Honorary doctorate lecture Madeleine Fogde at SLU

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We had the joy, after waiting for two years, due to COVID, to finally listen to Madeleine Fogde’s lecture “Communication counts” as a part of the program of becoming honorary doctor at the NJ faculty at SLU. It was interesting to hear about the importance of communication and how a response to a question about how to construct sustainable sanitation after a natural disaster in Mozambique, that was answered by Prof Emeritus HĂ„kan Jönsson and lead to several installations of ecological sanitation systems during the 1990-ies. Later this also lead to a long-term collaboration on sustainable sanitation and now we say welcome for becoming a part of SLU. Madeleine’s presentation starts 14 min into the video below.

Mohamad Kentar ansluter Kretsloppsteknik som praktikant

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Jag kommer frÄn Syrien och flyttade till Sverige för nÀstan sex Är sedan. PÄ grund av kriget kunde jag inte avsluta mina studier I biokemi vod Universitetet i Aleppo.

Men med stor optimism och vilja att utmana mig sjÀlv ÄtervÀnde jag till skolbÀnken och lÀser nu andra Äret pÄ programmet i lÀkemedel och livsmedelsteknik pÄ Folkuniversitetet i Uppsala. Mina studier handlar om hela produktionskedjan frÄn ide till produkt. IngÄende moment Àr hygienkrav, processteknik, processkemi och relevant lagstiftning. MÄlet med min utbildning Àr att kunna förbÀttra hÀlsan och  livskvaliteten samt praktiskt arbete med uthÄllig lÀkemedels- och livsmedelsproduktion.

Det var med stor glÀdje som jag nyligen accepterades som praktikant pÄ SLU, som laboratorieassistent under 2,5 mÄnader inom fluglarvskomposteringsprocessen dÀr organiskt avfall omvandlas till djurfoder (insektslarver) och organiskt gödsel (behandlingsrest).

Links: mohamad kentar | LinkedIn. E-post: m.kentar86@gmail.com

Mohamad Kentar – New intern at Kretsloppsteknik

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I am originally Syrian and moved to Sweden about six years ago. I could not finish my last year of studying biochemistry at the University of Aleppo because of the war there. But with a lot of optimism and self-challenge, I was finally able to return to the bench of scientific research as a second-year student in the pharmaceutical and food technology at Folkuniversitetet in Uppsala, where my studies covers the entire chain of production from idea to product with hygiene requirements, process technology, process chemistry and knowledge of relevant legislation. With the aim to improve the health and quality of life of the population and work with the sustainable nutrition of the future through qualified practical work in medicine and the food industry.

Fortunately and with great happiness I was recently accepted as an intern at SLU ,as a laboratory assistant  for two and a half months in a project fly larvae composting, where organic waste is converted into animal feed (fly larvae) and organic fertilizer (treatment residues).

Links: mohamad kentar | LinkedIn. E-post: m.kentar86@gmail.com

Viktoria intervjuas av SLU Youth Institute

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Fluglarvskompostering Àr ett verktyg för att sluta kretsloppet i dagens linjÀra livsmedelsproduktionssystem. Viktoria hjÀlper hÀr till att göra reklam för  denna teknologi till kommande generation sÄ att vÄrt arbete kan föras vidare och att arbetet med att sluta kretsloppet fortsÀtta.

MÄlet med SLU Youth Institute Àr att skapa intresse hos ungdomar för global livsmedelssÀkerhet, samt att finna uthÄlliga lösningar för FNs uthÄllighetsmÄl. Programmet initierades 2020 och Àr ett av mÄnga ungdomsinstitut som koordineras av World Food Prize Foundation. Gymnasieelever kopplas samman med lokala ledare och experter för en kritisk diskussion kring de globala utmaningarna, för att delta i praktiska aktiviteter och för att upptÀcka nya intressanta sÀtt att göra skillnad i Sverige, i Europa och i vÀrlden.

Även larverna visade sin bĂ€sta sida i strĂ„lkastarljuset, turligt nog sĂ„ kan inte kamerorna förmedla lukten (Ă€n).

Video shoot with SLU Youth Institute

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To promote SLU Youth Institute and the advantages for high schools becoming part of it, Viktoria Wiklicky was invited to talk about the Black Soldier Flies in their 2022 launching video. Fly larva composting is a tool to close the loop of a now linear food production system and aims to make food production more circular. Promoting the technology to the next generation will ensure that our passion and our ideas will be continued in the future.

