Activated sludge is widely used to treat municipal and industrial wastewater globally and the formation of activated sludge flocculates (flocs) underpins the ability to separate sludge from treated water. Despite the importance of activated sludge flocs to human civilization there have been precious few attempts to rationally design fit for purpose flocs using a bottom-up approach based on a so...

This work deals with the effect of combined microwave-ultrasonic pretreatment on the anaerobic biodegradability of primary, excess activated and mixed sludge. The characteristics, biodegradability and anaerobic digester performance for untreated primary, excess activated and mixed sludge were compared to combined microwave-ultrasonic pretreated primary, excess activated and mixed sludge. All sl...

Wastewater from the food industry that contains a high organic load, such as wastewater tofu manufacturing process, requires an appropriate and efficient treatment system to reduce pollutants before being discharged into water bodies. The most suitable for loads is anaerobic system. process of suspended media, attached or combination thereof hybrid. This study uses Hybrid Upflow Anaerobic Sludg...

Basic understanding of aerobic granular sludge (AGS) processes has mainly been obtained in laboratory-scale studies with simple synthetic wastewaters. Two approaches were applied here to make a step toward the comprehension of AGS systems treating real municipal wastewater. One approach consisted in increasing the complexity of the influent composition of an AGS sequencing batch reactor (SBR) f...

The slow degradation rate of sewage sludge in anaerobic digestors is due to the rate limiting step of sludge hydrolysis. The effect of ultrasound pretreatment on sludge degradability was investigated using ultrasound at a frequency of 31 kHz and high acoustic intensities. Ultrasound treatment resulted in raw sludge disintegration as was demonstrated by increase of Chemical Oxygen Demand in the ...

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether airway granulation, a common occurrence during laryngotracheal reconstructive surgery and a common cause of delays in definitive treatment and treatment failure, is associated with a microbial etiology. DESIGN Prospective case-control study. SETTING Tertiary referral airway reconstruction unit. PATIENTS Patients who had an airway stent as part of their tre...

The treatment and disposal of sewage sludge is an expensive and environmentally sensitive problem. It is also a growing problem world-wide since sludge production will continue to increase as new sewage treatment works are built and environmental quality standards become more stringent. With some traditional disposal routes coming under pressure, and others such as sea disposal having been phas...

Sewage sludge was disposed of in Liverpool Bay for over 100 years. Annual amounts increased from 0.5 million tonnes per annum in 1900 to approximately 2 million tonnes per annum by 1995. Macrofauna and a suite of environmental variables were collected at a station adjacent to, and a reference station distant from, the disposal site over 13 years, spanning a pre- (1990-1998) and post- (1999-2003...

This paper critically reviews the fate of trace organic contaminants (TrOCs) in biosolids, with emphasis on identifying operation conditions that impact the accumulation of TrOCs in sludge during conventional wastewater and sludge treatment and assessing the technologies available for TrOC removal from biosolids. The fate of TrOCs during sludge thickening, stabilisation (e.g. aerobic digestion,...