English – Page 26 – Kretsloppsteknik

Larvae fed bread get really fat

Published 31 October, 2019
By Prithvi Simha

How does the fat content and composition in the larvae of the black solider fly (Hermetia illucens) change with the diet provided to them? In our latest article published in Waste Management, Nils Ewald and co-authors brings new knowledge on this topic. The study is based on eleven feeding trials were the larvae were fed diets based on mussels, fish, bread and food waste. The larval fat was found to contain mainly saturated fatty acids, especially lauric acid, but was also affected by the weight of the larvae and the diet. For example, the larvae fed with mussels and fish contained EPA and DHA – Omega- 3 fatty acids that are valuable for aquaculture. However, the levels of these fatty acids were found to be too low to replace fish oil in fish feed but could potentially be used for replacing the vegetable oil fraction. Other possible applications of the larval fat could be in the production of food or fuel.

New publication on pre-treatment of banana peels for BSFL composting

Published 25 October, 2019
By Prithvi Simha

Alice Isibika and co-authors have published a new study in the journal Waste Management, on the application of pre-treatments prior BSFL treatment of banana peels as a fibrous and nutrient imbalanced substrate to enhance bioconversion ratio. The applied pre-treatments were non-protein nitrogen for balancing the carbon/nitrogen , heat and microbes(fungi and bacteria) pre-treatments for breaking down complex compounds into more readily available forms in the banana peels to be consumed by the BSFL. They found that direct addition of ammonia solution in the banana peel and addition of both fungi (Trichoderma, Rhizopus) and bacteria (BSFL gut bacteria) improved the BSFL response efficiencies while heat treatment did not improve. For microbial pre-treatment 14 days was found to be the total time to achieve sufficient degradation of the banana peels for BSFL consumption.

Christian Zurbrügg joins Kretsloppsteknik as Adjunct Professor

Published 24 October, 2019
By Prithvi Simha

What a pleasure to now be part of this exciting and motivated team at SLU !!

My home-base is at Sandec – the Department of Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development, at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), where I have been working since 1998, first as tenure track researcher then head of department and since 2015 as a member of the Eawag directorate while also continuing my ongoing research. My research interests lie in the interdisciplinary approach of innovating and upgrading infrastructure and services in urban areas of low and middle income countries – with a special focus on solid waste and sanitation. Resource recovery and waste valorization for low and middle-income settings has been on my applied research agenda since many years, leading international programs and projects, publishing scientific articles and book chapters on appropriate technology and enabling environments in low income settings, and serving on many international committees, task forces and juries. My current projects evolve around issues of waste for BSF protein production, plastic waste flows and potential recovery options and more recently looking at the management of disposal diapers and sanitary pads, behavioral change mechanisms for waste segregation as well as supply chain cost modelling.

Anastasija Vasiljev interning with the urine drying project

Published 20 October, 2019
By Prithvi Simha

My name is Anastasija Vasiljev. I am a Serbian girl finishing my environmental engineering bachelor’s at South-Eastern University of Applied Sciences in Finland. I only have an internship and a thesis left to complete, before I am fully done with my program. At SLU, I will be working as a part of the urine drying research team. My responsibilities are to aid in figuring out how to minimize the nitrogen losses during urine drying process, performing experiments to determine the most efficient media for nitrogen capture. I will stay and be a part of the team until the end of January next year!

Removal of Selected Pharmaceuticals and Personal Products in Wastewater Treatment Plant in Jordan

Published 18 October, 2019
By Prithvi Simha

In collaboration Othman Masahgbeh (RSS- Jordan) and other researchers in Lincoln University, Sahar Dalahmeh from our group has published an article “Removal of Selected Pharmaceuticals and Personal Products in Wastewater Treatment Plant in Jordan” in the journal, Water.

The authors concluded that the highest average concentrations of personal care products (PPCPs) which were detected in treated wastewater were for carbamazepine, sulfamethoxazole, caffeine, and cotinine. This study clearly showed that incomplete removal and/or degradation of PPCPs takes place in As-Samra WWTP, the biggest and most advances WWTP in the country. Less effort has been made to minimize the levels of PPCPs contaminants at their sources, especially at home, pharmacies, and hospitals. Therefore, there is a need in Jordan to raise public awareness about the impact of these contaminants on water and the food cycle. This awareness will help the local authorities to implement any future policies that cover pharmaceutical waste management and handling at home, pharmacies, and hospitals.

Feature Paper Invitation: Special Issue “Biochar for the Environmental Wastewater Treatments” in Applied Sciences

Published 18 October, 2019
By Prithvi Simha

The following special issue which Sahar Dalahmeh from our research group is guest editing will be published in Applied Sciences, is now open to receive submissions of full research articles and comprehensive review papers for peer-review and possible publication. We invite prospective authors to submit innovative and high-quality papers with original perspectives on any of the PIC-related topics.

Chea Eliyan joins Kretsloppsteknik as a PhD student

Published 18 October, 2019
By Prithvi Simha

I am Chea Eliyan, and I recently joined the Environmental Engineering Research Group of the Department of Energy and Technology, SLU, in a sandwich mode Ph.D. program. As part of this program, I will spend half the time here at SLU and another 50% time at my home country, Cambodia at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP). The SIDA-RUPP bilateral program fully supports this study as well as RUPP’s research capacity development.

Tristan Martin, PhD Student from INRA at Kretsloppsteknik

Published 15 October, 2019
By Prithvi Simha

My name is Tristan Martin and I’m a PhD student from France. I’m working at the French National institute for agricultural research on the agronomic valorization of urine in France and the associated environmental impacts of this valorization. My work in France consists mainly in doing agronomical experiments with different urine based fertilizers to compare their agronomical efficiencies (yields, NH₃ volatilization, N₂O emissions …). I will be there in Uppsala for 3 month to work on the second part of my PhD which aims to evaluate the impacts of the whole valorization chains (treatment, transport …) using life cycle assessment methodology.

Xiaoqin Zhou on research exchange at SLU from USTB

Published 11 October, 2019
By Prithvi Simha

Dr. Xiaoqin Zhou, Assistant Professor of University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB) is on a three week research exchange at Kretsloppsteknik. Yesterday, at a lunch seminar organised by the group, Xiaoqin presented about USTB and her own research activities. Specifically, she talked baout “toilet revolution” in rural China and how the country is currently in the process of upgrading its rural sanitation infrastructure. The “toilet revolution” campaign was launched by the Chinese central government since 2015 to improve the sanitary conditions in Mainland China. Thereafter, several campaigns have been launced in recent years such as“ National Tourism Reinvent Toilet Campaign” and “new toilet for rural toilet system Campaign” led by China National Tourism Administration (CNTA ), now called as Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China, and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

Watch Cecilia’s docent lecture here!

Published 2 October, 2019
By Prithvi Simha

On Monday Cecilia Lalander from the group held her docent lecture. If you for some reason could participate, don’t fret, you can watch it here : (https://www.dropbox.com/l/scl/AAAWVntwTqW6cYrYRn7BiWOLRRUQPwfXKfY, start at 02:00 h).