The fate of antibiotic resistance genes during anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge with ultrasonic pretreatment.

This study investigated the effect of ultrasonic (US) pretreatment at three different contact times (30, 45, and 60 min) with a power of 240 W and frequency of 40 kHz on the fate of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), mobile genetic elements (MGEs), and enteric pathogens during anaerobic digestion (AD) of sludge. By using real time-qPCR, three MGEs (int1, int2, and tnpA) and seven ARGs (sul1, sul2, tetW, tetA, tetO, ermF, and aac(6')-lb) were quantified that have serious human health impacts and represent the most widely used antibiotics (tetracycline, sulfonamide, macrolide, and aminoglycoside). Results indicated that US pretreatment under different contact times improved the removal of ARGs and MGEs. Compared to 30 and 45 min of US pretreatment, 60 min of US pretreatment resulted in a higher reduction of ARGs with total ARG reduction of 41.70 ± 1.13%. Furthermore, the relative abundance of ARGs and MGEs after US pretreatment was reduced more effectively in anaerobic reactors than in a control AD without US pretreatment. The total ARGs and MGEs removal efficiency of control AD was 44.07 ± 0.72% and 63.69 ± 1.43%, and if US pretreatment at different times were applied, the total ARGs and MGEs removal efficiency of the whole pretreatment AD process improved to 59.71 ± 2.76-68.54 ± 1.58% and 69.82 ± 2.15-76.84 ± 0.22%. The highest removal of total ARGs (68.54 ± 1.58%) and MGEs (76.84 ± 0.22%) was achieved after AD with US pretreatment at 45 min. However, US pretreatment and AD with US pretreatment were not effective in inactivation of enteric pathogens (total coliforms and E. coli), suggesting that posttreatment is needed prior to land application of sludge to reduce the level of enteric pathogens. There was no detection of the studied ARGs and MGEs in the enteric pathogens after US pretreatment in subsequent AD. According to this study, long contact times of US pretreatment can mitigate ARGs and MGEs in AD processes, offering valuable insight into improving environmental safety and sustainable waste management. Additionally, the study highlights the need to investigate posttreatment techniques for reducing enteric pathogens in AD effluent, a crucial consideration for agricultural use and environmental protection.

Petroleum coke supplementation for enhanced biogas production and phosphate removal under mesophilic conditions.

The use of carbon-based conductive materials has been shown to lead to an increase in biogas and methane yields during anaerobic digestion (AD). The effect of these additives on AD using synthetic substrates has been extensively studied, yet their significance for wastewater sludge digestion has not been adequately investigated. Therefore, the aim of this research was to optimize the concentration of petroleum coke (PC) that is a waste by-product of oil refineries, for the anaerobic digestion of wastewater sludge and investigation of phosphate removal in the AD process in the mesophilic temperature range. According to the results of the experiments, supplementing reactors with PC could significantly improve biogas and methane production. Supplementation of reactors with 1.5 g/L PC led to 23.40 ± 0.26% and 42.55 ± 3.97% increase in biogas production and methane generation, respectively. Moreover, the average volatile solids (VS), phosphate, and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removals were 43.43 ± 0.73, 46.74 ± 0.77%, and 60.40 ± 0.38%, respectively.

High-rate anaerobic treatment of digestate using fixed film reactors.

The effluent stream of the anaerobic digestion processes, the digestate, accommodates high residual organic content that needs to be further treated before discharge. Anaerobic treatment of digestate would not only reduce the residual organic compounds in digestate but also has a potential to capture the associated biogas. High-rate anaerobic reactor configurations can treat the waste streams using lower hydraulic retention times which requires less footprint opposed to the conventional completely stirred tank reactors. This study investigated the high-rate anaerobic treatment performance and the associated biogas capture from the digestate of a manure mixture composed of 90% laying hen and 10% cattle manures in fixed-film reactors. The results indicated that it was possible to reduce total chemical oxygen demand content of the digestate by 57-62% in 1.3-1.4 days of hydraulic retention time. The corresponding biogas yields obtained were in the range of 0.395-0.430 Lbiogas/g VSadded which were found to be comparable to many raw feedstocks. Moreover, significant total phosphorus reduction (36-47%) and greenhouse gas capture (over 14.5-18.1 tCO2e/d per m3 digestate) were also recorded in the anaerobic fixed-film reactors.

