System integration of hydrothermal liquefaction and anaerobic digestion for wet biomass valorization: Biodegradability and microbial syntrophy

Thermal treatment and densification of manure and biomass blends to produce stabilized soil amendments

Land application of dairy manure is the most common practice for disposal of this waste. Agricultural fields surrounding concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) often have high levels of N and P because of manure over-application. However, its low bulk density limits the amount of manure that can be profitably transported for use as fuel or fertilizer. As an alternative, selective carbonization can be used to create densified-stabilized N-containing products that can be delivered to regions with low soil N and P contents. This research reports developing a biomass (Douglas fir)/manure thermally treated product containing a maximum fraction of N integrated into the biochar structure. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to identify processing conditions resulting in high C and N conversion efficiencies. Experimental results show maximum N conversion efficiencies were achieved at Douglas fir contents higher than 50 wt % and temperatures close to 260 °C. H3PO4 levels at 2 wt % seems to be sufficient to catalyze the desired reactions. The KOH treatment did not significantly affect product yield and the efficiency of C and N conversion. The structural strength of densified char was evaluated using dynamic rheometric (amplitude sweep test).

Coupling hydrothermal liquefaction and anaerobic digestion for waste biomass valorization: A review in context of circular economy

In light of the substantial global production of biomass waste, effective waste management and energy recovery solutions are of paramount importance. Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) and anaerobic digestion (AD) have emerged as innovative techniques for converting biomass waste into valuable resources. Their integration creates a synergistic framework that mitigates inherent limitations, leading to improved efficiency, enhanced product quality, and the comprehensive utilization of biomass. This review paper investigates the integration of HTL and AD, highlighting its significance and potential benefits as well as the optimal sequencing (HTL followed by AD and AD followed by HTL). The review encompasses experimental procedures, factors influencing both sequencing options, energy recovery characterizations, final product outcomes, as well as toxicological assessments and discussions on reduction. Additionally, it delves into the transition towards a circular bioeconomy and discusses the challenges and opportunities intrinsic to these processes. The findings presented in this review offer valuable insights to shape future research in this evolving field.

Partial wet oxidation of dairy manure as a pretreatment process to produce acetic acid 'a Source Growth of Methanogens'

Wet oxidation can be an effective process for the pretreatment of complex biomass such as lignocellulose. However, studies on the use of wet oxidation for treating solid waste such as dairy manure are limited. The use of partial wet oxidation to convert dairy manure into low molecular weight carboxylic acids as final products were investigated. This work focuses on the performance of the sub-critical wet oxidation treatment of dairy cattle manure as a conversion/pretreatment process to release matter from the lignocellulosic fraction rather than a destructive process. The operating conditions were controlled at the short residence time and optimal temperature in the presence of oxygen under a pressure of 120 psi. The thermal hydrolysis under wet oxidation significantly affected conversion manure slurry into organic acids. The concentration of acetic acid reached 1778 mg L-1, achieved at 190°C (60 minutes reaction time) as the reaction temperature increased within the range of 150°C-200°C, total organic carbon was reduced and monomers in the process liquids decreased. On the other hand, soluble COD in process liquids increased with an increment in reaction temperature. The results provide insights into technical options to pretreat dairy manure to improve biochemical conversion yield.

Application of life cycle assessment and machine learning for the production and environmental sustainability assessment of hydrothermal bio-oil

The hydrothermal bio-oil (HBO) production from biomass conversion can achieve sustainable and low-carbon development. It is always time-consuming and labor-intensive to quantitative relationship between influential variables and bio-oil yield and environmental sustainability impact in the hydrothermal conditions. Machine learning was used to predict bio-oil yield. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is further conducted to assess its environmental sustainability effect. The results demonstrated that gradient boosting decision tree regression (GBDT) have the most optimal prediction performance for the HBO yield (Training R² = 0.97, Testing R² = 0.92, RMSE = 0.05, MAE = 0.03). Lipid content is the most significant influential factor for HBO yield. LCA result further suggested that 1 kg of bio-oil production can cause 0.02 kg ep of SO₂, 2.05 kg ep of CO₂, and 0.01 kg ep of NO_x emission, and environmental sustainability assessment of HBO is exhibited. This study provides meaningful insights to ML model prediction performance improvement and carbon footprint of HBO.

