Making waves: Power-to-X for the Water Resource Recovery Facilities of the future.

The wastewater industry and the energy system are undergoing significant transformations to address climate change and environmental pollution. Green hydrogen, which will be mainly obtained from renewable electricity water electrolysis (Power-to-Hydrogen, PtH), has been considered as an essential energy carrier to neutralize the fluctuations of renewable energy sources. PtH, or Power-to-X (PtX), has been allocated to multiple sectors, including industry, transport and power generation.

Raman spectroscopy and one-dimensional convolutional neural network modeling as a real-time monitoring tool for in vitro transaminase-catalyzed synthesis of a pharmaceutically relevant amine precursor.

Raman spectroscopy has been used to measure the concentration of a pharmaceutically relevant model amine intermediate for positive allosteric modulators of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor in a ω-transaminase-catalyzed conversion. A model based on a one-dimensional convolutional neural network was developed to translate raw data augmented Raman spectra directly into substrate concentrations, with which the conversion from ketone to amine by ω-transaminase could be determined over time. The model showed very good predictive capabilities, with R values higher than 0.

Water innovation in industrial symbiosis - A global review.

Motivated by the limited attention given to water management in industrial symbiosis research, this study presents the first global review of water innovation practices in the implemented industrial symbiosis cases reported in literature. We analyze the prevalence of global water innovation practices extending beyond the commonly used broad practices of water treatment and reuse to propose six categories, including utility sharing for alternative water supply, utility sharing for wastewater treatment, water recovery, energy recovery from water, material recovery from water, and material exchange to enhance water/wastewater treatment. Our findings highlight regional variations in adoption, with Asian and Europe showcasing diverse practices.

Nitrous oxide emissions from two full-scale membrane-aerated biofilm reactors.

The upcoming change of legislation in some European countries where wastewater treatment facilities will start to be taxed based on direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will force water utilities to take a closer look at nitrous oxide (NO) production. In this study, we report for the first time NO emissions from two full-scale size membrane aerated biofilm reactors (MABR) (R1, R2) from two different manufacturers treating municipal wastewater. NO was monitored continuously for 12 months in both the MABR exhaust gas and liquid phase.

Handheld FTIR outperforms total organic carbon swab in pharmaceutical cleaning validation.

Cleaning Validation is a crucial process in pharmaceutical manufacturing, as it verifies that cross-contamination levels are below acceptable limits. The use of Mid-Infrared (IR) spectroscopy has long been proposed as a rapid method enabling real-time release, but only with the recent emergence of a handheld Fourier-Transform IR (FTIR) does a feasible solution exist for practical implementation in pharmaceutical manufacturing plants. This paper address the model development challenges for multi-product plants without complete traceability of production equipment and produced product.

Data-based dynamic compartment model: Modeling of E. coli fed-batch fermentation in a 600 m3 bubble column.

Mathematical modeling is a powerful and inexpensive approach to provide a quantitative basis for improvements that minimize the negative effects of bioreactor heterogeneity. For a model to accurately represent a heterogeneous system, a flow model that describes how mass is channeled between different zones of the bioreactor volume is necessary. In this study, a previously developed compartment model approach based on data from flow-following sensor devices was further developed to account for dynamic changes in volume and flow rates and thus enabling simulation of the widely used fed-batch process.

Modelling the impacts of operational conditions on the performance of a full-scale membrane aerated biofilm reactor.

Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactors (MABR) are gaining more and more acceptance in the plethora of wastewater process intensification technologies. Mathematical modelling has contributed to show their feasibility in terms of reduced energy consumption and footprint. Nevertheless, most simulation studies published until now are still focused on analyzing MABR as single units and not fully integrated within the flow diagram of the water treatment plant (WWTP).

Economic, technical, and environmental evaluation of retrofitting scenarios in a full-scale industrial wastewater treatment system.

The use of mathematical models is a well-established procedure in the field of (waste) water engineering to "virtually" evaluate the feasibility of novel process modifications. In this way, only options with the highest chance of success are further developed to be implemented at full-scale, while less interesting proposals can be disregarded at an early stage. Nevertheless, there is still lack of studies, where different plant-wide model predictions (effluent quality, process economics, and technical aspects) are comprehensibly verified in the field with full-scale data.

