Blog from the Environmental Engineering Research Group at SLU
We were at the Hashemite University in Jordan last week, teaching a group of young students how we can safely recycle different household waste fractions. As part of this week-long course, we organised a day of interactive seminars and a role playing game to improve awareness among the students about the psychology, decision making, and socio-technical aspects of recycling waste.
Hi, my name is Robert Almqvist and I am writing my master thesis in Biology at the institution of energy and technology. I am a soil/plant-agricultural program student matriculated at SLU Uppsala since 2014. In my master thesis, I will look at fly larvae composting and at the possible effect different pre-treatments has on amino acid content of the larvae as well as the degrading of lignin/cellulose/hemicellulose in the substrates, the substrates being banana- and orange peels in this experiment.
This week, we (Sahar Dalahmeh, Mikael Pell, Annika Nordin, Cecilia Lalander, and Prithvi Simha) are in Jordan, conducting a 1-week course on recycling of various household waste fractions. The course is given at the Hashemite University, located about 50 km away from the capital city Amman. A group of about 20 very enthusiastic and inquistive students are learning about various topics such as wastewater microbiology, hygienisation, urine diversion and dehydration, vermi- and black soldier fly composting, on-site wastweater treatment, etc.
Date: 30/9 – 2019 | Time: 10:30 | Location: Room L, Main University building (Ulls hus), Ultuna campus
Is biodegradable waste a problem or a resource? Some claim it’s a resource that can be managed in a much more efficient way, but how come it isn’t? How could a more efficient management look like? If you find these questions interesting, come and listen to Cecilia’s lecture. A summary of the lecture, that will be given in English, can be found below.
More info on all Docent lectures given at Ultuna this time can be found here: https://www.slu.se/en/ew-calendar/2019/9/docent-lectures-at-the-nj-faculty/
The effects of moisture on thermophilic composting process are investigated in the latest paper published in the Journal of Cleaner Production: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118165
It is known that too wet active composts can cause excessive methane (CH4) emissions, but there is no consensus on how much and what exactly the rate of this change is with changing moisture.
A study “Model selection for waste conversion efficiency and energy demands in a pilot for large-scale larvae treatment” was presented at the 60th International Conference of Scandinavian Simulation Society, SIMS 2019, in VästerĂĄs, Sweden.
The study evaluated some technical aspects associated with larvae growth, ventilation and drying demands in a pilot sized black soldier fly treatment system treating segregated household food waste and discussed models to describe the treatment process and its energy efficiency.
A new paper evaluating the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from small-scale fly larvae composting is published. The full paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2019.07.011
The aim of the study was to evaluate GHG and ammonia (NH3) emissions from fly larvae composting treatment of food waste and the effects of pre-treatment and seeding of the food waste substrate with BSF larvae-associated bacteria on the efficiency and rate of the fly larvae composting process.
Our former intern, Chinmoy Deb from India, who came to SLU last year for his Bachelor’s thesis on Urine Drying, has successfully received his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering. Currently, Chinmoy has started his Master’s program in “Soil, Water and Environment” at SLU and has been recruited as a member of our group. During his bachelors’ program, back in India, he had worked with urine for nutrient and pharmaceutical removal. With a keen to connect the nexus of sanitation, hygiene and agriculture, he has joined the group to continue his research on the recovery of plant essential nutrients by means of urine drying technology.
A demonstration household biochar filter has been built and is now running in a household in Gamla Uppsala to treat wastewater from a single household of 5 person. The filter has a unique design in which the biochar is used as a filter material in a multi module cabinet staked biochar of different properties to remove different types of pollutants including organics and micro pollutants. During the upcoming period, the quality of the wastewater will be analysed for different parameters (COD, Tot-N, Tot-P and other pollutants). For more information, please contact Sahar Dalahmeh (Sahar.Dalahmeh@slu.se)
With a generous financial support from eight wastewater treatment utilities in Sweden as well as from Svenskt vatten (via VA-kluster Mälardalen), Sahar Dalahmeh started a research project focusing on development of analytical method for extraction, identification and quantification of microplastics in sewage sludge. Different extraction protocols (acids, base and enzymatic extraction will be tested and optimised). Also, different identification methods will be investigated, not the least these using µ-FTIR for chemical imaging. All the equipment needed for development the method are in place including state of the art Cary 660 IR spectroscopes coupled to 620 Cary FTIR microscope (Agilent Technologies) for micro imaging and chemical scanning microscope. The projects runs during 2019-2021. For more information, please contact Sahar Dalahmeh (Sahar.Dalahmeh@slu.se)