Why are decentralised urban water solutions still rare given all the claimed benefits, and how could that be changed?

Numerous innovative decentralised urban water solutions have been described over many years, yet their application in practice is still not common at all. While many proposed solutions may have some techno-economic advantages over current systems, the real reasons for the slow uptake have more to do with system-wide inertia and technology 'lock-in' where existing solutions are preferred for simplicity and familiarity. A key factor is also the inadequate assessments in project decision making processes that should consider all relevant social, environmental and economic benefits and values. This paper highlights some key barriers and how to address them in a more holistic way. It also identifies opportunities where more integrated, hybrid solutions could offer significant benefits over current technologies. It calls on all key partners in this sector to foster broad and strong collaborations, and on water service providers to be empowered to take an inclusive leadership role in creating such innovative solutions that help address our growing challenges driven by rapid urbanisation and climate change.

Electrochemical oxidation processes for PFAS removal from contaminated water and wastewater: fundamentals, gaps and opportunities towards practical implementation.

Electrochemical oxidation (EO) is emerging as one of the most promising methods for the degradation of recalcitrant per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in water and wastewater, as these compounds cannot be effectively treated with conventional bio- or chemical approaches. This review examines the state of the art of EO for PFASs destruction, and comprehensively compares operating parameters and treatment performance indicators for both synthetic and real contaminated water and wastewater media. The evaluation shows the need to use environmentally-relevant media to properly quantify the effectiveness/efficiency of EO for PFASs treatment. Additionally, there is currently a lack of quantification of sorption losses, resulting in a likely over-estimation of process' efficiencies. Furthermore, the majority of experimental results to date indicate that short-chain PFASs are the most challenging and need to be prioritized as environmental regulations become more stringent. Finally, and with a perspective towards practical implementation, several operational strategies are proposed, including processes combining up-concentration followed by EO destruction.

Evaluation of continuous and intermittent trickling strategies for the removal of hydrogen sulfide in a biotrickling filter.

Biotrickling filter (BTF) is a widely applied bioreactor for odour abatement in sewer networks. The trickling strategy is vital for maintaining a sound operation of BTF. This study employed a lab-scale BTF packed with granular activated carbon at a short empty bed residence time of 6 s and pH 1-2 to evaluate different trickling strategies, i.e., continuous trickling (different velocities) and intermittent trickling (different trickling intervals), in terms of the removal of hydrogen sulfide (H2S), bed pressure drop, H2S oxidation products and microbial community. The H2S removal performance decreased with the trickling velocity (∼3.6 m/h) in BTF. In addition, three intermittent trickling strategies, i.e., 10-min trickling per 24 h, 8 h, and 2 h, were investigated. The H2S elimination capacity deteriorated after about 2 weeks under both 10-min trickling per 24 h and 8 h. For both intermittent (10-min trickling per 2 h) and continuous trickling, the BTF exhibited nearly 100 % H2S removal for inlet H2S concentrations<100 ppmv, but intermittent BTF showed better removal performance than continuous trickling when inlet H2S increased to 120-190 ppmv. Furthermore, the bed pressure drops were 333 and 3888 Pa/m for non-trickling and trickling periods, respectively, which makes intermittent BTF save 83 % energy consumption of the blower compared with continuous tirckling. However, intermittent BTF exhibited transient H2S breakthrough (<1 ppmv) during trickling periods. Moreover, elemental sulfur and sulfate were major products of H2S oxidation and Acidithiobacillus was the dominant genus in both intermittent and continuous trickling BTF. A mathematical model was calibrated for the intermittent BTF and a sensitivity analysis was performed on the model. It shows mass transfer parameters determine the H2S removal. Overall, intermittent trickling strategy is promising for improving odour abatement performance and reducing the operating cost of the BTF.

Enhancing anaerobic digestion using free nitrous acid: Identifying the optimal pre-treatment condition in continuous operation.

