Waste streams such as municipal wastewater and animal manure contain organic materials and nutrients that can be converted and recovered for bioenergy and renewable fertilizer production. In the first part of this thesis, the anaerobic co-digestion of dairy manure with kitchen waste and chicken fat was studied for the purpose of increasing biogas production. The methane yields of co-digestion s...

In microelectronics, single failure events sporadically occur which, in some areas, like plane and space navigation, could have catastrophic consequences. Preliminary estimations [1] and more recent experiments [2] indicate a correlation between these events and the Background Neutron Radiation (BNR) [3]. The mechanism of failure is the collision of a neutron from the BNR with an atomic nucleus...

The increasingly more stringent phosphorus (P) discharge limits, which are below the concentrations reliably achievable with currently available technologies, demand for better understanding of phosphorus removal mechanisms. This study investigated the compositional fractions of phosphorus (P) in various effluents as well as the efficacy of different levels of treatment processes for removing d...

The latest NPDES permit adopted for the Sacramento Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant included a requirement for tertiary treatment, equivalent to the water quality requirements of Title 22, unrestricted use recycled water. Initial cost projections for the required plant upgrades exceeded $2 billion to upgrade the 691 ML/day (181 mgd) facility. To help in the selection process for tertiary tre...

Despite the huge current challenges in sewage sludge treatment and disposal China, anaerobic stabilisation (AnSS) is still not a state-of-the-art process WWTP country. However, potential benefits of may outweigh drawbacks. One these drawbacks backload from liquor that increases nutrient load biological stage. This work shows via computer modelling only can production costs be significantly redu...

The improvement of New Zealands pastures over the last ISO years has increased the nutrient status of the soil as a result of the application of fertiliser, an increased soil organic matter content and increased biological activity. The grazing animal has also influenced the nutrient status of the soil by increasing the rate at which nutrients cycle between the soil, plants and animals. However...