Volatile Fatty Acid Production from Anaerobic Digestion of Organic Residues.

Short chain volatile fatty acids (VFAs) from acetic acid (C2) to valeric acid (C5) are important starting chemicals for chemical industry. The production of VFAs from rejected resources (organic residues) using self-sustaining technologies has an exciting potential in supporting the US chemical industry to achieve the goal that 20% of chemicals produced in the USA will be bio-based. Acidogenic anaerobic digestion as a robust, well-established, and versatile biological technology can be applied as an alternative approach for the valorization of organic residues (municipal, agricultural, and industrial wastes) by the production of VFAs. In a typical acidogenic anaerobic digestion operation, residue type, pretreatment, reactor operation, and VFA recovery are the key factors that influence VFA production. This chapter discusses these factors and provides an experimental approach of VFA production from organic residues.

Carbon-to-nitrogen and substrate-to-inoculum ratio adjustments can improve co-digestion performance of microalgal biomass obtained from domestic wastewater treatment.

This study comparatively evaluated the effect of co-substrates on anaerobic digestion (AD) and biochemical methane potential of wastewater-derived microalgal biomass, with an emphasis on carbon-to-nitrogen (C:N) and substrate-to-inoculum (S:I) ratios. A semi-continuous photobioreactor was inoculated with Chlorella vulgaris and the nutrient recovery potential was investigated. Derived microalgal slurry was subjected to AD in the absence and presence of co-substrates; model kitchen waste (MKW) and waste activated sludge (WAS). The results revealed that up to 99.6% of nitrogen and 91.2% of phosphorus could be removed from municipal wastewater using C. vulgaris. Biomethane yields were improved by co-digestion with both MKW and WAS. The maximum biomethane yield was observed as 523 ± 25.6 ml CH4 g VSadded-1, by microalgal biomass and MKW co-digestion in 50:50 ratio, at an initial chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration of 14.0 ± 0.1 g l-1, C:N ratio of 22.0, and S:I ratio of 2.2. The observed biomethane yield was 80.7% higher than that of the mono-digestion. The highest improvement achieved by 50:50 co-digestion of microalgal biomass and WAS was 15.5%, with biomethane yield of 272 ± 11.3 ml CH4 g VSadded-1 at an initial COD concentration of 14.0 ± 0.1 g l-1, C:N ratio of 13.0, and S:I of 2.3.

Nitrogen and phosphorus recovery from anaerobic co-digestion residues of poultry manure and maize silage via struvite precipitation.

Anaerobic digestion is commonly used for the stabilization of agricultural and animal wastes. However, owing to the stringent environmental criteria, anaerobic digester effluents need to be further treated to reduce nutrient loads to the receiving water bodies. Struvite precipitation is one of the promising techniques applied for this purpose. Yet, in the majority of cases, struvite precipitation is only applied to the liquid phase of anaerobic digester effluents. This study investigated the recovery of nutrients from both the liquid and the solid phases of the phase-separated effluent of a full-scale biogas plant co-digesting poultry manure and maize silage. Struvite precipitation in the liquid phase led to 72.1% and 95.1% average removal efficiencies of ammonium-nitrogen (NH4-N) and orthophosphate respectively. Changing the external phosphorus source did not make any statistically significant difference in nutrient removal. An acidic phosphorus-dissolution process was applied to the solid phase sample to obtain a phosphorus-enriched solution. More than 90.0% of both NH4-N and PO4-P were recovered from the phosphorus-enriched solution with the amendments of magnesium and phosphorus. In the experiments performed without any addition of external magnesium- and phosphorus-containing chemicals, almost complete (99.6%) PO4-P recovery and partial (14.6%) NH4-N recovery were obtained. The results of this study could contribute to the understanding of nutrient recovery from anaerobic digestion residues of manure and agricultural wastes by struvite precipitation.

The effect of managing nutrients in the performance of anaerobic digesters of municipal wastewater treatment plants.