Free Nitrous Acid (FNA) pre-treatment is a promising technology demonstrated effective in improving waste activated sludge degradability and anaerobic digestion (AD) performance. Pre-treatment conditions including FNA concentration and treatment duration determine operational and capital cost of full-scale implementation, which have not been studied in long-term experiments. The knowledge of FNA pre-treatment conditions improving the AD performance is urgently required to determine suitable conditions for the technology implementation. In this work, five different FNA concentrations (2.2, 4.4, 7.2, 12 mgN/L and nitrite only without pH adjustment) and three treatment durations (8, 24 and 48 h) were studied in four lab-scale semi-continuous AD reactors for over 300 days. FNA pre-treatment was shown under all tested conditions effective in enhancing AD performances, while its effectiveness and resulted benefits varied substantially amongst different pre-treatment conditions. The long-term experiment demonstrated that the methane production, sludge reduction and digested sludge viscosity of AD are positively correlated with the FNA concentration and durations, until an optimal condition is reached, which was identified in this work to be FNA concentration of 7.2 mgN/L and treatment duration of 24 h. Microbial community changes supported the apparent observation of enhanced sludge degradation at elevating FNA concentrations applied during pre-treatment. The short-term sludge solubilization results were inconsistent with the long-term AD performance, which was potentially caused by inhibitions from stringent FNA pre-treatment conditions applied (FNA = 12 mgN/L with 24-hour treatment & FNA = 7.2 mgN/L with 48-hour treatment). Overall, results suggested FNA pre-treatment at the optimized condition is highly beneficial to WWTPs and competitive with other pre-treatment technologies, e.g., thermal hydrolysis pre-treatment. This work comprehensively evaluated the key design parameters of FNA pre-treatment process, reached a major milestone in the development and applications of FNA technologies.

Selective Extraction of Medium-Chain Carboxylic Acids by Electrodialysis and Phase Separation.

Carboxylic acids obtained via the microbial electrochemical conversion of waste gases containing carbon dioxide (i.e., microbial electrosynthesis) can be used in lieu of nonrenewable building-block chemicals in the manufacture of a variety of products. When targeting valuable medium-chain carboxylic acids such as caproic acid, electricity-driven fermentations can be limited by the accumulation of fermentation products in the culturing media, often resulting in low volumetric productivities and titers due to direct toxicity or inhibition of the biocatalyst. In this study, we tested the effectiveness of a simple electrodialysis system in upconcentrating carboxylic acids from a model solution mimicking the effluent of a microbial electrochemical system producing short- and medium-chain carboxylic acids. Under batch extraction conditions, the electrodialysis scheme enabled the recovery of 60% (mol mol-1) of the total carboxylic acids present in the model fermentation broth. The particular arrangement of conventional monopolar ion exchange membranes and hydraulic recirculation loops allowed the progressive acidification of the extraction solution, enabling phase separation of caproic acid as an immiscible oil with 76% purity.

The impact of primary sedimentation on the use of iron-rich drinking water sludge on the urban wastewater system.

The impact of primary sedimentation on the multiple use of iron in an urban wastewater system was investigated. Our previous work showed that in-sewer iron-rich drinking water sludge (DWS) dosing exhibited multiple benefits in the downstream processes. However, the system studied did not include a primary settler. We hypothesised that primary sedimentation could significantly change the characteristics of the wastewater flowing to the bioreactor, particularly its particulate components. This could in turn influence the availability of iron for phosphate removal from wastewater and/or sulfide removal in the anaerobic sludge digester. Long-term (~4 months) experiments were carried out on two laboratory-scale wastewater systems, each comprising sewers reactors, a primary sedimentation tank, a wastewater treatment reactor, and an anaerobic sludge digester. It was found the majority (85%) of the Fe contained in the sewer effluent was present in the primary sludge with the remaining (15%) staying in the primary effluent. This significantly affected the flow-on effect of Fe on the phosphate removal during wastewater treatment, removing only 1.2 ± 0.1 mgP L-1, as compared to 3.5 ± 0.1 mgP L-1 achieved previously in the absence of a primary settler. However, the P to Fe removal ratio was 0.32 mgP/mgFe, similar to the ratio observed previously without primary sedimentation (0.36 mgP/mgFe). The dissolved sulfide removal in the anaerobic digester was 2.7 ± 0.5 mgS L-1, substantially lower than 7.2 ± 0.3 mgS L-1 previously attained without primary sedimentation. This suggests that Fe in the primary sludge was not completely available for dissolved sulfide removal in the digester. However, the dewaterability of the anaerobically digested sludge improved with a relative increase of 25.0 ± 0.9%, compared to the 21.7 ± 0.6%, previously observed without primary sedimentation. The results demonstrated that primary sedimentation reduced the effectiveness to deliver the benefits of the in-sewer DWS dosing strategy, but the results are still favourable.

