a century ago. It is a multistep process in which organic matter is degraded into a gas mixture of methane and carbon dioxide by microorganisms. It thus reduces the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) of the influent and produces valuable energy (methane). The biological scheme involves several m...

Two multistaged anaerobic digestion systems, a four-stage thermophilic anaerobic digestion (4TAD), all at 55°C, and a four-stage anaerobic digestion with a tapered temperature configuration (4ADT) at 55, 49, 43, and 37°C, respectively, were studied to evaluate their solids, volatile organic sulfur compounds, and indicator organism (E. coli and fecal coliform) reduction potentials. The 4TAD syst...