Blog from the Environmental Engineering Research Group at SLU
We congratulate Mr Nduhiu Johnson Gitahi to the degree Doctor of Philosophy achieved for his thesis work: Isolation, serotyping & molecular characterization of enteric pathogens for validation of Peepoo sanitization along handling chain at Kibera, Nairobi Kenya.
The latest additions to Kretsloppsteknik are two interns, Chinmoy Deb and Anooj Ramanathan, coming all the way from India to work on urine drying for their bachelor’s thesis. During their bachelors program, both Chinmoy and Anooj have been doing research on sanitation, working with nutrient recovery as well as removal of pharmaceutical residues from human urine. A keen interest in sanitation and hygiene technologies brings them to our group at SLU for a 3-months long internship that began in December. Over the course of the internship, they will be involved in ongoing projects related to process modelling, intensification, and optimization.
A new section about water and wastewater has been launched as a speciality section in the journal, Frontiers in Environmental Science. Björn Vinnerås together with the co-chief editor, Prof. Paolo Perona and the members of the editorial board welcome contributions to the journal. We aim at publishing pioneering, high-quality research in key areas of integrated and sustainable water and wastewater resources management. These include, for instance, uses and processes involving surface- and groundwater bodies, engineering techniques with a focus on upstream work, virtual water networks, innovative water and wastewater treatment solutions in humid, semiarid and arid regions, analytical and numerical modelling as well as the use of innovative algorithms devoted to the analysis of big-datasets. For more information see the following blog post: https://blog.frontiersin.org/2018/12/12/making-waves-paolo-perona-and-bjorn-vinneras-lead-new-water-related-section-in-frontiers-in-environmental-science/ Or directly at the home of the section, available at this link
As part of the result of the Vinnova financed project Five tonnes of fishes in different dishes that aims at producing fish reared exclusively on Swedish produced feed, fish reared on insect based protein were tested and evaluated against fish reared on conventional fish feed. The protein in the test feed comprised of a 1:1 mixture of pea and insect protein. The insects (black soldier fly larvae) were fed stale bread. In total, 25 kg of rainbow trout in this first trial. To the joy of all, the fish fed with insects tasted really well, which suggest that it is feasible that insect can be a part of sustainable Swedish fish feed in the future. 
In the project “Gamification of Sanitation Planning”, we are developing a serious game to support sanitation planning and increase the recovery of nutrients from waste flows. This fall we have had a series of workshops focusing on developing the game concept. The target group for the game is politicians and officials in decision-making positions. Other target groups are property owners, community-based organizations, students and other officials involved in sanitation planning. The aim of the game is to get the target group to understand what nutrient cycles are and what can be done to facilitate the construction of resource-recovery systems, i.e. how can different groups take responsibility? The game should also be fun to play, engaging, be able to inform about new technologies and lead to increased understanding of other actors’ perspectives. The game itself will be developed in early 2019 and be ready to test with audiences before the summer.
I projektet ” Gamification av sanitetsplanering” håller vi på att utveckla ett serious game för att stödja VA-planering och öka kretslopp. Under hösten har vi haft flera utvecklingsworkshop som ska leda fram till ett spelkoncept. Primärmålgruppen för spelet är politiker och tjänstemän i beslutsfattande ställning. Övriga målgrupper är fastighetsägare, samfälligheter, studenter och tjänstemän inblandade i planläggningen av en VA utbyggnad. Målet med spelet är att få målgruppen att förstå vad kretslopp för växtnäringsämne är och vad man kan göra för att underlätta att ett kretsloppsystem byggs upp, dvs. hur kan olika grupper ta ansvar? Spelet ska också vara kul att spela, engagerande, kunna informera om ny teknik och leda till ökat förståelse av andra aktörers perspektiv. Själva spelet ska utvecklas under början av 2019 och vara färdig för att testa med målgrupper innan sommaren.
Den 27 november var Kretsloppsgruppen med och presenterade resultat i MACROs slutkonferens i Stockholm. Projektet MACRO (Mat i Cirkulära Robusta system) hade för mål att stimulera innovation hos både kommuner och teknikleverantörer samt innovation kring produkter och tjänster kopplat till sorterande avloppssystem för samhällets organiska restprodukter. Projektet har bidragit till att fylla kunskapsluckor avseende både teknik och organisation. Genom MACRO skapas fler möjligheter för svenska aktörer att utveckla spetskunskap inom området vilket ökar möjligheterna för Sverige att positivt bidra till utvecklingen av framtidens hållbara städer. SLU har bidragit med forskning om potential för fluglarver kompostering av matavfall från köksavfallskvarnar och organisatorisk förutsättningar för implementering av källsorterade system inom VA-verksamhetsområde. 
On November 27th, members of the Environmental Engineering group presented results at the MACRO final conference in Stockholm. The project MACRO (Food in Circular Robust Systems) aimed at stimulating innovation for source-separated management of urban organic waste flows within both municipalities and technology suppliers. The project has contributed to filling knowledge gaps regarding both technology and organizational structures. Through MACRO, more opportunities have been created for Swedish actors to develop cutting-edge knowledge in this area, which increases the opportunities for Sweden to positively contribute to the development of the sustainable cities of the future. Our group has contributed with research into the potential for black-soldier fly composting of food waste from kitchen grinders and studies of organizational prerequisites for implementing source-separated system.
In our latest study published in Journal of Water and Health, we assessed the pathogen flows in a water&nutrients reuse system for production of lettuce in a peri-urban zone in the highlands of Bolivia. Viral and bacterial indicators, and helminth eggs were quantified in soil, water and lettuce samples taken during one crop season, and then statistically processed to analyse the flows of microbial contamination throughout the system.
Over the course of the year, our group has been intensively investigating urine dehydration – to better understand the technology, identify limitations, and pave the way for it to be successfully upscaled. In our latest development on this front, 8 urine dehydrators are being piloted at households across Uppsala, Sweden. Experinece from this pilot installation will surely help us better design, engineer, and implement the technology. The fertiliser end-products from the trials are to be shipped to France, where INRA, the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique will perform field growth trials using it.