Effects of aging of ferric-based drinking water sludge on its reactivity for sulfide and phosphate removal.

Recent studies demonstrated the practical potential of multiple beneficial reuse of ferric-rich drinking water sludge (ferric DWS) for sulfide and phosphate removal in wastewater applications. In practice, ferric DWS is often stored on-site for periods ranging from days to several weeks (or even months), which may affect its reuse potential through changes in iron speciation and morphology. In this study, we investigated for the first time the impact of ferric DWS 'aging' time on the iron speciation and morphology and its subsequent impact on its reactivity and overall sulfide and phosphate removal capacity. A series of coagulation tests were conducted to generate ferric DWS of a practically relevant composition by using raw influent water from a full-scale drinking water treatment plant (DWTP). A comparison with ferric DWS from 8 full-scale DWTPs confirmed the similitude. The presence of akaganeite (ß-FeOOH) was detected in ferric DWS (through XRD analyses), independent of the DWS storage time. However, the morphology of akaganeite changed over time from a predominant poorly-crystalline phase in 'fresh' DWS (8 ± 0.1% of total Fe) to a highly crystalline phase (76 ± 3% of total Fe) at a sludge aging time of 30 days which was confirmed by means of Rietveld refinement in XRD analyses (n = 3). Subsequent batch tests showed that its sulfide removal capacity decreased significantly from 1.30 ± 0.02 mmol S/mmol Fe (day 1) to 0.60 ± 0.01 (day 30), a decrease of 54 % (p < 0.05). The level of crystallinity however had no impact on sulfide removal kinetics, most sulfide being removed within 10 minutes. Upon aeration of sulfide-loaded ferric DWS in activate sludge, amorphous iron oxides species were formed independent of the initial DWS crystallinity which resulted in efficient P removal at capacities similar to that of conventional FeCl3 dosing.

Recovery of in-sewer dosed iron from digested sludge at downstream treatment plants and its reuse potential.

Iron-based coagulants are dosed in enormous amounts and play an essential role in various segments of our urban water infrastructure. In order for the water industry to become circular, a closed-loop management strategy for iron needs to be developed. In this study, we have demonstrated for the first time that in-sewer dosed iron, either in the form of FeCl3 or ferric-based drinking water sludge (Fe-DWS) as a means to combat sewer corrosion and odour, can be recovered in the form of vivianite in digested sludge in down-stream wastewater treatment plants. Importantly, about 92 ± 2% of the in-sewer dosed Fe was estimated to be bound in vivianite in digested sludge. A simple insertion of Neodymium magnet allowed to recover 11 ± 0.2% and 15.3 ± 0.08% of the vivianite formed in the digested sludge of the in-sewer dosed iron in the form of FeCl3 and Fe-DWS, respectively. The purity of recovered vivianite ranged between 70 ± 5% and 49 ± 3% for in-sewer dosed FeCl3 and Fe-DWS, respectively. Almost complete (i.e. 98 ± 0.3%) separation of Fe in the form of ferrihydrite was achieved from vivianite after alkaline washing. Subsequent batch experiments demonstrated that the recovered ferrihydrite can be directly reused for efficient sulfide control in sewers. At a ferrihydrite-Fe:S molar ratio of 1.2:1, sewage dissolved sulfide concentrations was reduced from 15 mgS/L to below 0.5 mgS/L within 1 h of reaction. Overall, the results obtained in our study flag a first step for utilities towards a closed-loop iron-based coagulant management approach.

