This study was conducted to investigate the toxicity of six electroplating metals on the H(2)-producing activity of a granular sludge sampled from an H(2)-producing upflow reactor treating sucrose-containing wastewater. The H(2) production activities of the sludge were measured in serum vials using wastewater containing not just sucrose and proper nutrient, but also individual heavy metals at c...

To develop an active microbial activity quickly developing stabilizing thermophilic temperatures during the composting of wastewater sludge, the bulking agent (BA) plays a major role in establishing the recipe structure, exposed particle surface area and porosity. To optimize the biodegradation of a sludge compost recipe, the objective of this paper was to study the effect and interaction of in...

A bench-scale up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor was applied to start-up the anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox) process from conventional return activated sludge. The reactor was operated for approximately 170 days and was fed synthetic wastewater containing mainly nitrite ) (NO2 − and ammonium ) (NH 4 + as main substrates. After 106 days of operation, the first evidence of Ana...

The aim of this paper is to study the microbial and structural changes occurring during the transition from flocculent (used as inoculum) to biofilm and granular sludge in a Sequencing Batch Biofilter Granular Reactor (SBBGR). SBBGR is a new and promising technology characterised by low sludge production (5-6 times lower than in conventional treatment plants), high biomass concentration (up to ...

The granulation of anammox sludge plays an important role in the high nitrogen removal performance of the anammox reactor. In this study, anaerobic granular sludge was selected as the seeding sludge to start up anammox reactor in order to directly obtain anammox granules. Results showed that the anammox UASB reactor was successfully started up by inoculating anaerobic granular sludge, with subs...

The main objective of this study was to investigate the rheology of mixed primary and secondary sludge and its dependency on solid content and temperature. Results of this study showed that the temperature and solid concentration are critical parameters affecting the mixed sludge rheology. It was found that the yield stress increases with an increase in the sludge solid content and decreases wi...

To understand the diversity and abundance of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in pharmaceutical wastewater treatment bioreactors, the ARGs in sludge from two full-scale pharmaceutical wastewater treatment plants (PWWTPs) were investigated and compared with sludge samples from three sewage treatment plants (STPs) using metagenomic approach. The results showed that the ARG abundances in PWWTP s...

The following sludge reduction alternatives were tested in wastewater biological reactors: oxic-settling-anaerobic (OSA-process); ultrasonic disintegration (UD); chlorination (CH); 3,3',4',5tetrachlorosalicylanilide (TCS); and folic acid (FA). Compared to the control system, UD reduced 55% of the sludge production, and greater substrate and nutrient removal efficiency was achieved. CH worsened ...

BACKGROUND Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a highly crystalline and mechanically stable nanopolymer, which has excellent potential as a material in many novel applications, especially if it can be produced in large amounts from an inexpensive feedstock. Waste fiber sludge, a residue with little or no value, originates from pulp mills and lignocellulosic biorefineries. A high cellulose and low ligni...

Sludge minimization by thermal treatment within activated sludge process was investigated at pilot scale. A 90°C treatment was set up in the return activated sludge loop. When keeping apparent sludge age at 15 days, 90°C treatment decreased sludge production by 30.4%. However, effluent quality was altered. A sludge minimization ASM1 based model was set up and calibrated against experimental dat...