Blog from the Environmental Engineering Research Group at SLU
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 VĂ€sterĂ„s, 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.
VĂ„r tidigare praktikant, Chinmoy Deb frĂ„n Indien, som kom till SLU förra Ă„ret för sitt kandidatarbete om urinsortering, har framgĂ„ngsrikt fĂ„tt sin kandidatexamen i kemiteknik. För nĂ€rvarande har Chinmoy startat sitt masterprogram i âJord, vatten och miljöâ pĂ„ SLU och har rekryterats som medlem i vĂ„r grupp. Under sitt kandidatprogram, i Indien, har han arbetat med urin för att ta bort nĂ€ringsĂ€mnen och lĂ€kemedel. Med en angelĂ€genhet om att koppla samman saniteten, hygien och jordbruk har han anslutit sig till gruppen för att fortsĂ€tta sin forskning om Ă„tervinning av vĂ€xtnĂ€ra nĂ€ringsĂ€mnen med hjĂ€lp av urinsorteringsteknik.
Our former intern, Chinmoy Deb from India, who came to SLU last year for his Bachelorâs thesis on Urine Drying, has successfully received his Bachelorâs degree in Chemical Engineering. Currently, Chinmoy has started his Masterâs program in âSoil, Water and Environmentâ at SLU and has been recruited as a member of our group. During his bachelorsâ 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 MÀlardalen), 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 ”-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)
Fate of pharmaceuticals during sewage sludge storage and composting and Use of reclaimed water in agriculture: Potential, technologies, implementation, regulations and other aspects, were among the topics presented in Annual Intranet workshop VA- kluster MĂ€ladalen 22-23rd of august 2019. Sahar Dalahmeh hold the lectures and very active discussion followed the presentations. For more information, please contact Sahar Dalahmeh (Sahar.Dalahmeh@slu.se)
Sahar Dalahmeh, researcher at the group was invited as a key note speaker in the International Workshop in Water, food and energy nexus organised within the 10th national conference of environmental chemistry in Tianjin in China 16-19th August 2019. In her talk, Sahar highlighted the important potential of using wastewater for irrigation for food production. She also presented her latest results on whether Micro pollutants, such as pharmaceuticals and PFAS can be a risk when wastewater is used for irrigated agriculture. For more information, please contact Sahar Dalahmeh (Sahar.Dalahmeh@slu.se)
Ett demonstrationshushÄllsbiokolfilter har byggts och körs nu i ett hushÄll i Gamla Uppsala för att behandla avloppsvatten frÄn ett enda hushÄll pÄ 5 personer. Filtret har en unik design dÀr biokolet anvÀnds som ett filtermaterial i ett skÄp med flera moduler som innehÄller olika egenskaper för att ta bort olika typer av föroreningar inklusive organiska Àmnen och mikroföroreningar. Under den kommande perioden kommer kvaliteten pÄ avloppsvattnet att analyseras för olika parametrar (COD, Tot-N, Tot-P och andra föroreningar). För mer information, vÀnligen kontakta Sahar Dalahmeh (Sahar.Dalahmeh@slu.se).