SLU Youth Institute aims to create interest among Swedish youth for global food security and to find sustainable solutions to the global challenges based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The programme was founded 2020 and is part of the many Youth Institutes coordinated by World Food Prize Foundation. High school students engage with local leaders and experts to discuss critical global challenges, participate in hands-on activities, and explore exciting ways to make a difference in Sweden, across Europe and around the world. By the way, also the larvae showed their best side in the spotlight of the cameras and luckily, cameras cannot record smell (yet).

Besök av handlÀggare frÄn UD pÄ SLU

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Under ett besök av handlÀggare frÄn UD som hade en heldag pÄ SLU dÀr de bland annat besökte oss pÄ kretsloppsteknik. Vi hade intressanta diskussioner kring hur vi kan sluta kretsloppet av vÀxtnÀringen och dÀrigenom bli mer sjÀlvförsörjande och minska vÄr miljöpÄverkan. Vi besökte vÄra behandlingsanlÀggningar för urintokning och fluglarvskompostering dÀr vi presenterade hur vÄr forskning kan öka resiliensen bÄde i Sverige och i vÀrlden genom att tillverka gödsel frÄn vÄrt avlopp och djurfoder frÄn matavfallet.

 

 

Visit from the foreign ministry at SLU

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During a visit by two foreign ministry officials, that had a full day at SLU about current research they visited us in the Environmental engineering group. We had interesting discussions about closing the loop of plant nutrients and thereby increasing the resilience while decreasing the environmental pollution. We did also visit our two treatment systems for urine drying and for fly larvae composting and presented our research about producing fertilisers from our wastewater and animal feed from the food waste.

 

 

Resource-oriented sanitation: Identifying appropriate technologies and environmental gains by coupling Santiago software and life cycle assessment in a Brazilian case study

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Priscila de Morais Lima and Jennifer McConville recently published a paper in the Journal Science of the Total Environment in collaboration with Thais Andrade de Sampaio Lopes and Luciano Matos Queiroz from Brazil.  They looked into resource recovery appropriate technologies for wastewater treatment in Brazil by coupling the Santiago software and Life Cycle Assessment to generate appropriate scenarios and to assess the environmental impacts. Their comparison between the scenarios generated by Santiago and the baseline of UASB reactors showed that urine and faeces separation with soil application performed best in most categories. As also verified in several other LCA papers, electricity and transport play major roles in sanitation systems; and even though the UASB reactors had high CO2 emissions, it has potential for resource recovery.

Abstract

Implementation of resource recovery technologies is becoming increasingly important as humans are exhausting the world’s natural resources. Recovering nutrients and water from wastewater treatment systems will play an important role in changing the current trends towards a circular economy. However, guidance is still needed to determine the most appropriate way to do this. In this study, two decision-support tools, sanitation planning software (Santiago) and life cycle assessment (LCA), were applied to identify appropriate technologies and their environmental impacts. As a case study, current and alternative scenarios for a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Campo Grande, west-central Brazil, were used. Among 12 scenarios provided by Santiago for efficient nutrient recovery, eight were selected for further assessment. The current WWTP system (UASB reactors) resulted in the highest negative impacts in two of nine assessment categories (freshwater and marine eutrophication) due to nutrient discharge into water. A source separation scenario with urine stored in a urine bank and co-composting of faeces showed the best overall performance. Electricity consumption played a crucial role in impacts in several categories, while water consumption was not significantly affected by choice of the toilet. One Santiago scenario matched the most appropriate scenario with the best environmental performance, but the other seven scenarios were not as beneficial, indicating a need for some adjustments in the software. These results highlight the importance of performing LCA to compare alternative scenarios, even when using a tool designed to identify locally appropriate technologies. The results also indicate that the current wastewater treatment system has reasonable environmental performance but could be improved if measures were taken to recover energy and reuse water.

The full paper is available: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969722028741

 

Prithvi joins Frontiers in Chemical Engineering as Associate Editor

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Prithvi has joined the editorial board of the journal, Frontiers in Chemical Engineering, as associate editor for the speciality section Environmental Chemical Engineering. The journal publishes rigorously high-impact research on all topics related to chemical engineering, while the speciality section explores opportunities in chemical engineering aimed at addressing environmental problems. Read more here: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemical-engineering/sections/environmental-chemical-engineering