Two-stage anaerobic digestion: State of technology and perspective roles in future energy systems.

Two-stage anaerobic digestion (TSAD) systems have been studied on a laboratory scale for about 50 years. However, they have not yet reached industrial scale despite their potential for future energy systems. This review provides an analysis of the TSAD technology, including the influence of process parameters on biomass conversion rates. The most common substrate (35.2% of the 38 selected studies) used in the analysed data was in the category of rapidly hydrolysable industrial waste with an average dry matter content of 7.24%. The highest methane content of 85% was reached when digesting food waste in a combination of two mesophilic continuously stirred tank reactors with an acidic (pH 5.5) first stage and alkaline (pH 7) second stage. Therefore, the review shows the limitations of the TSAD technology, future research directions, and the effect of integration of TSAD systems into the current strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

[Emotional experience and change in psychodynamic inpatient psychotherapy]. / Emotionales Erleben und seine Veränderung im Rahmen teil-/stationärer psychodynamischer Psychotherapie.

Emotional experience and change in psychodynamic inpatient psychotherapy Objectives: The subject of the present study is the recording of emotional experience and its change through inpatient psychodynamic psychotherapy, taking into account the factors of age, gender, and traumatic experiences in childhood and adolescence. Methods: The following standardized instruments were used on the clinical sample of 971 patients (413 inpatient, 558 day clinic patients) at the beginning and at the end of the treatment: Questionnaire for the Assessment of Emotional Experience and Emotion Regulation (EER), Childhood-Trauma-Questionnaire (CTQ), Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP), Helping Alliance Questionnaire (HAQ), Symptom-Check-List (SCL-90-R). Results: The mean duration of treatment was 66.8 days (SD = 14.1; range 30-96). Younger patients and polytraumatized patients showed a higher expression of negative emotions. At the end of treatment, the whole group of patients showed a change in emotional experience, especially a strong decrease in passive-negative emotions and a decrease in psychological distress. Age represented a significant factor influencing emotional change. Discussion: The results underline the importance of emotional change as a prerequisite for treatment success and confirm the effectiveness of inpatient psychodynamic treatment. A further differentiation of the patients with regard to their emotional responsiveness seems to make sense with regard to the suitability of the therapeutic offers.

Influence of anaerobic digestion on the labile phosphorus in pig, chicken, and dairy manure.

Phosphorus (P) loss from livestock and poultry industry causes serious threat to agro-ecological environments. Anaerobic digestion (AD), through recycling of P-containing resources and biogas production, prevails as a promising solution to the resource, energy, and environment trilemma. In this study, the dynamic transformation of P in batch AD processes fed with chicken, pig and dairy manures was investigated. Results showed that the Labile-P of total phosphorus (TP) in pig, chicken and dairy manure digestates decreased from 37.35% to 23.79%, 36.79% to 17.29%, and 60.47% to 20.39%, respectively, and was associated with an increase of NaOH-P during the AD process. However, the Labile-P in raw manures ranging from 64.67% to 81.10%, indicated that AD could reduce the pollution risk caused by the overuse of high Labile-P animal manure as fertilizer. Metal ions had a significant influence on P transformation because of their ability to combine with PO43-/HPO42-. During AD, the species of phosphates increased: AlPO4, FePO4, Mg3(PO4)2, CaHPO4, Mg(NH4)PO4·6H2O and Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2 were the main phosphates qualified by X-ray diffraction (XRD). AD produced a satisfactory fertilizer for plants that were able to activate the precipitated P, which could provide readily available N and slow-release P. This study provides a meaningful theoretical guide for recycling P from animal manure resources.

[From body to mind: the psychoanalytic approach to patients with chronic pain]. / Del cuerpo a la mente: Un acercamiento psicoanalítico a los pacientes con dolor crónico.

Psychosomatic Medicine in Germany is a very sophisticated and elaborated disciplin in the health care system. The system of psychosomatic care in Germany is organized from the basic care of the general practitioner to the integrated multimodal psychosomatic inpatient treatment. This development is due to a big growth of psychosomatic need of treatment in the society. So the introduction of a new specialist of Psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy in 1993 was a logical consequence of this development. Moreover it is the intention of this article to look for some historical explanations for the fact that this development of psychosomatic medicine was especially in Germany after the second world war. Chronic somatoform pain patients are suffering from pain as if the pain was caused by an injury of tissue. In this article is shown how and why the pain that is caused by deep powerlessness, lost of objects, traumatization can by turned from psychic to physical pain. The role of childhood experiences and the lack of mentalization and symbolization capacity is discussed. As the pain is felt as a somatic pain by the patients it needs a special attitude and psychoanalytic technique to treat this patient successfully. Therefore we need additional methods like art therapy and concentrative movement therapy to involve these patients. For this treatment we need a special setting by integrative multimodal psychosomatic inpatient or day clinic treatment. This way that is very developed in Germany is discussed and shown.

Integration of membrane filtration in two-stage anaerobic digestion system: Specific methane yield potentials of hydrolysate and permeate.

