No abstract

Waste water treatment in activated sludge plants results in the production of large amounts of surplus sludge. After composting the sludge can be reused as fertiliser and soil conditioner in agriculture. Compared to landfilling and incineration, utilisation of sludge-compost is a more sustainable treatment because it recycles both nutrients and organic matter. However the high levels of heavy metals in sludge frequently prevent the reuse of sludge compost in agriculture. The extraction of heavy metals from the sludge before composting is therefore a necessary step to achieve a more sustainable sludge treatment. Extraction of heavy metals by inorganic acids and complexing agents has severe drawbacks. Organic acids could be an attractive extracting agent because the extraction can be performed at mildly acidic conditions (pH 3-5) and they are biologically degradable. The extraction was studied for heavy metals Cu and Zn and for competing metals Ca and Fe. The rate of extraction increases for increasing temperature and citric acid concentration. Cu can be extracted for 60-70% and Zn for 90-100% by citric acid at pH 3-4. A first economic valuation of the extraction and subsequent composting process showed that the total costs of the treatment process are below the costs of incineration.

An experimental apparatus was constructed to measure the structural parameters of organic porous media, i.,e. mechanical strength, air-filled porosity, air permeability, and the Ergun particle size. These parameters are critical to the engineering of aerobic bioconversion systems and were measured for a straw--manure mixture before and after 13 days of in-vessel composting. Porosity was measured using air pycnometry at four (day 0) and five (day 13) moisture levels, with each moisture level tested at a range of different densities. Tested wet bulk densities varied with moisture level, but dry bulk densities generally ranged from 100 to 200 kg m(-3). At each moisture/density combination, pressure drop was measured at airflow rates ranging from 0.001 to 0.05 m sec(-1), representing the range of airflow rates found in both intensive and extensive composting. Measured air-filled porosities were accurately predicted from measurements of bulk density, moisture, and organic matter content. Reductions in air-filled porosity at increasing moisture content were accompanied by an increase in permeability, apparently due to aggregations of fines. This aggregation was quantified by calculating an effective particle size from the Ergun permeability relationship, which increased from 0.0002 m at 50% moisture to 0.0021 m at 79% moisture. The range of airflow velocities reported in composting systems requires consideration of the second-order drag force term, particularly at velocities approaching 0.05 m s(-1) for the higher moisture treatments tested. Calculated permeabilities for the matrix ranged from 10(-10) to 10(-7) m2, varying with both air-filled porosity and moisture. Mechanical strength characterization provided a means to predict the effects of compaction on air-filled porosity and permeability of porous media beds. The results of this investigation extend porous media theory to the organic matrices common in solid-state fermentations and help build a framework for quantitative and mechanistic engineering design.

CO 2 capture from the atmosphere (or direct air capture) is widely recognized as a promising solution to reach negative emissions, and technologies using alkaline solutions as absorbent have already been demonstrated on a full scale. In the conventional temperature swing process, the subsequent regeneration of the alkaline solution is highly energy-demanding. In this study, we experimentally demonstrate simultaneous solvent regeneration and CO 2 desorption in a continuous system using a H 2 -recycling electrochemical cell. A pH gradient is created in the electrochemical cell so that CO 2 is desorbed at a low pH, while an alkaline capture solution (NaOH) is regenerated at high pH. By testing the cell under different working conditions, we experimentally achieved CO 2 desorption with an energy consumption of 374 kJ·mol –1 CO 2 and a CO 2 purity higher than 95%. Moreover, our theoretical calculations show that a minimum energy consumption of 164 kJ·mol –1 CO 2 could be achieved. Overall, the H 2 -recycling electrochemical cell allowed us to accomplish the simultaneous desorption of high-purity CO 2 stream and regeneration of up to 59% of the CO 2 capture capacity of the absorbent. These results are promising toward the upscaling of an energy-effective process for direct air capture.

Pig (Sus scrofa) feces, separately collected and amended with wheat straw, was composted in a tunnel reactor connected with a cooler. The composting process was monitored for 4 wk and the degradation of organic matter was studied by two chemical extraction methods, 13C cross polarization magic angle spinning (CPMAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Wet-chemical extraction methods were not adequate to study the degradation of specific organic compounds as the extraction reagents did not give selective separation of hemicellulose, cellulose, proteins, and lignins. A new method was proposed to calculate the contribution of four biomacromolecules (aliphatics, proteins, polysaccharides, and lignin) from the 13C CPMAS NMR spectrum. Pyrolysis GC-MS allowed identification of the composition of the biomacromolecules. The biomacromolecules showed different rates of degradation during composting. High initial degradation rates of aliphatics, hemicellulose, and proteins were observed, where aliphatics were completely degraded and hemicellulose and proteins were partly recalcitrant during the four weeks of composting. The degradation rate of cellulose was much lower and degradation was not completed within the four weeks of composting. Lignin was not degraded during the thermophilic stage of composting but started to degrade slowly during the mesophilic stage. A combination of 13C CPMAS NMR and pyrolysis GC-MS gave good qualitative and semiquantitative assessments of the degradation of biomacromolecules during composting.