Lessons learned from a one-year study of Legionella spp. cultivation from activated sludge samples.

Risk assessment and management of Legionella spp. contamination in activated sludge in wastewater treatment plants is carried out using the culture method. Underestimation of Legionella spp. is frequently reported in the literature, but a comprehensive long-term study of the performance of the method under comparable conditions is still lacking. The aim of this study is to evaluate the recovery rate and limit of detection of the culture method for Legionella spp. from activated sludge samples collected during the different seasons of the year. Activated sludge samples spiked with Legionella pneumophila subsp. pneumophila strain Philadelphia-1 (mean concentration 5.2 ± 0.35 logCFU/mL) were analysed monthly for one year using the culture method. Three different sample pre-treatments were compared, namely filtration, acid treatment and thermal treatment, and the recovery rate and limit of detection were assessed for each. The recovery rate of the culture method for Legionella spp. depended on the type of sample pre-treatment and the season of activated sludge sampling, while the limit of detection depended only on the sample pre-treatment. The best performance of the culture method, defined as the combination of the highest recovery rate and lowest limit of detection, was obtained for the filtered acid pre-treated samples (recovery rate: 89 ± 4 %; limit of detection: 1.3 logCFU/mL in 83 % of the samples). The lowest limit of detection was observed for the filtered thermally pre-treated samples (1.0 logCFU/mL in 93 % of the samples). Simultaneously, both thermally pre-treated samples showed up to a third lower recovery rates than the other pre-treatments in winter, while untreated and acid pre-treated samples showed consistently high recovery rates (>80%, logCFU/mL). The recovery rates of the unfiltered and filtered thermally pre-treated samples showed significant weak to strong positive correlations with the organic and phosphorus load in the influent as well as with the water and atmospheric temperatures, indicating that the recovery rate depends on the seasonal variation of the wastewater composition. This study presents new insights into the detection and quantification of Legionella spp. in activated sludge samples and considers seasonal dependencies in analytical results.

Correlating black soldier fly larvae growths with soluble nutrients derived from thermally pre-treated waste activated sludge.

Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) have been deployed to valorize various organic wastes. Nonetheless, its growth rate whilst being offered with waste activated sludge (WAS) is not promising, likely by virtue of the presence of extracellular polymeric substances' structure in WAS. In this work, the WAS were first thermally pre-treated under different treatment temperatures and durations before being administered as the feeding substrates for BSFL. The results showed the thermal pre-treatment could improve WAS palatability and subsequently, enhance the growth of BSFL especially after the pre-treatments at 75 °C and above. The highest larva weight gained was recorded at 2.16 mg/larva for the WAS sample being pre-treated at 90 °C and 16 h. Furthermore, the samples pre-treated above 75 °C also achieved higher degradation rates, indicating that the 75 °C was a threshold temperature to effectively hydrolyze the WAS. The changes of WAS characteristics, namely, (i) soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD), (ii) soluble carbohydrate, (iii) soluble protein, (iv) humic substances and (v) total soluble protein and humic substances, after the thermal pre-treatments were also studied in correlating with the BSFL growth. Accordingly, a model was successfully developed with the highest R2 value attained at 0.95, evidencing the SCOD was the most suitable WAS characteristic to accurately predict the BSFL growth behavior.

Variability of food waste chemical composition: Impact of thermal pre-treatment on lignocellulosic matrix and anaerobic biodegradability.

A comprehensive sustainable Food Waste (FW) management is globally needed in order to reduce the environmental pollution and the financial costs due to FW disposal; anaerobic digestion is considered as one of the best environmental-friendly alternatives to this aim. A deep investigation of the chemical composition of different Food waste types (cooked kitchen waste (CKW), fruit and vegetable scraps (FVS) and organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW)) is here reported, in order to evaluate their relevant substance-specific properties and their impact on anaerobic biodegradability by means of a sophisticated automatic batch test system. Suitability for a mild thermal pre-treatment (T = 134 °C and p = 3.2 bar) to enhance the biological degradation of hardly accessible compounds was investigated. The pre-treatment affected significantly the carbohydrates solubilisation, and was able in reducing part of the lignocellulosic matrix. Moreover, in mesophilic conditions, the high solubilized sugars content favoured the initial recovery of hydrogen (not consumed by hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis), allowing to newly assess the extent of prompt fermentability. Pre-treatment enhanced hydrogen yields of FVS and OFMSW, with gains up to +50%, while the successive methane production, occurring in the same reactor, resulted affected by the lack of the soluble part of carbohydrates, "subtracted" for H2 production. Only in thermophilic conditions, when no hydrogen in the biogas was detected, pre-treatment of OFMSW significantly increased methane yield (from 0.343 to 0.389 L CH4 g-1 VSfed). A thermal pre-treatment seems the recommended solution in order to reduce part of the recalcitrant lignocellulosic matrix of food waste, to improve energy recovery and to eliminate the extra cost needed for pasteurization.