Digital models in biotechnology: Towards multi-scale integration and implementation.

Industrial biotechnology encompasses a large area of multi-scale and multi-disciplinary research activities. With the recent megatrend of digitalization sweeping across all industries, there is an increased focus in the biotechnology industry on developing, integrating and applying digital models to improve all aspects of industrial biotechnology. Given the rapid development of this field, we systematically classify the state-of-art modelling concepts applied at different scales in industrial biotechnology and critically discuss their current usage, advantages and limitations.

Sampling Error of TOC swab in Pharmaceutical Cleaning Verification.

Cleaning verification is a critical process for patient safety in pharmaceutical manufacturing in order to keep cross-contamination below acceptable limits. A common cleaning verification method is the total organic carbon (TOC) swab. Others have studied the variances of different factors on the TOC swab in order to establish the best swab method.

Plant-wide assessment of alternative activated sludge configurations for biological nutrient removal under uncertain influent characteristics.

This study presents an extensive plant-wide model-based assessment of four alternative activated sludge (AS) configurations for biological nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) removal under uncertain influent loads and characteristics. Zeekoegat wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in South Africa was chosen as case study due to its flexible design that enables operation in four different AS configurations: 3-stage Bardenpho (A2O), University of Cape Town (UCT), UCT modified (UCTM), and Johannesburg (JHB). A metamodeling based global sensitivity analysis was performed on a steady-state plant-wide simulation model using Activated Sludge Model No.

Soft-sensors application for automated feeding control in high-throughput mammalian cell cultures.

The ever-increasing demand for biopharmaceuticals has created the need for improving the overall productivity of culture processes. One such operational concept that is considered is fed-batch operations as opposed to batch operations. However, optimal fed-batch operations require complete knowledge of the cell culture to optimize the culture conditions and the nutrients feeding.

Exceptionally rich keratinolytic enzyme profile found in the rare actinomycetes Amycolatopsis keratiniphila D2.

The non-spore forming Gram-positive actinomycetes Amycolatopsis keratiniphila subsp. keratiniphila D2 (DSM 44,409) has a high potential for keratin valorization as demonstrated by a novel biotechnological microbial conversion process consisting of a bacterial growth phase and a keratinolytic phase, respectively. Compared to the most gifted keratinolytic Bacillus species, a very large number of 621 putative proteases are encoded by the genome of Amycolatopsis keratiniphila subsp.

Particle-Scale Modeling to Understand Liquid Distribution in Twin-Screw Wet Granulation.

Experimental characterization of solid-liquid mixing for a high shear wet granulation process in a twin-screw granulator (TSG) is very challenging. This is due to the opacity of the multiphase system and high-speed processing. In this study, discrete element method (DEM) based simulations are performed for a short quasi-two-dimensional simulation domain, incorporating models for liquid bridge formation, rupture, and the effect of the bridges on inter-particular forces.

Assessment of alkaline stabilization processes in industrial waste streams using a model-based approach.

Chemical conditioning prior to disposal is a common practice in biotech companies to stabilize the biological waste generated during production. Nevertheless, the state of the art models used to analyze management strategies in water treatment systems (WTS) do not include the effect of high alkaline conditions during bio-solids processing. In this paper, the prediction capabilities of a novel model-based approach describing the effect of quicklime addition (CaO) on the waste streams of an industrial WTS is assessed.

Mechanisms, status, and challenges of thermal hydrolysis and advanced thermal hydrolysis processes in sewage sludge treatment.

Sewage sludge management has garnered interest in both academia and industry due to the challenges of overpopulation and its potential as a bioenergy source. Thermal hydrolysis is a promising technology for sludge pre-treatment prior to anaerobic digestion to enhance biogas production. However, the technology is facing two main problems; the dark colour of sludge can affect UV disinfection and the formation of methanogenesis inhibitors such as free ammonia and refractory compounds have a significant impact on methane production in anaerobic digestion processes.

Microbial biofilms in biorefinery - Towards a sustainable production of low-value bulk chemicals and fuels.

