Pilot-scale magnetic recovery of vivianite from digested sewage sludge

Phosphorus (P) is an essential resource for food production and chemical industry. Phosphorus use has to become more sustainable and should include phosphorus recycling from secondary sources. About 20% of P ends up in sewage sludge, making this a substantial secondary P source. There is currently a technological gap to recover P from sludge...

Pilot-scale production of peroxygenase from agrocybe aegerita

The pilot-scale production of the peroxygenase from Agrocybe aegerita (rAaeUPO) is demonstrated. In a fed-batch fermentation of the recombinant Pichia pastoris, the enzyme was secreted into the culture medium to a final concentration of 0.29 g L-1 corresponding to 735 g of the peroxygenase in 2500 L of the fermentation broth after 6 days. Due...

Scaling-up microbial community-based polyhydroxyalkanoate production: status and challenges

Conversion of organic waste and wastewater to polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) offers a potential to recover valuable resources from organic waste. Microbial community-based PHA production systems have been successfully applied in the last decade at lab- and pilot-scales, with a total of 19 pilot installations reported in the scientific...

Mitigation of Silica Scaling by Closed-Circuit Reverse Osmosis

Reverse osmosis (RO) is considered the most reliable and cost-effective membrane desalination technologyworldwide. However, it suffers significant performance limitations due to mainly inorganic foulinggenerated in the highly concentrated brine. Especially, scaling caused by silica and silicates depositionsresults in irreversible damages with...

Mild Thermal Pre-Treatment of Waste Activated Sludge to Increase Loading Capacity, Biogas Production, and Solids’ Degradation: A Pilot-Scale Study

Sludge pre-treatments are emerging as part of the disposal process of solid by-products of wastewater purification. One of their benefits is the increase in methane production rate and/or yield, along with higher loading capacities of existing digesters. In this study, we report the performance of a pilot-scale compartmentalized digester (volume...

Influence of free ammonia on the performance of a polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) microbial enrichment sequential batch reactor (SBR) at pilot scale

A pilot-scale PHA microbial enrichment reactor fed on OFMSW leachate was monitored in order to assess the influence of free ammonia nitrogen (FAN) on its performance. The enrichment reactor consisted of a SBR with a 12-hours cycle which included a feast phase, a settling phase and a famine phase with external nitrogen addition. Based on the...

Resource recovery from organic waste streams by microbial enrichment cultures

Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) is a natural product that can potentially replace a part of the chemicals and plastics derived from fossil sources. One of the main barriers for market entry of PHA is its relatively high price compared to conventional (fossil) feedstocks. This high price is related to current industrial production methods which are...