Bacterial assembly and succession patterns in conventional and advanced drinking water systems: From source to tap.

Bacteria are pivotal to drinking water treatment and public health. However, the mechanisms of bacterial assembly and their impact on species coexistence remain largely unexplored. This study explored the assembly and succession of bacterial communities in two full-scale drinking water systems over one year.

Surfactant-assisted thermal hydrolysis off waste activated sludge for improved dewaterability, organic release, and volatile fatty acid production.

The surfactant-assisted thermal hydrolysis pretreatment (THP) of waste activated sludge (WAS) was investigated, focusing on the effect of the surfactant addition on the results of sludge disintegration, dewaterability, organic release, and production of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) via fermentation. Typical anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and cationic surfactant cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) were used for the THP experiments. The supernatant of the THP-treated sludge was anaerobically fermented to determine its potential VFAs yield.

A new screened microbial consortium OEM2 for lignocellulosic biomass deconstruction and chlorophenols detoxification.

Recalcitrance limits biomass application in biorefinery. It is even more so when toxic chlorophenols are present. In this study, we screened a microbial consortium, OEM2, for lignocellulose deconstruction and chlorophenols detoxification through a short-term and efficient screening process.

Lignin-rich biomass of cotton by-products for biorefineries via pyrolysis.

Pyrolysis was demonstrated to investigate the thermal decomposition characteristics and potential of lignin-rich cotton by-products cotton exocarp (CE) and spent mushroom substrate consisted of cotton by-products (MSC) for biorefineries. The chemical component and structure alteration of CE and MSC was found to affect their thermochemical behaviors. The bio-oil yield from CE was 58.

Screening of a microbial consortium for highly simultaneous degradation of lignocellulose and chlorophenols.

In this work, spent mushroom substrates were utilized for screening a microbial consortium with highly simultaneous degradation of lignocellulose and chlorophenols. The desired microbial consortium OEM1 was gained through successive cultivation for about 50 generations and its stability of composition was verified by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) during screening process. It could degrade lignocellulose and chlorophenols at around 50% and 100%, respectively, within 7days.

Enhancing the quality of bio-oil and selectivity of phenols compounds from pyrolysis of anaerobic digested rice straw.

This study investigated the thermal decomposition characteristics and pyrolytic products of anaerobic digested rice straw (ADRS) by thermogravimetric (TG) and pyrolysis-gas chromatograph/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) analysis. Compared with the raw rice straw (RS), the thermal decomposition temperature of ADRS was shifted to higher temperature zone and the second decomposition zone of cellulose (Toffset(c)-Tpeak) became narrower (14 °C less), which indicated that the composition of rice straw were changed significantly by the anaerobic digestion pretreatment. Py-GC/MS analysis showed that the quality of the bio-oil and the selectivity of pyrolytic products could be obviously improved by anaerobic digestion.

Mesophilic anaerobic co-digestion of pulp and paper sludge and food waste for methane production in a fed-batch basis.

Co-digestion of pulp and paper sludge (PPS) and food waste (FW) in a batch-fed digestion system was conducted on a laboratory scale. Three reactors named A1, A2, and A3 were tested. PPS and FW mixed at different mass ratios of 1:3, 1:1, and 3:1, respectively, were loaded in the reactors.