Effects of in-sewer dosing of iron-rich drinking water sludge on wastewater collection and treatment systems.

The use of coagulants and flocculants in the water and wastewater industry is predicted to increase further in the coming years. Alum is the most widely used coagulant, however, the use of ferric chloride (FeCl3) is gaining popularity. Drinking water production that uses FeCl3 as coagulant produces waste sludge rich in iron. We hypothesised that the iron-rich drinking water sludge (DWS) can potentially be used in the urban wastewater system to reduce dissolved sulfide in sewer systems, aid phosphate removal in wastewater treatment and reduce hydrogen sulfide in the anaerobic digester biogas. This hypothesis was investigated using two laboratory-scale urban wastewater systems, one as an experimental system and the other as a control, each comprising sewer reactors, a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) for wastewater treatment, sludge thickeners and anaerobic digestion reactors. Both were fed with domestic wastewater. The experimental system received in-sewer DWS-dosing at 10 mgFe L-1 while the control had none. The sulfide concentration in the experimental sewer effluent decreased by 3.5 ± 0.2 mgS L-1 as compared with the control, while the phosphate concentration decreased by 3.6 ± 0.3 mgP L-1 after biological wastewater treatment in the experimental SBR. The dissolved sulfide concentration in the experimental anaerobic digester also decreased by 15.9 ± 0.9 mgS L-1 following the DWS-dosing to the sewer reactors. The DWS-doing also enhanced the settleability of the mixed liquor suspended sludge (MLSS) (SVI decreased from 193.2 ± 22.2 to 108.0 ± 7.7 ml g-1), and the dewaterability of the anaerobically digested sludge (the cake solids concentration increased from 15.7 ± 0.3% to 19.1 ± 1.8%). The introduction of DWS into the experimental system significantly increased the COD and TSS concentrations in the wastewater, and consequently the MLSS concentration in the SBR, however, this did not affect normal operation. The results demonstrated that iron-rich waste sludge from drinking water production can be used in the urban wastewater system achieving multiple benefits. Therefore, an integrated approach to urban water and wastewater management should be considered to maximise the benefits of iron use in the system.

Author Correction: Global diversity and biogeography of bacterial communities in wastewater treatment plants.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Opportunities for reducing coagulants usage in urban water management: The Oxley Creek Sewage Collection and Treatment System as an example.

Iron and aluminium based coagulants are used in enormous amounts and play an essential role in urban water management globally. They are dosed at drinking water production facilities for the removal of natural organic matter. Iron salts are also dosed to sewers for corrosion and odour control, and at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) for phosphate removal from wastewater and hydrogen sulfide removal from biogas. A recent laboratory study revealed that iron dosed to sewers is available for phosphate and hydrogen sulfide removal in the downstream WWTP. This study demonstrates for the first time under real-life conditions the practical feasibility and effectiveness of the strategy through a year-long full-scale investigation. Over a period of 5 months, alum dosing at ∼190 kg Al/day to the bioreactor in a full-scale WWTP was stopped, while FeCl2 dosing at ∼160 kg Fe/day in the upstream network was commenced. Extensive sampling campaigns were conducted over the baseline, trial and recovery periods to investigate sulfide control in sewers and its flow-on effects on phosphate in WWTP effluent, H2S in biogas, as well as on the WWTP effluent hypochlorite disinfection process. A plant-wide mass balance analysis showed that the Fe2+ dosed upstream was effectively used for P removal in the activated sludge tanks, with an effluent phosphate concentration comparable to that in the baseline period (i.e. with alum dosing to the bioreactor). Simultaneously, hydrogen sulfide concentration in biogas decreased ∼43%, from 495 ±â€¯10 to 283 ±â€¯4 ppm. No effects on biological nitrogen removal and disinfection processes were observed. Both effluent phosphate and H2S in biogas increased in the recovery period, when in-sewer dosing of FeCl2 was stopped. X-ray diffraction failed to reveal the presence of vivianite in the digested sludge, providing strong evidence that thermal hydrolysis prevented the formation of vivianite during anaerobic digestion. The latter limits the potential for selective recovery of Fe and P through magnetic separation. Overall, our study clearly demonstrates the multiple beneficial reuse of iron in a real urban wastewater system and urges water utilities to adopt an integrated approach to coagulant use in urban water management.

