From bioreactors to bubbles to bacteria: on multi-scale interactions in gas fermentations

One of the major challenges mankind faces nowadays is combating climate change. A substantial fraction of greenhouse gases are released by industrial processes, as steelmaking, (oil)refinery and waste processing. Emissions from these processes can partly be prevented with a recently developed technology called gas fermentation. Within this...

Upstream process development for cultured red blood cell production

Production of cultured red blood cells (cRBCs) hold the promise of being a potentially unlimited source of cells that could cover the increasing demand of RBCs for transfusion purposes, while having more control on the quality and safety of the cells compared to the current donor-dependent system. cRBCs could also be used for novel therapies in...

Fouling Control in Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactors by Flux Enhancer Dosing

Anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) technology is increasingly researched for wastewater treatment in a circular economy scenario to recover nutrients, water, and biogas. AnMBR couples the advantages of anaerobic digestion, such as low sludge production, no aeration requirement and biogas production, with the benefits of membrane technology,...

Investigation of Temperature Tolerance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae under Anaerobic Conditions

Saccharomyces yeasts are common workhorses for the production of alcoholic beverage and bio-ethanol. In these production processes, temperature is one of the predominant factors determining the operational costs of the industrial fermentation processes and the quality of the products (alcoholic beverage) because it influences the functioning of...

Fungal removal of humic acids from treated wastewater: Potentials for a continuous flow non-sterile bioreactor

In order to address the ambiguities and knowledge gaps in the HA removal by WRF, mechanisms of removal were explored in chapter 2. It was shown that the mechanisms of HA removal by WRF involves the degradation of HA to smaller molecules, conversion to FA and also biosorption of HA by fungal mycelia. Furthermore, the ability of laccase to...

Computational fluid dynamics of gassed-stirred fermenters

The current understanding of the transport phenomena involved in the operation of industrial fermenters is not sufficient. This is reflected by the limitations seen in their design and operation. A better insight in the local processes taking place (hydrodynamics, gas dispersion, mixing, microbial kinetics) is required to be able to make a step...

Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactors For Cost-Effective Municipal Water Reuse

In recent years, anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) technology has been increasingly researched for municipal wastewater treatment as a means to produce nutrient-rich, solids free effluents with low levels of pathogens, while occupying a small footprint. An AnMBR can be used not only for on-site wastewater treatment, but also for the...

Treatment of industrial wastewaters by anaerobic membrane bioreactors: Implications of substrate characteristics

The success of anaerobic digestion relies on the presence of highly active methanogenic biomass, requiring effective retention of slow growing anaerobic microorganisms inside bioreactor by decoupling the hydraulic retention time (HRT) from solids residence time (SRT) or the employment of long SRTs in fully mixed systems. So far, flow through...

Application of dynamic membranes in anaerobic membranes in anaerobic membrane bioreactor systems

Anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs) physically ensure biomass retention by the application of a membrane filtration process. With growing application experiences from aerobic membrane bioreactors (MBRs), the combination of membrane and anaerobic processes has received much attention and become more attractive and feasible, due to advantages...

Gel layer formation on membranes in Membrane Bioreactors

The widespread application of membrane bioreactors (MBRs) for municipal wastewater treatment is hampered by membrane fouling. Fouling increases energy demand, reduces process performance and creates the need for more frequent (chemical) membrane cleaning or replacement. Membrane fouling in MBRs is known to be caused by several membrane fouling...

Prospects for flux enhancement in anaerobic membrane bioreactors treating saline wastewater

Activated sludge filterability and full-scale membrane bioreactor operation

Despite continuous developments in the field of MBR technology, membrane fouling together with the associated energy demand and related costs issues remain major challenges. The efficiency of the filtration process in an MBR is governed by the activated sludge filterability, which is still limitedly understood and is determined by the...

Filterability and Sludge Concentration in Membrane Bioreactors

The Thesis entitled “Filterability and Sludge Concentration in Membrane Bioreactors” aims at explaining the relation between Mixed Liquid Suspended Solids (MLSS) concentration, the amount of solids in the wastewater being treated, also designated as sludge, and filterability, being the ability of the sludge to be filtrated through a membrane, in...

Filterability Assessment of Membrane Bioreactors at European Scale

The Delft Filtration Characterisation method: Assessing membrane bioreactor activated sludge filterability

Clean water is becoming a scarce resource. As a consequence reclaimed wastewater can be an attractive alternative to replace existing water resources for non-potable reuse options. In order to achieve this goal advanced treatment technologies are required. An example of such technology is the membrane bioreactor (MBR) process. In the MBR process...

Mixing and In situ product removal in micro-bioreactors

Summary Of the thesis :’ Mixing and In-situ product removal in micro bioreactors’ by Xiaonan Li The work presented in this thesis is a part of a large cluster project, which was formed between DSM, Organon, Applikon and two university groups (TU Delft and University of Twente), under the ACTS and IBOS program. The aim of this cluster project was...

Development of a monolithic bioreactor: Design and application

Recently, biocatalysis has become an interesting alternative for conventional industrial processes. Enzyme reactions are highly selective and fast, and can be performed under ambient conditions. A drawback of the use of enzymes is their fragile nature. Stirring, high temperature, or solvents can cause deactivation. Also separation of the free...