The role of carbon and nitrogen ratio on sewage sludge microbiota for producing polyhydroxyalkanoates.

The products of an advanced sewage sludge fermentation process can be used to generate polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), precursors of bioplastics considered excellent candidates for replacing petroleum-derived plastics. The aerobic feast-anoxic famine cycling strategy has proven to be an efficient method for enriching sewage sludge microbiota with PHA-producing microorganisms. This work evaluated the effect of different carbon to nitrogen ratios (C/N) of 3.

The effects of headspace volume reactor on the microbial community structure during fermentation processes for volatile fatty acid production.

The transition from traditional wastewater treatment plants to biorefineries represents an environmentally and economically sustainable approach to extracting valuable compounds from waste. Sewage sludge produced from wastewater treatment is incinerated or disposed of in specific landfills. Repurposing this waste material to recover valuable resources could help lower disposal costs and reduce environmental impact by producing other beneficial polymers.

Selection of starter lactic acid bacteria capable of forming biofilms on wooden vat prototypes for their future application in traditional Sicilian goat's milk cheese making.

In this study, 327 presumptive lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were isolated from goats' milk acid curds produced at a Sicilian dairy farm with the aim to identify potential starter cultures for traditional cheeses. All isolates were first processed by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)-PCR analysis. This approach identified 63 distinct strains which were evaluated for their acidifying capacity.

Water reuse of treated domestic wastewater in agriculture: Effects on tomato plants, soil nutrient availability and microbial community structure.

The reuse of treated wastewater (TWW) in agriculture for crop irrigation is desirable. Crop responses to irrigation with TWW depend on the characteristics of TWW and on intrinsic and extrinsic soil properties. The aim of this study was to assess the response of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.

Enhancing volatile fatty acid production from sewage sludge in batch fermentation tests.

Volatile fatty acids (VFA) from sewage sludge represent an excellent recovered resource from wastewater treatment. This study investigated four sludge pre-treatments (namely, potassium permanganate - KMnO, initial pH = 10, initial pH = 2.5 and low-temperature thermal hydrolysis) by operating batch reactors under acidogenic fermentation conditions.