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Biological Treatment of Organic Waste in Wastewater—towards a Circular and Bio-Based Economy

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A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Wastewater Treatment and Reuse".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 June 2021) | Viewed by 20573

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Marianna Garfí

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Guest Editor

GEMMA—Group of Environmental Engineering and Microbiology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.BarcelonaTech (UPC), Barcelona, Spain
Interests: water and wastewater treatment; anaerobic digestion; microalgae; nature-based technology; resources recovery; LCA; sustainability; circular & bio-based economy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Due to population growth, accelerated urbanization, and economic development, the quantity of both industrial and urban wastewater generated and its overall pollution load are increasing globally. In this context, the management of organic waste/sub-products from wastewater is an issue of great concern.

Traditionally, waste has been considered as something that is not useful and has been often neglected over the years. However, the world economic model is currently undergoing a paradigm shift from linear (waste-producing) to circular (waste-to-resources) and bio-based (using renewable biological resources) economies. Thus, there is a need to investigate innovative and cost-effective technologies and processes for the safe and environmentally friendly management of organic waste generated in wastewater treatment systems.

In this context, the biological treatment of organic waste/sub-products from both urban and industrial wastewater is a promising solution to reduce energy and the carbon footprint associated with their treatment and to shift the paradigm from waste treatment to resource recovery.

This Special Issue is focused on innovative solutions for the biological treatment of organic waste from wastewater. In particular, the submission of research articles, case studies, and review articles related but not limited to the following topics is encouraged:

Process mechanisms and operation, optimization, monitoring, modeling, and applications
Removal of pathogens and emerging pollutants
Reuse and circular economy
Resource recovery (e.g., nutrients recovery, high-value compounds) and energy valorization (e.g., biogas)
Life cycle assessment and carbon footprint
Tecno-economic assessment and social perception of waste-to-resource processes
Low-cost technologies
Policy

Dr. Marianna Garfí
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

anaerobic and aerobic digestion
composting
gasification
emerging pollutants
reuse
nutrients recovery
life cycle assessment
sustainability
circular and bio-based economy

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research

2 pages, 172 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Biological Treatment of Organic Waste in Wastewater—Towards a Circular and Bio-Based Economy

by Marianna Garfí

Water 2022, 14(3), 360; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14030360 - 26 Jan 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1901

Abstract

Due to population growth, accelerated urbanization, and economic development, the quantity of both industrial and urban wastewater generated, and its overall pollution load are increasing globally [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biological Treatment of Organic Waste in Wastewater—towards a Circular and Bio-Based Economy)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

21 pages, 1942 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Digested Sludge Quality in Mesophilic, Thermophilic and Temperature-Phased Anaerobic Digestion Systems

by Iryna Lanko, Jakub Hejnic, Jana Říhová-Ambrožová, Ivet Ferrer and Pavel Jenicek

Water 2021, 13(20), 2839; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13202839 - 12 Oct 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3271