Changes in oxidative stability and protein profile of flaxseeds resulting from thermal pre-treatment.

BACKGROUND: The oxidative stability of oilseeds is crucial for their technological/nutritional quality and shelf life. This research aimed to evaluate the effect of thermal pre-treatment (steaming and roasting under various time/temperature conditions) on flaxseed oil and protein stability. The monitoring of changes in oil oxidation in situ and protein profiles (SDS-PAGE) and analysis of the antiradical activity of ethanolic and aqueous fractions were included in the study. RESULTS: Flaxseed stability during storage was considerably affected by thermal pre-treatment conditions. Dynamics of oil oxidation was accelerated at 160 °C and 180 °C but slowed at 200 °C. Influence of pre-treatment conditions on the antiradical activity of the aqueous fraction was clearly observed and no effect concerning the ethanolic fraction was found. The most significant changes in protein profile of 200 °C-roasted flaxseed were found with the observed disappearance of 19 kDa protein. A treatment-dependent decrease in the 13 kDa protein was also detected. Based on the aqueous extract protein profiles, roasting conditions were found to be crucial for protein extractability. CONCLUSIONS: The study has broadened knowledge of the consequences of flaxseed thermal treatment. The deterioration of flaxseed oil oxidative stability is shown. The changes of 19 and 13 kDa proteins suggest their sensitivity to thermally induced aggregation and/or cross-link. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

Net positive energy wastewater treatment plant via thermal pre-treatment of sludge: A theoretical case study.

In a wastewater treatment process, energy is mainly used in sludge handling and heating, while energy is recovered by biogas production in anaerobic digestion process. Thermal pre-treatment of sludge can change the energy balance in a wastewater treatment process since it reduces the viscosity and yield stress of sludge and increases the biogas production. In this study, a calculation based on a hypothetical wastewater treatment plant is provided to show the possibility of creating a net positive energy wastewater treatment plant as a result of implementing thermal pre-treatment process before the anaerobic digester. The calculations showed a great energy saving in pumping and mixing of the sludge by thermal pre-treatment of sludge before anaerobic digestion process.

Anaerobic digestion of thermal pre-treated sludge at different solids concentrations--Computation of mass-energy balance and greenhouse gas emissions.

The effect of thermal pre-treatment on sludge anaerobic digestion (AD) efficiency was studied at different total solids (TS) concentrations (20.0, 30.0 and 40.0 g TS/L) and digestion times (0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 days) for primary, secondary and mixed wastewater sludge. Moreover, sludge pre-treatment, AD and disposal processes were evaluated based on a mass-energy balance and corresponding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Mass balance revealed that the least quantity of digestate was generated by thermal pre-treated secondary sludge at 30.0 g TS/L. The net energy (energy output-energy input) and energy ratio (energy output/energy input) for thermal pre-treated sludge was greater than control in all cases. The reduced GHG emissions of 73.8 × 10(-3) g CO2/g of total dry solids were observed for the thermal pre-treated secondary sludge at 30.0 g TS/L. Thermal pre-treatment of sludge is energetically beneficial and required less retention time compared to control.

Combined ultrasonication and thermal pre-treatment of sewage sludge for increasing methane production.

This article focuses on the combination of ultrasonic and thermal treatment of sewage sludge (SS). The combination involved ultrasonicating a fraction of the sludge and thermal treatment at various temperatures and this resulted in solubilization of proteins and carbohydrates, and so contributing to increased COD solubilization. During the treatment, SCOD, soluble proteins and carbohydrates increased from 760 mg L(-1) to 10,200 mg L(-1), 110 mg L(-1) to 2,900 mg L(-1) and 60 mg L(-1) to 630 mg L(-1), respectively. It was found ultrasonication of only a fraction of the sludge (>20%) followed by thermal treatment led to significant improvement compared to thermal and ULS treatments applied on their own. At 65°C, the kinetic of solubilization was improved and the hyper-thermophilic treatment time could be reduced to a few hours when ultrasonication was used first. A linear correlation (R(2) = 95%) was found between the SCOD obtained after ultrasonication pre-treatment and anaerobic biodegradability. The combined treatment resulted in 20% increase in biogas production during the anaerobic digestion of the pre-treated sludge.