Removal of Pharmaceuticals and Illicit Drugs from Wastewater Due to Ferric Dosing in Sewers.

Ferric (Fe3+) salt dosing is an efficient sulfide control strategy in the sewer network, with potential for multiple benefits including phosphorus removal in the biological reactors and sulfide emission control in the anaerobic digesters of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). This paper extends the knowledge on the benefit of iron dosing by exploring its impact on the fate of organic micropollutants (MPs) in the wastewater using sewer reactors simulating a rising main sewer pipe. The sulfide produced by the sewer biofilms reacted with Fe3+ forming black colored iron sulfide (FeS). Among the selected MPs, morphine, methadone, and atenolol had >90% initial rapid removal within 5 min of ferric dosing in the sewer reactor. The ultimate removal after 6 h of retention time in the reactor reached 93-97%. Other compounds, ketamine, codeine, carbamazepine, and acesulfame had 30-70% concentration decrease. The ultimate removal varied between 35 and 70% depending on the biodegradability of those MPs. In contrast, paracetamol had no initial removal. The rapid removal of MPs was likely due to adsorption to the FeS surface, which is further confirmed by batch tests with different FeS concentrations. The results showed a direct relationship between the removal of MPs and FeS concentration. The transformation kinetics of these compounds in the reactor without Fe3+ dosing is in good agreement with biodegradation associated with the sewer biofilms in the reactor. This study revealed a significant additional benefit of dosing ferric salts in sewers, that is, the removal of MPs before the sewage enters the WWTP.

Global diversity and biogeography of bacterial communities in wastewater treatment plants.

Microorganisms in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are essential for water purification to protect public and environmental health. However, the diversity of microorganisms and the factors that control it are poorly understood. Using a systematic global-sampling effort, we analysed the 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequences from ~1,200 activated sludge samples taken from 269 WWTPs in 23 countries on 6 continents. Our analyses revealed that the global activated sludge bacterial communities contain ~1 billion bacterial phylotypes with a Poisson lognormal diversity distribution. Despite this high diversity, activated sludge has a small, global core bacterial community (n = 28 operational taxonomic units) that is strongly linked to activated sludge performance. Meta-analyses with global datasets associate the activated sludge microbiomes most closely to freshwater populations. In contrast to macroorganism diversity, activated sludge bacterial communities show no latitudinal gradient. Furthermore, their spatial turnover is scale-dependent and appears to be largely driven by stochastic processes (dispersal and drift), although deterministic factors (temperature and organic input) are also important. Our findings enhance our mechanistic understanding of the global diversity and biogeography of activated sludge bacterial communities within a theoretical ecology framework and have important implications for microbial ecology and wastewater treatment processes.

Periodic deprivation of gaseous hydrogen sulfide affects the activity of the concrete corrosion layer in sewers.

