Transforming wastewater treatment plants to sustainable biorefineries by developing VFA platform
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | Högskolan i Borås - Akademin för Textil Teknik och Ekonomi |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 500 000 |
| Project duration | November 2018 - May 2019 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | Circular and biobased economy |
Important results from the project
The aim was to investigate production of VFAs from sludge and food wastes to substitute the external carbon source in WWTPs. The goals (and results) were to: 1. Produce VFAs in an MBR from sludge/food waste to 400 mgVFAs/gVSS. (Achieved by 95%). 2. Determine economic feasibility of scaled-up MBR to produce VFAs as fossil-based carbon source replacement for denitrification. (It is economically and environmentally attractive) 3. Test nutrient-removal from wastewater using the bio-based VFAs. Due to time limitation, these tests could not be performed in this step and planned for stage 2.
Expected long term effects
From the membrane bioreactor experiments without pH control, sewage sludge produced a maximum 380 mgVFAs/gVSS. The techno-economic analysis revealed that substitution of fossil-based methanol with VFAs is economically and environmentally attractive.
Approach and implementation
Different batch essays where conducted to study the effect of thermal and alkali pretreatment, pH (5-12), and mixing sludge and food waste on VFA production and methane inhibition. Then, optimum conditions with no chemical addition, using separate sludge and food waste were applied to continuous MBR for over 3 months. Using the acquired results, techno-economic analysis on largescale application of an MBR for replacing bio-VFAs with methanol for denitrification process was performed.