The use of solar pre-treatment as a strategy to improve the anaerobic biodegradability of microalgal biomass in co-digestion with sewage.

Sustainable sewage treatment plants (STPs) have been intensively investigated in search for low-cost, environmental-friendly options. Anaerobic-aerobic treatment solutions, as upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors followed by high rate algal ponds (HRAP) have already proved to be efficient for pollutants and micropollutants removal, as well as for energy recovery from the co-digestion of raw sewage and microalgal biomass. Since microalgae cells have complex structures that make them resistant to anaerobic digestion, pre-treatment techniques may be applied to improve microalgal biomass solubilisation and methane yield. Among the thermal pre-treatments, the use of solar energy for biomass solubilisation has yet to be investigated. Therefore, this study aimed at evaluating the performance of a solar thermal microalgal biomass pre-treatment prior to the anaerobic co-digestion with raw sewage, comparing a UASB reactor feed only raw sewage and other UASB reactor feed with raw sewage and pre-treated microalgal biomass. The results showed that, the solar pre-treatment step reached an organic matter solubilisation of 32% (COD). Furthermore, the methane yield was increased by 45% (from 81 to 117 NL CH4 kg-1 COD), after the anaerobic co-digestion with pre-treated microalgae as compared to the mono-digestion of raw sewage, indicating significant difference between the evaluated UASB reactors. The energy assessment showed a positive energy balance, as the total energy produced was twice the energy consumed in the system.

Hydrolysis kinetics for solubilizing waste activated sludge at low temperature thermal treatment derived from multivariate non-linear model.

Low temperature thermal pre-treatment is a low-cost method to break down the structure of extracellular polymeric substances in waste activated sludge (WAS) while improving the sludge biodegradability. However, previous models on low temperature thermal pre-treatment did not adequately elucidate the behaviour of sludge hydrolysis process for the duration ranging from 5 to 9 h. Therefore, this work had developed an inclusive functional model to describe the kinetics of sludge hydrolysis for a wide range of treatment conditions (30 °C-90 °C within 0 and 16 h). As compared with treatment duration, the treatment temperature played a greater impact in solubilizing WAS. Accordingly, the 90 °C treatment had consistently produced WAS with the highest degree of solubility. Nonetheless, the mediocre discrepancies between 90 °C and 75 °C may challenge the practicality of increasing the treatment temperatures beyond 75 °C. The effects of treatment duration on soluble chemical oxygen demand, soluble carbohydrate and soluble protein were only significant during the first 4 h, except for humic substances release that continued to increase with treatment duration. Finally, a good fit with R2 > 0.95 was achieved using an inclusive multivariate non-linear model, substantiating the functionality to predict the kinetics of sludge hydrolysis at arbitrary treatment conditions.

Comparison of Pre-treatment Technologies to Improve Sewage Sludge Biomethanization.

This research study evaluates various pre-treatments to improve sewage sludge solubilization prior to treatment by mesophilic anaerobic digestion. Microwave, thermal, and sonication pre-treatments were compared as these pre-treatments are the most commonly used for this purpose. The solubilization of sewage sludge was evaluated through the variation in soluble total organic carbon (sTOC, mg/L) and soluble total nitrogen (sTN, mg/L). Thermal and microwave pre-treatments increased sTOC/VS by 19.2% and 83.4% (VS, total volatile solids), respectively, after applying lower specific energy through (20 kJ/g TS, approximately) (TS, total solids) unlike the sonication pre-treatment, which required 136 kJ/g TS. Although sTN content did not increase significantly with the pre-treatments with respect to sTOC, both showed proportional trends. Sonication pre-treatments allowed the highest increase in volatile fatty acids (VFA) with respect to the raw sewage sludge (15% ∆VFA/sTOC). Methane production with and without pre-treatment was also evaluated. Methane production increased by 95% after applying sonication pre-treatment compared to the methane production of raw sewage sludge. Thermal and microwave pre-treatments entailed lower improvements (29% and 20%, respectively). Economically, thermal pre-treatments were the most viable alternative at real scale. Graphical abstract.