Is it possible to create conditions in the anaerobic digesters to control nutrients without changing the performance of a reactor? This study investigates an answer for this question. To this purpose, anaerobic reactors are operated at high concentrations of Mg(2+) ion to harvest the nutrient ions (NH4 (+) and PO4 (3-)) in the form of struvite, that is, magnesium ammonium phosphate. The effects of this modification on the anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge were investigated in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal and cumulative CH4 production as well as the changes in the biological diversity. The results showed that approximately 50 % of the nutrients (NH4 (+) and PO4 (3-)) were removed regardless of the method adopted for the addition of Mg(2+) ion, slug or daily dosing. The numbers of Methanosaeta and Methanosarcina in the samples withdrawn prior to and after the addition of Mg(2+) did not show significant difference according to the results obtained from qPCR analyses. The research results showed that the addition of Mg(2+) into the anaerobic digesters in municipal wastewater treatment facilities may help to remove the nutrients from the effluent while recovering in their solid forms.

Anaerobic-fed and sequencing-batch treatment of sugar-beet processing wastes: a comparative study.

The aim of this study was to compare a batch-fed continuously mixed anaerobic reactor (FCMR) with an anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR), in terms of waste stabilization and methane production treating sugar-beet processing wastewater and beet-pulp simultaneously. A reactor was operated as FCMR, which then was operated as an ASBR by changing operational conditions after the steady-state was reached. Although the hydraulic retention time value of the ASBR configuration was lower (8 days) than that of the FCMR (15 days) and the corresponding organic loading rate (OLR) was higher (0.71 to 1.33 g COD/L x d), increased biomass retention enabled a significant increase in biomethanation for the ASBR configuration. So, methane production yield of 255 +/- 11 mL/g COD-added was increased to 337 +/- 15 mL/g COD-added (32.2% increase in methane yield) when the configuration was changed from FCMR to ASBR. The experimental results indicated that the ASBR configuration, which was applied to sugar-beet processing wastes for the first time, was superior to the FCMR configuration.

The determination of fertilizer quality of the formed struvite from effluent of a sewage sludge anaerobic digester.

The formation of struvite (MgNH(4)PO(4).6H(2)O) in wastewater treatment plants can lead to scaling and thus operational problems reducing the treatment efficiency. However, struvite has significant commercial value as an agricultural fertilizer. Therefore, controlled struvite formation in wastewater treatment plants not only presents an opportunity to recover nutrients but also corresponds to the valorization of wastes. NH(4)-N and PO(4)-P removal and recovery from the effluent of a full-scale sewage sludge anaerobic digester via controlled struvite precipitation were investigated in this study. The effect of the residual heavy metal and micropollutant content of the formed struvite on fertilizer quality was also evaluated. Removal efficiencies of NH(4)-N, PO(4)-P and COD were 89.35%, 95% and 39.78% when Mg:N:P molar ratio was 1.5:1:1 and pH was 9.0. Mercury, nickel, zinc and chrome concentrations derived from struvite precipitation were below the regulatory limit for fertilizer usage in Turkey. The precipitate did not contain polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB). X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis conducted on the precipitate indicated a struvite formation.

Investigation of the effect of culture type on biological hydrogen production from sugar industry wastes.

The bio-hydrogen generation potential of sugar industry wastes was investigated. In the first part of the study, acidogenic anaerobic culture was enriched from the mixed anaerobic culture (MAC) through acidification of glucose. In the second part of the study, glucose acclimated acidogenic seed was used, along with the indigenous microorganisms, MAC, 2-bromoethanesulfonate treated MAC and heat treated MAC. Two different COD levels (4.5 and 30g/L COD) were investigated for each culture type. Reactors with initial COD concentration of 4.5g/L had higher H(2) yields (20.3-87.7mL H(2)/g COD) than the reactors with initial COD concentration of 30g/L (0.9-16.6mL H(2)/g COD). The 2-bromoethanesulfonate and heat treatment of MAC inhibited the methanogenic activity, but did not increase the H(2) production yield. The maximum H(2) production (87.7mL H(2)/g COD) and minimum methanogenic activity were observed in the unseeded reactor with 4.5g/L of initial COD.

Recovery of acids from anaerobic acidification broth by liquid-liquid extraction.