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion (AD) technology is commonly used to treat sewage sludge from activated sludge systems, meanwhile alleviating the energy demand (and costs) for wastewater treatment. Most often, anaerobic digestion is run in single-stage systems under mesophilic conditions, as this temperature regime is considered to be more stable than the thermophilic one. However, it is known that thermophilic conditions are advantageous over mesophilic ones in terms of methane production and digestate hygienisation, while it is unclear which one is better concerning the digestate dewaterability. Temperature-phased anaerobic digestion (TPAD) is a double-stage AD process that combines the above-mentioned temperature regimes, by operating a thermophilic digester followed by a mesophilic one. The aim of this study is to compare the digestate quality of single-stage mesophilic and thermophilic AD and TPAD systems, in terms of the dewaterability, pathogenic safety and lower calorific value (LCV) and, based on the comparison, consider digested sludge final disposal alternatives. The research is conducted in lab-scale reactors treating waste-activated sludge. The dewaterability is tested by two methods, namely, centrifugation and mechanical pressing. The experimental results show that the TPAD system is the most beneficial in terms of organic matter degradation efficiency (32.4% against 27.2 for TAD and 26.0 for MAD), producing a digestate with a high dewaterability (8.1–9.8% worse than for TAD and 6.2–12.0% better than for MAD) and pathogenic safety (coliforms and Escherichia coli were not detected, and Clostridium perfringens were counted up to 4.8–4.9 × 10³, when for TAD it was only 1.4–2.5 × 10³, and for MAD it was 1.3–1.8 × 10⁴), with the lowest LCV (19.2% against 15.4% and 15.8% under thermophilic and mesophilic conditions, respectively). Regarding the final disposal, the digested sludge after TAD can be applied directly in agriculture; after TPAD, it can be used as a fertilizer only in the case where the fermenter HRT assures the pathogenic safety. The MAD digestate is the best for being used as a fuel preserving a higher portion of organic matter, not transforming into biogas during AD. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biological Treatment of Organic Waste in Wastewater—towards a Circular and Bio-Based Economy)

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16 pages, 1549 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Toward the Adoption of Anaerobic Digestion Technology through Low-Cost Biodigesters: A Case Study of Non-Centrifugal Cane Sugar Producers in Colombia

by Oscar Mendieta, Liliana Castro, Erik Vera, Jader Rodríguez and Humberto Escalante

Water 2021, 13(18), 2566; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13182566 - 17 Sep 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3006

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion using low-cost biodigesters (LCB) is a promising alternative for Colombian producers of non-centrifugal cane sugar (NCS). Since the integration of anaerobic digestion technology in this agro-industry is novel, it is critical to understand the factors that affect the acceptance behavior of such technology by NCS producers to develop future policies that promote the adoption of sustainable energy alternatives. This study aimed to analyze NCS producers’ behavioral intention to use LCB by utilizing an extended technology acceptance model (TAM). Data from a survey of 182 producers were used to evaluate the proposed model empirically. The extended TAM accounted for 78% of the variance in producers’ behavioral intention to use LCB. Thus, LCB acceptability could be fairly precisely predicted on the basis of producers’ intentions. This study’s findings contribute to research on the TAM and provide a better understanding of the factors influencing NCS producers’ behavioral intention to use LCB. Furthermore, this approach can assist policymakers at the local and global levels, given that NCS is produced in various developing countries worldwide. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biological Treatment of Organic Waste in Wastewater—towards a Circular and Bio-Based Economy)

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20 pages, 2264 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Life Cycle Assessment of the Mesophilic, Thermophilic, and Temperature-Phased Anaerobic Digestion of Sewage Sludge

by Iryna Lanko, Laura Flores, Marianna Garfí, Vladimir Todt, John A. Posada, Pavel Jenicek and Ivet Ferrer

Water 2020, 12(11), 3140; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12113140 - 10 Nov 2020

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 3829

Abstract

In this study the environmental impact of the anaerobic digestion (AD) of sewage sludge within an activated sludge wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) was investigated. Three alternative AD systems (mesophilic, thermophilic, and temperature-phased anaerobic digestion (TPAD)) were compared to determine which system may have the best environmental performance. Two life cycle assessments (LCA) were performed considering: (i) the whole WWTP (for a functional unit (FU) of 1 m³ of treated wastewater), and (ii) the sludge line (SL) alone (for FU of 1 m³ of produced methane). The data for the LCA were obtained from previous laboratory experimental work in combination with full-scale WWTP and literature. According to the results, the WWTP with TPAD outperforms those with mesophilic and thermophilic AD in most analyzed impact categories (i.e., Human toxicity, Ionizing radiation, Metal and Fossil depletion, Agricultural land occupation, Terrestrial acidification, Freshwater eutrophication, and Ozone depletion), except for Climate change where the WWTP with mesophilic AD performed better than with TPAD by 7%. In the case of the SL alone, the production of heat and electricity (here accounted for as avoided environmental impacts) led to credits in most of the analyzed impact categories except for Human toxicity where credits did not balance out the impacts caused by the wastewater treatment system. The best AD alternative was thermophilic concerning all environmental impact categories, besides Climate change and Human toxicity. Differences between both LCA results may be attributed to the FU. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biological Treatment of Organic Waste in Wastewater—towards a Circular and Bio-Based Economy)