Harnessing the potential of biocatalytic conversion of renewable biomass into value-added products is still hampered by unfavorable process economics. This has promoted the use of biofilms as an alternative to overcome the limitations of traditional planktonic systems. In this paper, the benefits and challenges of biofilm fermentations are reviewed with a focus on the production of low-value bulk chemicals and fuels from waste biomass.

Analysis of the response of the cell membrane of Saccharomyces cerevisiae during the detoxification of common lignocellulosic inhibitors.

Gaining an in-depth understanding of the response of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to the different inhibitors generated during the pretreatment of lignocellulosic material is driving the development of new strains with higher inhibitor tolerances. The objective of this study is to assess, using flow cytometry, how three common inhibitors (vanillin, furfural, and acetic acid) affect the membrane potential, the membrane permeability and the concentration of reactive oxygen species (ROS) during the different fermentations. The membrane potential decreased during the detoxification phase and reflected on the different mechanisms of the toxicity of the inhibitors.

Long-term operation assessment of a full-scale membrane-aerated biofilm reactor under Nordic conditions.

Membrane-aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) technology is an exciting alternative to conventional activated sludge, with promising results in bench and pilot-scale systems. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of long-term and full-scale data under different operational conditions. This study aims to report the performance of a full-scale hybrid MABR located in the North of Europe.

Towards the Development of Digital Twins for the Bio-manufacturing Industry.

The bio-manufacturing industry, along with other process industries, now has the opportunity to be engaged in the latest industrial revolution, also known as Industry 4.0. To successfully accomplish this, a physical-to-digital-to-physical information loop should be carefully developed.

Assessment of sludge management strategies in wastewater treatment systems using a plant-wide approach.

The objective of this paper is to use plant-wide modeling to assess the net impacts of varying sludge management strategies. Special emphasis is placed on effluent quality, operational cost and potential resource recovery (energy, nutrients). The study is particularly focused on a centralized bio-solids beneficiation facility (BBF), which enables larger, more capital intensive sludge management strategies.

Promoting the co-utilisation of glucose and xylose in lignocellulosic ethanol fermentations using a data-driven feed-back controller.

Background: The diauxic growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae on glucose and xylose during cellulose-to-ethanol processes extends the duration of the fermentation and reduces productivity. Despite the remarkable advances in strain engineering, the co-consumption of glucose and xylose is still limited due to catabolite repression. This work addresses this challenge by developing a closed-loop controller that is capable of maintaining the glucose concentration at a steady set-point during fed-batch fermentation.

Understanding gradients in industrial bioreactors.

Gradients in industrial bioreactors have attracted substantial research attention since exposure to fluctuating environmental conditions has been shown to lead to changes in the metabolome, transcriptome as well as population heterogeneity in industrially relevant microorganisms. Such changes have also been found to impact key process parameters like the yield on substrate and the productivity. Hence, understanding gradients is important from both the academic and industrial perspectives.

Incremental design of water symbiosis networks with prior knowledge: The case of an industrial park in Kenya.

Industrial parks have a high potential for recycling and reusing resources such as water across companies by creating symbiosis networks. In this study, we introduce a mathematical optimization framework for the design of water network integration in industrial parks formulated as a large-scale standard mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP) problem. The novelty of our approach relies on i) developing a multi-level incremental optimization framework for water network synthesis, ii) including prior knowledge of water demand growth and projected water scarcity to evaluate the significance of water-saving solutions, iii) incorporating a comprehensive formulation of the water network synthesis problem including multiple pollutants and different treatment units and iv) performing a multi-objective optimization of the network including freshwater savings and relative cost of the network.

Flow-following sensor devices: A tool for bridging data and model predictions in large-scale fermentations.

Production-scale fermentation processes in industrial biotechnology experience gradients in process variables, such as dissolved gases, pH and substrate concentrations, which can potentially affect the production organism and therefore the yield and profitability of the processes. However, the extent of the heterogeneity is unclear, as it is currently a challenge at large scale to obtain representative measurements from different zones of the reactor volume. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models have proven to be a valuable tool for better understanding the environment inside bioreactors.