A critical review on the vermicomposting of organic wastes as a strategy in circular bioeconomy: mechanism, performance, and future perspectives.

To meet the current need for sustainable development, vermicomposting (VC), a natural, eco-friendly, and cost-effective technology, can be a wise selection for the bioconversion of organic wastes into value-added by-products. However, no one has tried to establish the VC technology as an economically sustainable technology by exploring its linkage to circular bioeconomy. Even, no researcher has made any effort to explore the usability of the earthworms (EWs) as a protein supplement while assessing the economic perspectives of VC technology.

Clogging index: A tool to quantify filter bed clogging in horizontal subsurface flow macrophyte-assisted vermifilter.

This study aimed to develop a mathematical index for quantifying filter bed clogging in horizontal subsurface flow macrophyte-assisted vermifilter (HSSF-MAVF). The developed clogging index (CI) simulates the porosity reduction in the HSSF-MAVF bed due to the combined actions of deposition of suspended solids, biofilm generation, and plant growth. A series of experiments based on HSSF-MAVF were conducted to examine the key parameters related to clogging of the vermifilter such as hydraulic loading rates (HLR), organic strength (COD), and total suspended solid (TSS) at different operating conditions for the treatment of synthetic dairy wastewaters.