Anaerobic digestion of hydrothermally pretreated dewatered sewage sludge: effects of process conditions on methane production and the fate of phosphorus

The hydrothermal pretreatment (HTP) characteristics and the fate of phosphorus (P) and anaerobic digestion (AD) performance of dewatered sewage sludge (DSS) were investigated at different hydrothermal conditions. The maximum methane yield reached 241 mL CH₄/g COD when the hydrothermal conditions were 200 °C-2 h-10% (A4), and the yield was 78.28% higher than that without pretreatment (A0) and 29.62% higher than that of the initial hydrothermal conditions (A1, 140 °C-1 h-5%). Proteins, polysaccharides, and volatile fatty acids (VFAs) were the main hydrothermal products of DSS. 3D-EEM analysis revealed that tyrosine, tryptophan proteins, and fulvic acids decreased after HTP, but the content of humic acid-like substances increased, and this phenomenon was more noticeable after AD. Solid-organic P was converted into liquid-P during the hydrothermal process, and nonapatite inorganic P was converted into organic P during AD. All samples achieved positive energy balance, and the energy balance of A4 was 10.50 kJ/g VS. Microbial analysis showed that the composition of the anaerobic microbial degradation community changed as the sludge organic composition was altered. Results showed that the HTP improved the anaerobic digestion of DSS.

Machine learning and circular bioeconomy: Building new resource efficiency from diverse waste streams

Biorefinery systems are playing pivotal roles in the technological support of resource efficiency for circular bioeconomy. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence presents great potential in handling scientific tasks of high-dimensional complexity. This review article scrutinizes the status of machine learning (ML) applications in four critical biorefinery systems (i.e. composting, fermentation, anaerobic digestion, and thermochemical conversions) as well as their advancements against traditional modeling techniques of mechanistic approach. The contents cover their algorithm selections, modeling challenges, and prospective improvements. Perspectives are sketched to further inform collective efforts on crucial aspects. The multidisciplinary interchange of modeling knowledge will enable a more progressive digital transformation of sustainability efforts in supporting sustainable development goals.

Alterations of gut and oral microbiota in the individuals consuming take-away food in disposable plastic containers

Microplastics (MP) and nanoplastics (NP) exist in the disposable plastic take-away containers. This study aims to determine the gut and oral microbiota alterations in the individuals frequently and occasionally consuming take-away food in disposable plastic containers (TFDPC), and explore the effect of micro/nanoplastics (MNP) reduction on gut microbiota in mice. TFDPC consumption are associated with greater presences of gastrointestinal dysfunction and cough. Both occasional and frequent consumers have altered gut and oral microbiota, and their gut diversity and evenness are greater than those of non-TFDPC consuming cohort. Multiple gut and oral bacteria are associated with TFDPC consumers, among which intestinal Collinsella and oral Thiobacillus are most associated with the frequent consumers, while intestinal Faecalibacterium is most associated with the occasional consumers. Although some gut bacteria associated with the mice treated with 500 µg NP and 500 µg MP are decreased in the mice treated with 200 µg NP, the gut microbiota of the three MNP groups are all different from the control group. This study demonstrates that TFDPC induces gut and oral microbiota alterations in the consumers, and partial reduction of the size and amount of MNP cannot rectify the MNP-induced gut microbial dysbiosis.

High temperature shock threatens methane production via disturbing microbial interactions in anaerobic digestion

Operational strategies shape microbial interactions determining anaerobic digesting process, but it is unclear whether and how the microbial network properties impact gas generation, especially in the transitional stage after operations. This research examined how the high temperature shock affected microbial diversity and network traits connected with the biogas production in a swine manure-fed anaerobic digester. Rising temperature (from 35 °C to 50 °C) significantly reduced biogas and methane production (p < 0.001) in the transitional stage due to the syntrophic loss of Methanomicrobiaceae and Firmicutes affiliated families. The high temperature shock reduced network modularity and thus caused the system functioning loss. Furthermore, the methanogenic stability was disrupted by high temperature shock (reduced the abundance of Methanosphaera but increased the abundance of Methanoculleus), which may result in the subsequent dysbiosis with other syntrophic communities. These findings suggest that the increased temperature-induced high network complexity and stability, but microbial communities need more time to restore the microenvironment via establishing the interactions of keystone species.

New trends on green energy and environmental technologies, with special focus on biomass valorization, water and waste recycling: editorial of the special issue

In this editorial piece, the Editors of the Virtual Special Issue (VSI) "New Trends on Green Energy and Environmental Technologies, with Special Focus on Biomass Valorization, Water and Waste Recycling", present summarized data corresponding to the accepted submissions, as well as additional comments regarding the thematic of the VSI. Overall, 83 manuscripts were received, with final publication of those having the highest quality, accepted after peer-reviewing. The Editors think that the result is a set of very interesting papers that increase the knowledge on the matter, and which would be useful for researchers and the whole society.