Comprehensive role of thermal combined ultrasonic pre-treatment in sewage sludge disposal.

Thermal/ultrasonic pre-treatment of sludge has been proven to break the hydrolysis barriers of sewage sludge (SS) and improve the performance of anaerobic digestion (AD). In this study, the objective was to investigate whether the combination of two pre-treatment methods can achieve better results on the AD of SS. The results indicated that, compared with the control group and separate pre-treatment groups, the thermal combined ultrasonic pre-treatment presented more obvious solubilization of soluble proteins, polysaccharides, and other organic matters in SS. The combined method promoted the dissolution of protein-like substances more effectively, with biogas production increased by 19% and the volatile solid (VS) removal rate improved to above 50% compared with the control group. The capillary suction time is reduced by about 85%, which greatly improved the dewatering performance of SS. In addition, the combined method has advantages in degrading sulfonamide antibiotics, roxithromycin and tetracycline. Particularly, by analyzing the interaction between the degradation of different antibiotics and the composition of dissolved organic matters (DOMs), it was found that the composition of DOMs could affect the degradability of different antibiotics. Among them, the high content of tyrosine-like and tryptophan-like was conducive to the degradation of sulfamethoxazole, and the high content of fulvic acid-like and humic acid-like was conducive to the degradation of roxithromycin and tetracycline. This work evaluated the comprehensive effect of thermal combined ultrasonic pre-treatment on SS disposal and provided useful information for its engineering.

Thermally enhanced solubilization and anaerobic digestion of organic fraction of municipal solid waste.

Organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) is an ideal substrate for biogas production; however, complex chemical structure and being heterogeneous obstruct its biotransformation in anaerobic digestion (AD) process. Thermal pre-treatment of OFMSW has been suggested to enhance the solubilization and improve the anaerobic digestibility of OFMSW. This paper critically and comprehensively reviews the characterization of OFMSW (physical, chemical, bromatological) and enlightens the valuable properties of OFMSW for waste valorization. In following sections, the advantages and limitations of AD of OFMSW are discussed, followed by the application of temperature phased AD, and various thermal pre-treatments, i.e., conventional thermal, microwave, and thermo-chemical for high rate bioenergy transformation. Effects of pre-treatment on COD, proteins, sugars and VS solubilization, and biogas yield are discussed. Formation of recalcitrant during thermal pre-treatment and the effect on anaerobic digestibility are considered. Full scale application, and techno-economic and environmental feasibility of thermal pre-treatment methods are also revealed. This review concluded that thermophilic (55 °C) and temperature phased anaerobic digestion, temperature phased anaerobic digestion, TPAD (55 + 37 °C) processes shows effective and stable performance at low HRTs and high OLRs and achieved higher methane yield than mesophilic digestion. The thermal pre-treatment at a lower temperature (120 °C) improves the net energy yield. However, high-temperature pre-treatment (>150 °C) result in decreased biogas yield and even lower than the non-pre-treated OFMSW, although a high degree of COD solubilization. The OFMSW solubilization in terms of COD, proteins, and sugars cannot accurately reflect thermal/hybrid pre-treatments' potential. Thus, substrate pre-treatment followed by anaerobic digestibility of pretreated substrate together can evaluate the actual effectiveness of thermal pre-treatment of OFMSW.

Impact of nanoparticle inclusion on bioethanol production process kinetic and inhibitor profile.

This study examines the effects of nanoparticle inclusion in instantaneous saccharification and fermentation (NIISF) of waste potato peels. The effect of nanoparticle inclusion on the fermentation process was investigated at different stages which were: pre-treatment, liquefaction, saccharification and fermentation. Inclusion of NiO NPs at the pre-treatment stage gave a 1.60-fold increase and 2.10-fold reduction in bioethanol and acetic acid concentration respectively. Kinetic data on the bioethanol production fit the modified Gompertz model (R 2 > 0.98). The lowest production lag time (t L) of 1.56 h, and highest potential bioethanol concentration (P m) of 32 g/L were achieved with NiO NPs inclusion at different process stages; the liquefaction stage and the pre-treatment phase, respectively. Elevated bioethanol yield, coupled with substantial reduction in process inhibitors in the NIISF processes, demonstrated the significance of point of nanobiocatalysts inclusion for the scale-up development of bioethanol production from potato peels.