Sulfide induced concrete corrosion significantly reduces the service life of the sewer systems. Gaseous hydrogen sulfide (H2S) levels are a key factor affecting the corrosion rate and these fluctuate due to the diurnal flow pattern of sewers. Currently, there is little known about how such fluctuations, in particular the periodic deprivation of H2S, may affect the corrosion activity. This study investigated the impact of the deprivation of H2S on the sulfide uptake rate (SUR) of concrete coupons incubated in laboratory corrosion chambers. After systematic evaluation of the gaseous H2S concentration profiles of two sewer systems, two types of profiles, i.e. short- (1 h) and long- (12 h) term deprivation of H2S, were applied to the concrete coupons. In comparison to the baseline SUR, exposing the concrete coupon to 0 ppm of H2S for 1 h consistently caused a temporary increase of the SUR (i.e. 3.2%-12.5%) following re-supply of H2S at baseline levels. With the continuous re-supply of H2S, there was gradual and steady decrease of SUR to the level close to the baseline SUR. However, for the case after deprivation of H2S for 12 h, the SUR was 5.1% lower than baseline SUR and gradually increased to a level similar to the baseline SUR during the 20-30 min of continuous re-supply of H2S. In addition, the simultaneous deprivation of H2S and O2 for 1 h had negligible impact on the SUR. Further analysis suggests that the historically accumulated intermediates of sulfide oxidation could act as electron donors for sulfide oxidizing bacteria (SOB). The replenishment of the intermediates upon the re-supply of H2S could play a key role in the increase of SUR after short-term deprivation of H2S. However, the activity of SOB could be diminished after long-term deprivation of H2S, although the sulfur intermediates still could be available. Estimating the sulfide uptake by concrete using the SUR of the average H2S concentration could lead to overestimation of the sulfide uptake. There could be more significant overestimation for the case with longer deprivation of H2S.

Microbial electrosynthesis system with dual biocathode arrangement for simultaneous acetogenesis, solventogenesis and carbon chain elongation.

A microbial electrosynthesis cell comprising two biological cathode chambers sharing the same anode compartment is used to promote the production of C2-C4 carboxylic acids and alcohols from carbon dioxide. Each cathode chamber provides ideal pH conditions to favor acetogenesis/carbon chain elongation (pH = 6.9), and solventogenesis (pH = 4.9), respectively, without the requirement of external acid/base dosing.

Evaluation of data-driven models for predicting the service life of concrete sewer pipes subjected to corrosion.

Concrete corrosion is one of the most significant failure mechanisms of sewer pipes, and can reduce the sewer service life significantly. To facilitate the management and maintenance of sewers, it is essential to obtain reliable prediction of the expected service life of sewers, especially if that is based on limited environmental conditions. Recently, a long-term study was performed to identify the controlling factors of concrete sewer corrosion using well-controlled laboratory-scale corrosion chambers to vary levels of H2S concentration, relative humidity, temperature and in-sewer location. Using the results of the long-term study, three different data-driven models, i.e. multiple linear regression (MLR), artificial neural network (ANN), and adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), as well as the interaction between environmental parameters, were assessed for predicting the corrosion initiation time (ti) and corrosion rate (r). This was performed using the sewer environmental factors as the input under 12 different scenarios after allowing for an initiation corrosion period. ANN and ANFIS models showed better performance than MLR models, with or without considering the interactions between environmental factors. With the limited input data available, it was observed that ti prediction by these models is quite sensitive, however, they are more robust for predicting r as long as the H2S concentration is available. Using the H2S concentration as a single input, all three data driven models can reasonably predict the sewer service life.

Effective removal of MIB and geosmin using MBBR for drinking water treatment.

Biodegradation is an effective method for the removal of taste and odour (T&O) compounds from drinking water sources. In this study, the applicability of a moving-bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) as biological treatment step for the control of MIB and geosmin was studied at pilot-scale. After a 3.5 month acclimation period both T&O compounds could be reliably removed by at least 80%. Biodegradation was found to be the dominant removal mechanism with air stripping contributing up to 25% at shorter HRTs. Also sorption of MIB and geosmin onto carriers and biofilm did occur, simultaneously facilitating the biodegradation process. The biodegradation of MIB and geosmin followed pseudo-first-order kinetics.

A comprehensive laboratory assessment of the effects of sewer-dosed iron salts on wastewater treatment processes.

