The objective of this research was mesophilic anaerobic digestion of blackwater from vacuum toilets (BW) and kitchen refuse (KR) in a CSTR within an ecological sanitation system. A detailed investigation of the BW characteristics was carried out. Research on anaerobic digestion was performed with CSTR of 101 volume at HRT of 10, 15 and 20 days. The digestion of BW at 20 days HRT showed stable performance without inhibition effects, in spite of relatively high ammonium concentrations. The removal of total and particulate COD was 61% and 53%, respectively, and the methane yield 10/CH4/cap/day. The addition of kitchen refuse (KR) improved the performance of the CSTR in terms of COD removal efficiency and methane yield. At 20 days HRT the removal of total and particulate COD increased up to 71% and 67%, respectively, and the methane yield to 27/CH4/cap/day. The results at 15 days HRT showed similar performance. At HRT of 10 days, the anaerobic treatment was limited but reached steady state conditions at higher VFA concentrations in the effluent, with a decrease of COD removal of 30 to 33% and of methane yields of 19 to 21%.

This paper discusses the potential of deterministic wave prediction as one basic module for decision support of offshore operations. Therefore, methods of different complexity—the linear wave solution, the non-linear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) of two different orders and the high-order spectral method (HOSM)—are presented in terms of applicability and limitations of use. For this purpose, irregular sea states with varying parameters are addressed by numerical simulations as well as model tests in the controlled environment of a seakeeping basin. The irregular sea state investigations focuses on JONSWAP spectra with varying wave steepness and enhancement factor. In addition, the influence of the propagation distance as well as the forecast horizon is discussed. For the evaluation of the accuracy of the prediction, the surface similarity parameter is used, allowing an exact, quantitative validation of the results. Based on the results, the pros and cons of the different deterministic wave prediction methods are discussed. In conclusion, this paper shows that the classical NLSE is not applicable for deterministic wave prediction of arbitrary irregular sea states compared to the linear solution. However, the application of the exact linear dispersion operator within the linear dispersive part of the NLSE increased the accuracy of the prediction for small wave steepness significantly. In addition, it is shown that non-linear deterministic wave prediction based on second-order NLSE as well as HOSM leads to a substantial improvement of the prediction quality for moderate and steep irregular wave trains in terms of individual waves and prediction distance, with the HOSM providing a high accuracy over a wider range of applications.

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The IWA anaerobic digestion model No.1 (ADM1) had been successfully applied to the lab-scale mesophilic blackwater anaerobic digestion (BWAD) plant for cases of only blackwater (BW) feeding and of BW plus kitchen refuse (KR) feeding. In this paper, the simulation results of BW + KR anaerobic digestion are presented and discussed, followed by the analyses and discussion of the critical and important parameters as well as the performance of ADM1 based on these results. The raw BW can contain up to 30% short chain fatty acids (SCFA) which severely impact the performance of the model. The model proved that the disintegration/hydrolysis rate of BW is around 4.5 d(-1), which is about ten times higher than that of KR (Kdis,KR = 0.5 d(-1)). ADM1 is not sensitive to the distribution ratio among carbohydrates, proteins and lipids. For BWAD the C4 metabolism can be integrated in the uptake of LCFA. The uptake delay phenomenon was observed and cannot be simulated by ADM1, but it is tolerable. No unique KI,NH3,ac is found out for all investigated ammonia concentration ranges. Meanwhile, ADM1 is not sensitive to KLa and kp1 so they can easily be set up.