Two-stage biogas systems consisting of a CSTR-acidification reactor (AR) and an anaerobic filter (AF) were frequently described for microbial conversion of food and agricultural wastes to biogas. The aim of this study is to investigate the integration of a membrane filtration step in two-stage systems to remove inert particles from hydrolysate produced in AR in order to increase the efficiency of the subsequent AF. Hydrolysates from vegetable waste (VW) and grass/maize silage (G/M) were treated in cross-flow ceramic membrane filtration system (pore size 0.2 µm). Organic acids were extracted efficiently through filtration of hydrolysate. For both the substrates, membrane permeability was stable and high (46.6-49.3 L m-2 h-1 bar-1). Filtration process effectively improved the specific methane yield of permeate by 40% (VW) and 24.5% (G/M) compared to hydrolysate. It could be shown that, the filtration-step increased hydrolysate's degradability, which lead to higher conversion efficiency in the following AF.

Influence of pressures up to 50bar on two-stage anaerobic digestion.

The concept of pressurized two-stage anaerobic digestion integrates biogas production, purification and pressure boosting within one process. The produced methane-rich biogas can be fed into gas grids with considerably less purification effort. To investigate biogas production under high pressures up to 50bar, a lab scale two-stage anaerobic digestion system was constructed including one continuously operated pressurized methane reactor. This investigation examined the effects of different operating pressures in methane reactor (10, 25, 50bar) on biogas quantity and quality, pH value and process stability. By increasing operating pressures in methane reactor, the pH value decreased from 6.65 at 10bar to 6.55 at 50bar. Simultaneously, methane content increased from 79.08% at 10bar to 90.45% at 50bar. The results show that methane reactors can be operated up to 50bar pressure continuously representing a viable alternative to commonly used gas upgrading methods because of reduced purification effort.

High-pressure anaerobic digestion up to 100†bar: influence of initial pressure on production kinetics and specific methane yields.

To ensure an efficient use of biogas produced by anaerobic digestion, in some cases it would be advisable to upgrade the biogenic gases and inject them into the transnational gas grids. To investigate biogas production under high-pressure conditions up to 100 bar, new pressure batch methane reactors were developed for preliminary lab-scale experiments with a mixture of grass and maize silage hydrolysate. During this investigation, the effects of different initial pressures (1, 50 and 100 bar) on pressure increase, gas production and the specific methane yield using nitrogen as inert gas were determined. Based on the experimental findings increasing initial pressures alter neither significantly, further pressure increases nor pressure increase rates. All supplied organic acids were degraded and no measurable inhibition of the microorganisms was observed. The results show that methane reactors can be operated at operating pressures up to 100 bar without any negative effects on methane production.

[Utilization of self-help groups and psychotherapy after psychosomatic-psychotherapeutic in-patient treatment]. / Inanspruchnahme von Selbsthilfegruppen und Psychotherapie im Anschluss an eine stationäre psychosomatisch-psychotherapeutische Behandlung.

Until now little is known about the role of participation in self-help groups alone or combined with psychotherapy in post-in-patient care. In the present study 2933 patients were questioned about their experience of self-help groups and psychotherapy after discharge from a clinic for psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy. Nearly 8 % of them utilized self-help groups (mostly combined with out-patient psychotherapy), and altogether 68 % out-patient psychotherapy following in-patient treatment. Patients without out-patient treatment were psychologically less burdened and had better resources than participants of self-help groups or psychotherapy. Self-help group members differed from patients in out-patient psychotherapy by expressing a more positive opinion of groupwork and higher openness to new experiences. Additionly, they had discussed the topic of self-help groups more frequently with their therapists. This may be a starting-point for promoting more self-help activities of patients in the future.

[Distribution of alexithymia as a personality-trait in psychosomatically ill in-patients--measured with TAS 20 and LEAS]. / Verteilung des Persönlichkeitsmerkmals Alexithymie bei Patienten in stationärer psychosomatischer Behandlung - gemessen mit TAS-20 und LEAS.

Preliminary findings of an ongoing study of the distribution of alexithymia in different diagnostic-groups of psychosomatically ill in-patients (n = 240, will be increased to n = 400) are reported. Alexithymiea is measured simultaneousely by the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS, a performance-test) and the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS 20, a self-report-scale). Measured by the LEAS and compared with other diagnostic groups (affective, anxiety and compulsive-obsessive disorders; adjustment disorders; eating disorders), patients with somatoform disorders showed a decreased ability to be aware of and to communicate their emotional states. This finding which meets theoretical considerations about the origin of alexithymia could not be found with the TAS 20. The TAS 20 did not differentiate between the diagnostic groups, but showed - in accordance with two other self-report-scales (STAI for self reported anxiety as a personality trait and SCL-90-R for self reported somatic und psychic complaints) - higher mean scores at the onset than at the end of treatment. Methodical implications of the different findings of the two alexithymia scales are discussed.

[Psychosomatic and psychotherapeutic medicine goes DRG -Procedure-catalog OPS-301 2.1 as a first step]. / Psychosomatic and Psychotherapeutic Medicine goes DRG - Prozeduren-Katalog OPS-301 2.1 als erster Schritt.

To demonstrate the repercussions for Psychosomatic and Psychotherapeutic Medicine of the politically motivated decision to introduce case mix funding for inpatient treatment in Germany. Description of the development of an appropriate code list of procedures for Psychosomatic and Psychotherapeutic Medicine within the DRG-System. The code list OPS-301 which was valid in 2001 had no appropriate procedures for Psychosomatic and Psychotherapeutic Medicine. The scientific societies therefore had to develop possibilities for coding psychosomatic-psychotherapeutic procedures in the new OPS-301 2.1 which is valid since January 2002. This was achieved through the formulation of so-called complex codes, which are presented together with first coding tips. There are further tasks with risks and potential benefits which have to be accomplished after establishing these complex codes.