The effect of iron-dosing in the sewer system, on wastewater treatment processes, was investigated using laboratory-scale wastewater systems comprising sewers, wastewater treatment reactors, sludge thickeners, and anaerobic sludge digesters. Two systems, fed with real domestic wastewater, were operated for over a year. The experimental system received ferric chloride (FeCl3) dosing at 10 mgFe L-1 in the sewer reactor whereas the control system received none. Wastewater, sludge and biogas were extensively sampled, and analysed for relevant parameters. The FeCl3-dosed experimental system displayed a decreased sulfide concentration (by 4.3 ±â€¯0.5 mgS L-1) in sewer effluent, decreased phosphate concentration (by 4.7 ±â€¯0.5 mgP L-1) in biological treatment reactor effluent, and decreased hydrogen sulfide concentration in biogas (911.5 ±â€¯189.9 ppm to 130.0 ±â€¯5.9 ppm), as compared with the control system. The biological nitrogen removal performance of the treatment reactor, and biogas production in the anaerobic digester were not affected by FeCl3-dosing. Furthermore, the dewaterability of the anaerobically digested sludge was enhanced by 17.7 ±â€¯1.0%. These findings demonstrate that iron-dosing to sewers can achieve multiple benefits including sulfide removal in sewers, phosphorus removal during wastewater treatment, and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) removal during biogas generation. Therefore, an integrated approach should be taken when considering iron salts usage in an urban wastewater system.

A novel bioelectrochemical system for chemical-free permanent treatment of acid mine drainage.

The mining sector is currently under unprecedented pressure due to stringent environmental regulations. As a consequence, a permanent acid mine drainage (AMD) treatment is increasingly being regarded as a desirable target with direct benefits for the environment and the operational and economic viability of the resources sector. In this study we demonstrate that a novel bioelectrochemical system (BES) can deliver permanent treatment of acid mine drainage without chemical dosing. The technology consists of a two-cell bioelectrochemical setup to enable the removal of sulfate from the ongoing reduction-oxidation sulfur cycle to less than 550 mg L-1 (85 ± 2% removal from a real AMD of an abandoned silver mine), thereby also reducing salinity at an electrical energy requirement of 10 ± 0.3 kWh kg-1 of SO42--S removed. In addition, the BES operation drove the removal and recovery of the main cations Al, Fe, Mg, Zn at rates of 151 ± 0 g Al m-3 d-1, 179 ± 1 g Fe m-3 d-1, 172 ± 1 g Mg m-3 d-1 and 46 ± 0 g Zn m-3 d-1 into a concentrate stream containing 263 ± 2 mg Al, 279 ± 2 mg Fe, 152 ± 0 mg Mg and 90 ± 0 mg Zn per gram of solid precipitated after BES fed-rate control treatment. The solid metal-sludge was twice less voluminous and 9 times more readily settleable than metal-sludge precipitated using NaOH. The continuous BES treatment also demonstrated the concomitant precipitation of rare earth elements together with yttrium (REY), with up to 498 ± 70 µg Y, 166 ± 27 µg Nd, 155 ± 14 µg Gd per gram of solid, among other high-value metals. The high-REY precipitates could be used to offset the treatment costs.

Nutrient removal and energy recovery from high-rate activated sludge processes - Impact of sludge age.

This study evaluated high-rate activated sludge treatment across a broad range of short solids retention times (SRT)s (0.5-3d) and found a strong SRT-outcome dependence for performance and subsequent anaerobic degradability of the sludge. Up to 50% total nitrogen, and 35% ammonia removal was also achieved at the longer SRTs, via partitioning rather than reaction. The aerobic SRT significantly affected the anaerobic degradability of the sludge produced (p<0.001), with degradability increasing from 66% to over 80% while reducing the SRT from 3d to 0.5d. This is higher than predicted by conventional models, likely due to additional mechanisms such as adsorption and storage, not included in these.