Evaluation of the influence of the gas residence time and biomass concentration on methane bioconversion to ectoines in a novel Taylor flow bioreactor.

Today, the use of biogas to produce more sustainable bioproducts is attracting an increasing attention in the quest for a circular economy. This work aims at optimizing the biosynthesis of high value bioproducts such as ectoine and hydroxyectoine from methane using a high mass transfer Taylor flow reactor and a methanotrophic consortium. The influence of the gas residence time (30-240 min) and concentration of microorganisms (0.

Wastewater-based epidemiology for COVID-19 using dynamic artificial neural networks.

Global efforts in vaccination have led to a decrease in COVID-19 mortality but a high circulation of SARS-CoV-2 is still observed in several countries, resulting in some cases of severe lockdowns. In this sense, wastewater-based epidemiology remains a powerful tool for supporting regional health administrations in assessing risk levels and acting accordingly. In this work, a dynamic artificial neural network (DANN) has been developed for predicting the number of COVID-19 hospitalized patients in hospitals in Valladolid (Spain).

Partitioning and inactivation of enveloped and nonenveloped viruses in activated sludge, anaerobic and microalgae-based wastewater treatment systems.

Anaerobic and microalgae-based technologies for municipal wastewater treatment have emerged as sustainable alternatives to activated sludge systems. However, viruses are a major sanitary concern for reuse applications of liquid and solid byproducts from these technologies. To assess their capacity to reduce viruses during secondary wastewater treatment, enveloped Phi6 and nonenveloped MS2 bacteriophages, typically used as surrogates of several types of wastewater viruses, were spiked into batch bioreactors treating synthetic municipal wastewater (SMWW).

Effect of digestate loading rates on microalgae-based treatment under low LED light intensity.

Low red-LED irradiances are an attractive alternative for enhancing microalgae photobioreactors treating digestate due to their potential contribution in decreasing area footprints with low energy consumptions. However, more information is required regarding the influence of digestate load on treatment performance and biomass valorisation when low-intensity red-LEDs are applied. Thus, this study assessed microalgae-based photobioreactors treating food waste digestate under different concentrations (5%, 25%, 50%, and 75%, v/v) at low red-LED irradiance (15 µmol·m·s).

Viability of SARS-CoV-2 in river water and wastewater at different temperatures and solids content.

COVID-19 patients can excrete viable SARS-CoV-2 virus via urine and faeces, which has raised concerns over the possibility of COVID-19 transmission via aerosolized contaminated water or via the faecal-oral route. These concerns are especially exacerbated in many low- and middle-income countries, where untreated sewage is frequently discharged to surface waters. SARS-CoV-2 RNA has been detected in river water (RW) and raw wastewater (WW) samples.

Assessment of the performance of an anoxic-aerobic microalgal-bacterial system treating digestate.

The performance of an anoxic-aerobic microalgal-bacterial system treating synthetic food waste digestate at 10 days of hydraulic retention time via nitrification-denitrification under increasing digestate concentrations of 25%, 50%, and 100% (v/v) was assessed during Stages I, II and III, respectively. The system supported adequate treatment without external CO supplementation since sufficient inorganic carbon in the digestate was available for autotrophic growth. High steady-state Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and Total Nitrogen (TN) removal efficiencies of 85-96% and 73-84% were achieved in Stages I and II.

Treatment of food waste digestate using microalgae-based systems with low-intensity light-emitting diodes.

Anaerobic digestion of food wastes coupled with digestate post-treatment using microalgae-based systems could recover large amounts of energy and nutrients worldwide. However, the development of full-scale implementations requires overcoming microalgae inhibition by high ammonia concentrations and low light transmittances affecting photosynthesis. This study evaluated the potential of microalgae-based reactors supplied with red light-emitting diodes (LEDs) at low intensity (660 nm and 15 µmol·m·s) to treat food waste digestate.