In this study, anaerobic acidification of sugar beet processing wastes and subsequent liquid-liquid extraction of produced fermentation metabolites were investigated. The aim of extraction experiments was to asses the influence of pH and extractant (trioctylphosphine oxide (TOPO) in kerosene) concentrations on the recovery of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) from fermentation broth. The effect of TOPO in kerosene concentration was as crucial as the effect of pH on the recovery of VFAs via extraction. Consequently, pH 2.5 was determined as optimum. At this pH, percent recoveries of VFAs were changed from 43% to 98%, depending on the type of the acid extracted (acetic, butyric, propionic and valeric acids) and the concentration of TOPO in kerosene (5-20%). As the concentration of TOPO in kerosene was increased, efficiency of extraction was increased. As a result, highest VFA recoveries (61-98%) were observed at 20% TOPO in kerosene with distribution ratio values ranging between 1.54 and 40.79. At pH 2.5, the increase in TOPO concentration directly increased the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies, as it does for total VFA recovery. Up to 72% COD removals were achieved, at 20% TOPO in kerosene at pH 2.5, while the removal efficiencies remained between 19% and 22% at pH 5.5.

Use of blast furnace granulated slag as a substrate in vertical flow reed beds: field application.

Research was conducted at Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, Turkey in 2000 to determine whether a reed bed filled with an economical Turkish fill media that has high phosphorus (P) sorption capacity, could be implemented and operated successfully under field conditions. In batch-scale P-sorption experiments, the P-sorption capacity of the blast furnace granulated slag (BFGS) of KARDEMIR Iron and Steel Ltd., Co., Turkey, was found to be higher compared to other candidate filter materials due to its higher Ca content and porous structure. In this regard, a vertical subsurface flow constructed wetland (CW) (30 m(2)), planted with Phragmites australis was implemented at METU to treat primarily treated domestic wastewater, at a hydraulic rate of 100 mm d(-1), intermittently. The layers of the filtration media constituted of sand, BFGS, and gravel. According to the first year monitoring study, average influent and effluent total phosphorus (TP) concentrations were 6.61+/-1.78 mg L(-1) and 3.18+/-1.82 mg L(-1); respectively. After 12 months, slag samples were taken from the reed bed and P-extraction experiments were performed to elucidate the dominant P-retention mechanisms. Main pools for P-retention were the loosely-bounded and Ca-bounded P due to the material's basic conditions (average pH>7.7) and higher Ca content. This study indicated the potential use of the slag reed bed with higher P-removal capacity for secondary and tertiary treatment under the field conditions. However, the P-sorption isotherms obtained under the laboratory conditions could not be used favorably to determine the longevity of the reed bed in terms of P-retention.

Effect of initial COD concentration, nutrient addition, temperature and microbial acclimation on anaerobic treatability of broiler and cattle manure.

In this study, anaerobic treatability and biogas generation potential of broiler and cattle manure were investigated. For this purpose, seven sets of anaerobic batch reactor experiments were performed using broiler and cattle manure and their mixtures in five different ratios (100% broiler; 75% broiler, 25% cattle; 50% broiler, 50% cattle; 25% broiler, 75% cattle; 100% cattle). These manure mixtures had two different initial chemical oxygen demand (COD) (12,000 and 53,500 mg/l) concentrations. The effects of initial COD concentration, nutrient and trace metal supplementation, microbial acclimation and digestion temperature were investigated. Results revealed that the efficiency of total COD removal was 32.0-43.3% and 37.9-50% for initial COD concentrations of 12,000 and 53,500 mg/l, respectively. The biogas yields observed for initial COD concentrations of 12,000 and 53,500 mg/l were 180-270 and 223-368 ml gas/g COD added, respectively. A decrease in biogas yield was observed as the fraction of broiler manure increased in mixture of broiler and cattle manure at initial COD values of 53,500 mg/l.

The inhibitory effects and removal of dieldrin in continuous upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactors.

The inhibitory effects and removal efficiency of dieldrin (DLD) in anaerobic reactors were investigated. Anaerobic toxicity assay (ATA) experiments conducted in batch reactors revealed that 30 mg/l DLD had inhibitory effects on the unacclimated mixed anaerobic cultures. Continuous reactor experiments performed in a lab-scale two-stage upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor system which was fed with ethanol as the sole carbon source, indicated that anaerobic granular cultures could be successfully acclimated to DLD. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies were 88-92% for the two-stage system. The influent DLD concentration of 10 mg/l was removed by 44-86% and 86-94% in the second stage and overall UASB system, respectively. Biosorption of DLD on granular anaerobic biomass was found to be a significant mechanism for DLD removal in the UASB system. The maximum DLD loading rate and minimum HRT achievable for the first stage UASB reactor were 0.5 mg/lday (76 microg DLD/g VSS.day) and 10 h, respectively, which resulted in the overall COD removal efficiency of 85%.