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19 pages, 1753 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of Nanoscale Magnetite and Zero Valent Iron on the Batch-Wise Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Food Waste and Waste-Activated Sludge

by Ghada Kassab, Dima Khater, Fadwa Odeh, Khaldoun Shatanawi, Maha Halalsheh, Mazen Arafah and Jules B. van Lier

Water 2020, 12(5), 1283; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12051283 - 30 Apr 2020

Cited by 26 | Viewed by 3451

Abstract

As a potential approach for enhanced energy generation from anaerobic digestion, iron-based conductive nanoparticles have been proposed to enhance the methane production yield and rate. In this study, the impact of two different types of iron nanoparticles, namely the nano-zero-valent-iron particles (NZVIs) and magnetite (Fe₃O₄) nanoparticles (NPs) was investigated, using batch test under mesophilic conditions (35 °C). Magnetite NPs have been applied in doses of 25, 50 and 80 mg/L, corresponding to 13.1, 26.2 and 41.9 mg magnetite NPs/gTS of substrate, respectively. The results reveal that supplementing anaerobic batches with magnetite NPs at a dose of 25 mg/L induces an insignificant effect on hydrolysis and methane production. However, incubation with 50 and 80 mg/L magnetite NPs have instigated comparable positive impact with hydrolysis percentages reaching approximately 95% compared to 63% attained in control batches, in addition to a 50% enhancement in methane production yield. A biodegradability percentage of 94% was achieved with magnetite NP doses of 50 and 80 mg/L, compared to only 62.7% obtained with control incubation. NZVIs were applied in doses of 20, 40 and 60 mg/L, corresponding to 10.8, 21.5 and 32.2 mg NZVIs/gTS of substrate, respectively. The results have shown that supplementing anaerobic batches with NZVIs revealed insignificant impact, most probably due to the agglomeration of NZVI particles and consequently the reduction in available surface area, making the applied doses insufficient for measurable effect. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biological Treatment of Organic Waste in Wastewater—towards a Circular and Bio-Based Economy)

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15 pages, 2120 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Formulation and Characterization of a Heterotrophic Nitrification-Aerobic Denitrification Synthetic Microbial Community and its Application to Livestock Wastewater Treatment

by Qi-yu Zhang, Ping Yang, Lai-sheng Liu and Zeng-jin Liu

Water 2020, 12(1), 218; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12010218 - 13 Jan 2020

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 4253

Abstract

There have been many studies on single strains in wastewater treatment and a new synthetic microbial community was prepared in this study, which provides a reference for the application of heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification in actual wastewater treatment. The growth period distribution of the composite bacteria was determined by plotting growth curves with different sole nitrogen sources, and the influence of the carbon source, carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N) ratio, pH, and temperature on ammonia removal by the composite heterotrophic nitrifying-aerobic denitrifying strain was investigated. The optimal conditions for the heterotrophic nitrification process were sodium citrate as the carbon source, a C/N ratio of 10, a pH of 7, and a temperature of 30 °C, and only trace amounts of nitrate and nitrite were observed during the process. When the sequencing batch reactor (SBR) of a pig farm wastewater treatment plant was inoculated with the synthetic microbial community, the average removals of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonia nitrogen in the effluent were 92.61% and 20.56%, respectively. From the results, the synthetic microbial community was able to simultaneously perform heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification indicating great potential for full-scale applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biological Treatment of Organic Waste in Wastewater—towards a Circular and Bio-Based Economy)

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