Effect of roasting and microwave pre-treatments of Nigella sativa L. seeds on lipase activity and the quality of the oil.

The present research studied the thermal pre-treatment of non-soaked and soaked black seed (BS) by microwave radiation (1-3.5 min) in comparison with conventional roasting (2-8 min, 180 °C). As BS was treated for a longer time, a significant increase (p < 0.05) was observed in total chlorophylls, carotenoids and phenolic contents in the extracted oils. The oils obtained from the soaked seeds (to 8%) had significantly higher oil quality properties. The optimum extraction conditions were: irradiation time of 3.5 min and BS moisture content of 8%, which resulted in an extraction yield of 35.76%, 10643.730 caffeic acid equivalents/100 g, PV of 9.63 meq O2/kg and 18.88 h of Rancimat oxidative stability. The microwave pre-treatment was more effective than conventional roasting in reducing lipase activity. Based on the results obtained, it was advisable to treat BS with microwaves and soak them before extracting the oil in a cold press at room temperature.

Performance evaluation of mesophilic semi-continuous anaerobic digestion of high-temperature thermally pre-treated olive mill solid waste.

The aim of the present work was to evaluate the effects of a thermal pre-treatment of olive mill solid waste (OMSW) and phenol extraction process on the semi-continuous anaerobic digestion of this pre-treated waste during a prolonged operational period (275 days) in order to assess the organic loading rates (OLR) of 1 ad 2 g Volatile Solids (VS)/(L·d). The anaerobic digestion of thermally pre-treated and de-phenolized OMSW was stable at an OLR of 1 g VS/(L·d), which permitted a specific production rate of 172 ±â€¯60 mL CH4/(g VS·d). However, the system was not able to operate at an OLR of 2 g VS/(L·d), which resulted in the total failure of the process. Regardless of the applied OLR, the phenolic compounds were effectively degraded and the inhibition thresholds were not reached. The inhibition of the anaerobic digestion process at an OLR of 2 g VS/(L·d) was probably due to the overloading of the system, indicated by the accumulation of organic matter and volatile fatty acids. The operation of the anaerobic digester under stable conditions allowed for high profitability for the proposed bio-refinery concept, which would still be profitable at a phenol extract price above 51.8 €/kg, which is 90% lower than the current price of 520 €/kg.

Microbial communities of biomethanization digesters fed with raw and heat pre-treated microalgae biomasses.

Microalgae biomasses are considered promising feedstocks for biofuel and methane productions. Two Continuously Stirred Tank Reactors (CSTR), fed with fresh (CSTR-C) and heat pre-treated (CSTR-T) Chlorella biomass were run in parallel in order to determine methane productions. The methane yield was 1.5 times higher in CSTR-T with regard to CSTR-C. Aiming to understand the microorganism roles within of the reactors, the sludge used as an inoculum (I), plus raw (CSTR-C) and heat pre-treated (CSTR-T) samples were analyzed by high-throughput pyrosequencing. The bacterial communities were dominated by Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi and Firmicutes. Spirochaetae and Actinobacteria were only detected in sample I. Proteobacteria, mainly Alfaproteobacteria, were by far the dominant phylum within of the CSTR-C bioreactor. Many of the sequences retrieved were related to bacteria present in activated sludge treatment plants and they were absent after thermal pre-treatment. Most of the sequences affiliated to the Bacteroidetes were related to uncultured groups. Anaerolineaceae was the sole family found of the Chloroflexi phylum. All of the genera identified of the Firmicutes phylum carried out macromolecule hydrolysis and by-product fermentation. The proteolytic bacteria were prevalent over the saccharolytic microbes. The percentage of the proteolytic genera increased from the inoculum to the CSTR-T sample in a parallel fashion with an available protein increase owing to the high protein content of Chlorella. To relate the taxa identified by high-throughput sequencing to their functional roles remains a future challenge.

Biomethanization of olive mill solid waste after phenols recovery through low-temperature thermal pre-treatment.

