Performance of a membrane-coupled high-rate algal pond for urban wastewater treatment at demonstration scale
[EN] The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of an outdoor membrane-coupled high-rate algal pond equipped with industrial-scale membranes for treating urban wastewater. Decoupling biomass retention time (BRT) and hydraulic retention time (HRT) by membrane filtration resulted in improved process efficiencies, with higher biomass productivities and nutrient removal rates when operating at low HRTs. At 6 days of BRT, biomass productivity increased from 30 to 66 and to 95 g.m(-3).d(-1) when operating at HRTs of 6, 4 and 2.5 days, respectively. The corresponding nitrogen removal rates were 4, 8 and 11 g N.m(-3).d(-1) and the phosphorous removal rates were 0.5, 1.3 and 1.6 g P…
Real-time optimization of the key filtration parameters in an AnMBR: Urban wastewater mono-digestion vs. co-digestion with domestic food waste
[EN] This study describes a model-based method for real-time optimization of the key filtration parameters in a submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) treating urban wastewater (UWW) and UWW mixed with domestic food waste (FW). The method consists of an initial screening to find out adequate filtration conditions and a real-time optimizer applied to a periodically calibrated filtration model for minimizing the operating costs. The initial screening consists of two statistical analyses: (1) Morris screening method to identify the key filtration parameters; (2) Monte Carlo method to establish suitable initial control inputs values. The operating filtration cost after implementing the…
Development and pilot-scale validation of a fuzzy-logic control system for optimization of methane production in fixed-bed reactors
International audience; The objective of this study was to develop an advanced control system for optimizing the performance of fixed-bed anaerobic reactors. The controller aimed at maximizing the bio-methane production whilst controlling the volatile fatty acids content in the effluent. For this purpose, a fuzzy-logic controller was developed, tuned and validated in an anaerobic fixed-bed reactor at pilot scale (350 L) treating raw winery wastewater. The results showed that the controller was able to adequately optimize the process performance, maximizing the methane production in terms of methane flow rate, resulting in an average methane yield of about 0.29 LCH4 g−1 COD. On the other han…
Unraveling the literature chaos around free ammonia inhibition in anaerobic digestion
International audience; This review aims at providing a unified methodology for free ammonia nitrogen (FAN) calculation in anaerobic digesters, also identifying the factors causing the huge disparity in FAN inhibitory limits. Results show that assuming ideal equilibria overestimates the FAN concentrations up to 37% when compared to MINTEQA2 Equilibrium Speciation Model, used as reference. The Davies equation led to major improvements. Measuring the concentrations of NH 4 þ , Na þ and K þ was enough to achieve major corrections. The best compromise between complexity and accuracy was achieved with a novel modified Davies equation, with systematic differences in FAN concentrations of 2% when …
Considering syntrophic acetate oxidation and ionic strength improves the performance of models for food waste anaerobic digestion.
Current mechanistic anaerobic digestion (AD) models cannot accurately represent the underlying processes occurring during food waste (FW) AD. This work presents an update of the Anaerobic Digestion Model no. 1 (ADM1) to provide accurate estimations of free ammonia concentrations and related inhibition thresholds, and model syntrophic acetate oxidation as acetate-consuming pathway. A modified Davies equation predicted NH3 concentrations and pH more accurately, and better estimated associated inhibitory limits. Sensitivity analysis results showed the importance of accurate disintegration kinetics and volumetric mass transfer coefficients, as well as volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and hydrogen up…
Resource recovery from food waste via biological processes
Abstract The need for sustainable development is driving a major focus shift in the biowaste treatment sector. While traditional practices such as landfilling are progressively being banned/penalized due to their obvious environmental impacts and prevention policies are being implemented, the potential of food waste (FW) as a resource is being increasingly recognized. The immense amounts of FW produced worldwide—and its overall characteristics—make it a promising candidate for resource recovery if collected separately, a practice that is gaining popularity. This chapter aims at giving a general overview of the different processes that are being developed/implemented for resource recovery fr…
Microalgae-bacteria consortia in high-rate ponds for treating urban wastewater: Elucidating the key state indicators under dynamic conditions
[EN] On-line performance indicators of a microalgae-bacteria consortium were screened out from different variables based on pH and dissolved oxygen on-line measurements via multivariate projection analysis, aiming at finding on-line key state indicators to easily monitor the process. To fulfil this objective, a pilot-scale high-rate pond for urban wastewater treatment was evaluated under highly variable conditions, i.e. during the start-up period. The system was started-up without seed of either bacterial or microalgal biomass. It took around 19 days to fully develop a microalgal community assimilating nutrients significantly. Slight increases in the biomass productivities in days 26-30 sug…