Methodological framework for wastewater treatment plants delivering expanded service: Economic tradeoffs and technological decisions

With emerging decarbonization to deploy more integrated waste management, there is a burgeoning need for re-managing waste-related infrastructures in urban environments. Wastewater treatment plants are key contributors to expanded environmental services, but relevant technological decisions and economic tradeoffs have to be assessed from a systems perspective. This study provides a methodological framework that consolidates the multiple technological and economic aspects of system retrofitting for such an evaluation purpose. Complex leachate from refuse transfer stations has been recently identified as the decarbonization roadblock of urban waste management, and it was chosen for investigations by this new methodological approach. The system impacts by complex leachate on the existing facilities were validated by experimental trials. To derive the financial outlooks for decision making, the evaluation matrix includes the quantitative impacts of bioenergy profiles, energy balance analysis of biogas utilization methods, needs of system retrofitting, economic factors, and their uncertainties. Due to the detected inefficiency of bioenergy recovery, bioinformatic analysis was proceeded for understanding the underlying mechanism to propose a mitigation solution. Overall, the methodological framework can provide a quantitative assessment of the centralized capability of wastewater treatment plants for systems planning in the new policy agenda of urban decarbonization, where the methodological potentials of expanded framework applications are also highlighted.

Plastic-containing food waste conversion to biomethane, syngas, and biochar via anaerobic digestion and gasification: Focusing on reactor performance, microbial community analysis, and energy balance assessment

To manage the mixture of food waste and plastic waste, a hybrid biological and thermal system was investigated for converting plastic-containing food waste (PCFW) into renewable energy, focusing on performance evaluation, microbial community analysis, and energy balance assessment. The results showed that anaerobic digestion (AD) of food waste, polyethylene (PE)-containing food waste, polystyrene (PS)-containing food waste, and polypropylene (PP)-containing food waste generated a methane yield of 520.8, 395.6, 504.2, and 479.8 mL CH₄/gVS, respectively. CO₂ gasification of all the plastic-containing digestate produced more syngas than pure digestate gasification. Syngas from PS-digestate reached the maximum yield of 20.78 mol/kg. During the digestate-derived-biochar-amended AD of PCFW, the methane yields in the biochars-amended digesters were 6-30% higher than those of the control digesters. Bioinformatic analysis of microbial communities confirmed the significant difference between control and biochar-amended digesters in terms of bacterial and methanogenic compositions. The enhanced methane yields in biochars-amended digesters could be partially ascribed to the selective enrichment of genus Methanosarcina, leading to an improved equilibrium between hydrogenotrophic and acetoclastic methanogenesis pathways. Moreover, energy balance assessment demonstrated that the hybrid biological and thermal conversion system can be a promising technical option for the treatment of PCFW and recovery of renewable biofuels (i.e., biogas and syngas) and bioresource (i.e., biochar) on an industrial scale.

Low- and High-Pressure Membrane Separation in the Production of Process Water for Coke Quenching

Although the time for operating mines and coking plants in many countries is coming to an end due to climate change, we must still ensure that the pollution generated by this source of the economy is minimized. Despite the several stages of treatment of the coke-oven effluent, completed with nitrification and denitrification processes preceding final sedimentation, the stream obtained does not meet the requirements of water for coke quenching. That is why the stream after biodegradation and sedimentation was treated on membrane units to ensure water reusing in the coking plant. As the subjected stream contained both solid and dissolved pollutants, a two-stage system was proposed: low- and high-pressure membrane filtration. Industrial modules were tested on pilot units operating under industrial plant conditions. In the case of the ultrafiltration process, all the tested ultrafiltration modules fulfilled the primary task. All of them separated almost completely the turbidities present in the stream, which would have disturbed the operation of the high-pressure plant. Considering the decrease in permeate flux and the possibility of cleaning, a PCI membrane made of PVDF tubes with a diameter of 12.5 mm and pore size of 20 μm was selected. Regarding the high-pressure membrane filtration, the reverse osmosis membrane was significantly better in the removal efficiency of both organic and inorganic dissolved substances. An operating pressure of 3 MPa was chosen for the system. Hence, membrane processes, which are not used as stand-alone treatment units for coke-oven effluents, function well as a final treatment stage.