Due to the high polluting potential of Olive Mill Solid Waste (OMSW), it is necessary to develop an economical and environmental-friendly sustainable management method. OMSW anaerobic digestion has been shown to be an interesting management alternative, although it should be optimized to improve its economic viability. In the present study, low-temperature thermal pre-treatment of OMSW is proposed to allow the extraction of high added-value compounds, such as phenols, and to enhance the subsequent biomethanization of the substrate. OMSW low-temperature thermal pre-treatment facilitated the separation of a solid phase, where most of organic compounds remained, and a liquid phase, where most of phenolic compounds were concentrated. Hydroxytyrosol presented the highest concentration of the measured individual phenols in the liquid phase, i.e. 1034±22mg/L. Anaerobic digestion of OMSW and the different pre-treated phases and mixtures operated under stable conditions, except the biomethanization of the liquid phase, which was mainly inhibited by the high phenols content. Low-temperature thermal pre-treatment allows obtaining an improvement on biodegradability and methane production up to 37% and 34%, respectively. The proposed economic assessment showed that the combination of low-temperature pre-treatment, phenols recovery and the subsequent biomethanization of the substrates was the most attractive treatment option. This management option could reach economic benefit of €0.845/kg OMSW, i.e. twenty times higher than only energy recovery.

Effect of thermal pretreatment on the biogas production and microbial communities balance during anaerobic digestion of urban and industrial waste activated sludge.

The effect of thermal pre-treatment on the microbial populations balance and biogas production was studied during anaerobic digestion of waste activated sludge (WAS) coming from urban (US: urban sludge) and industrial (IS: industrial sludge) wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). The highest biogas yields of 0.42l/gvolatile solid (VS) removed and 0.37l/gVS removed were obtained with urban and industrial sludge pre-treated at 120°C, respectively. Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) was used to quantify the major Bacteria and Archaea groups. Compared to control trails without pretreatment, Archaea content increased from 34% to 86% and from 46% to 83% for pretreated IS and US, respectively. In fact, the thermal pre-treatment of WAS enhanced the growth of hydrogen-using methanogens (HUMs), which consume rapidly the H2 generated to allow the acetogenesis. Therefore, the stable and better performance of digesters was observed involving the balance and syntrophic associations between the different microbial populations.

Methane production from marine microalgae Isochrysis galbana.

Methane production from marine microalgae Isochrysis galbana was assessed before and after mechanical and chemical pretreatments. Mechanical pretreatment resulted in a 61.7% increase in soluble Chemical Oxygen Demand. Different hydrolysis conditions were evaluated by varying temperature - T, sulfuric acid concentration - AC and biomass suspension concentration (measured as particulate COD - CODp) using an experimental design. The most significant interaction occurred between AC and T and the hydrolysis condition that showed the best result in the anaerobic digestion step was the condition at 40°C with addition of 0.2% (v/v) acid for 16h (9.27LCH4/kgVS). The low methane yields were attributed to inhibitory sodium concentrations for anaerobic digestion. Eliminating inhibitory sodium in the anaerobic digestion by biomass prewashing, there was a 71.5% increase in methane yield for biomass after acid hydrolysis, demonstrating the need for pretreatment and reduction in sodium concentration in the anaerobic digestion.

Lime-based sorbents for high-temperature CO2 capture--a review of sorbent modification methods.

This paper presents a review of the research on CO(2) capture by lime-based looping cycles undertaken at CanmetENERGY's (Ottawa, Canada) research laboratories. This is a new and very promising technology that may help in mitigation of global warming and climate change caused primarily by the use of fossil fuels. The intensity of the anticipated changes urgently requires solutions such as more cost-effective technologies for CO(2) capture. This new technology is based on the use of lime-based sorbents in a dual fluidized bed combustion (FBC) reactor which contains a carbonator-a unit for CO(2) capture, and a calciner-a unit for CaO regeneration. However, even though natural materials are cheap and abundant and very good candidates as solid CO(2) carriers, their performance in a practical system still shows significant limitations. These limitations include rapid loss of activity during the capture cycles, which is a result of sintering, attrition, and consequent elutriation from FBC reactors. Therefore, research on sorbent performance is critical and this paper reviews some of the promising ways to overcome these shortcomings. It is shown that reactivation by steam/water, thermal pre-treatment, and doping simultaneously with sorbent reforming and pelletization are promising potential solutions to reduce the loss of activity of these sorbents over multiple cycles of use.