Category: English

Hej! My name is Verena and I recently started a 2-years-postdoc here at SLU’s Kretsloppsteknik. Rooting in my bachelor and master degree of civil engineering and water management at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU), my interests and expertise evolved throughout my doctorate to a more interdisciplinary perspective at the science-society-policy interface. After working on sanitation system planning and modelling in my master thesis, I enrolled in the Transitions to Sustainability (T2S) Doctoral School with its goal of promoting and supporting inter- and transdisciplinary research in the field of sustainable development. My previous research focused on the development and evaluation of coherent policy-options to boost the implementation of SDG 6 at the example of Austria and on the assessment of methods to evaluate interactions between different SDG entities.

Here at SLU I will be supporting the group on systems analysis lead by Jennifer. My work will focus on evaluating different systems for resource recovery and identifying and balancing trade-offs between sustainability aspects related to these systems. If you would like to know more about my work and interests just contact me or approach me for a talk or a fika. I am looking forward to fruitful exchanges and exciting tasks here at SLU. Vi ses!

We are once again partnering up with a number of stakeholders all through the food production chain, from producers of residual streams, to insect producers, feed producers and farmers to wholesalers in the project The feed of the future for fish, pigs, poultry and laying hens (Framtidens foder för fågel fisk och fläsk, 5F), partially finansed by Vinnova. The project will test and evaluate several innovative feed ingredients, including for example insects, mycoprotein, and blue mussels from the Baltic Sea. The goal is to set up production with sales of pigs, fish, poultry, and eggs from laying hens that have been fed a low climate impact feed containing ingredients that benefit biodiversity. The project takes the results further from the pilot Five Tons of Green Fish which proved that it is possible to raise Swedish rainbow salmon with insect-based feed, which has up to 70% lower climate footprint than conventional feed. We will be the insect knowledge hub in the project.t.

Erika Francisco is originally from Brazil, where she completed a bachelor degree in Environmental Sanitation and a PhD in Chemical Engineering, specifically focusing on biorefineries for reuse and valuation of wastewater for the production of bio-products from microalgae. She has worked as a university lecturer in the Environmental Engineering Department at University of Passo Fundo for three years and as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the project “Food-Energy-Water Nexus Governance” bythe University of Campinas and Belmont Forum.

At SLU, she will be working as a postdoc on sustainable sanitation systems dynamics modelling. She will be developing systems dynamic models for resource recovery systems from urine and wastewater fractions, including modelling outputs related to emissions, water footprints and socio-technical indicators. She will be with Kretsloppsteknik for the next two years.

At the current progress rate, there will probably still be 2.8 billion people world-wide without safely managed sanitation by 2030. Faecal sludge treatment is crucial for safely managed sanitation. To incentivize and increase implementation of sustainable faecal sludge management (FSM), especially in the cities of low and middle-income countries like Phnom Penh, Cambodia, there should be radial shift in viewing human waste as a resource. However, planning data, e.g. on qualities, quantities and fate of faecal sludge after leaving households are, inadequate and lack of accuracy. This study aimed to provide baseline data for effective FSM planning by sanitation stakeholders in Phnom Penh. This was done by characterizing the physical and chemical properties of faecal sludge in Phnom Penh, identifying sources of variation in faecal sludge composition, quantifying sludge volomes generated, transport logistics and resoruce recovery potential to incentivize sustainable management. In total, 194 faecal sludge samples collected during containment unit emptying were analyzed for physicochemical parameters. Interviews were conducted with users and emptying and transportation contractors, together with collection of technical data about on-site sanitation systems. Geographical coordinates of household sampling locations and disposal sites were also mapped.

The results showed that the concentation of many faecal sludge parameters such as nutrients and organic matter are at the lower end of the range reported for other similar cities worldwide, but still higher than the permissible Cambodian wastewater discharge level. The three predictors influencing faecal sludge characteristics included the addition of water during emptying, connection to the urban drainage network and the type of wastewater captured by household containment system. Cheung Ek and Kob Srov wetlands are the main recipients of faecal sludge collected in Phnom Penh with the amount of 18,800m3 and 13,700m3 annually (Figure 1), respectively. The analysis showed that faecal sludge in Phnom Penh contains valuable resources such as nitrogen (6 tons), phosphorus (13 tons) and energy (148-165 GWh) annually. The baseline data would be useful inputs for decision makers and planners in developing action plan for FSM in Phnom Penh and similar cities.

Read the whole papers:

Eliyan, C., Vinnerås, B., Zurbrügg, C., Koottatep, T., Sothea, K., and McConville, J. (2022). Factors Influencing Physicochemical Characteristics of Faecal Sludge in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. J. Water Sanitation Hyg. Development. 12 (1), 129–140. doi:10.2166/washdev.2021.193

Eliyan C, McConville JR, Zurbrügg C, Koottatep T, Sothea K and Vinnerås B (2022) Generation and Management of Faecal Sludge Quantities and Potential for Resource Recovery in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Front. Environ. Sci. 10:869009.
doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2022.869009

We are looking for a postdoctoral research fellow for our research in fly larvae composting, with a focus on the hygiene of the process as well as of the larvae and the treatment residue (frass-compost) from the treatment of society’s biodegradable waste. The work will be conducted in close collaboration with researchers and doctoral candidates in the group who work on related issues. The focus is to evaluate the degradation of various biological infectious agents such as bacteria (also spore-forming), bacteriophages and prions. The postdoctoral fellow is expected to pursue the following studies: 1) fate of prions in fly larvae composting; 2) fate of anaerobic spore-forming bacteria in fly larvae composting, and 3) study of mechanisms for killing salmonella in fly larvae composting.

Click here for more information.