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In this study, a biofilm model was developed for sulfur-based denitrification in a moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR), including mass transport as well as the conversion kinetics of sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (SOB). The experimental reactor simulated received a synthetic wastewater containing nitrate, sulfide and thiosulfate. The substrate affinity of SOB for intermediary elemental sulfur (S0) was found the most sensitive parameter. After estimating this single parameter, the model could adequately describe the steady state performance of the experimental MBBR. The experimental and simulated mass balances indicated that a fraction of influent sulfur accumulated into intermediate S0. Furthermore, the simulations showed that SOB were active over the entire thickness of a 200 µm biofilm. The simulation results allowed to quantify the extent of diffusion and substrate limitation. Scenario analyses indicated that the specific nitrogen loading rate could be increased from 0.05 to 0.20 kg N.kg−1 VSS.day−1 (corresponding to 0.22–0.86 kg N.m−2.day−1 expressed per biofilm surface area) while maintaining nitrogen removal efficiencies above 70%. An increasing specific nitrogen loading rate in this range resulted in an almost linearly increasing specific nitrogen removal rate, independent from whether it was realized through a decreasing HRT, carrier filling ratio or biofilm thickness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formation of hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S) during anaerobic digestion (AD) imposes constraints on the valorisation of biogas. So far, inorganic sulfur compounds -mainly sulfate - have been considered as the main contributors to H 2 S formation, while the contribution of organic sulfur compounds is mostly neglected. This study investigates the fate of organic and inorganic sulfur compounds during two-stage anaerobic digestion with intermediate thermal hydrolysis for treatment of primary and secondary sludge in a WWTP treating domestic wastewater. The results of a seven-week monitoring campaign showed an overall decrease of organic sulfur compounds in both stages of anaerobic digestion. Further fractionation of organic sulfur revealed a high conversion of the particulate organic fraction during the first digestion stage and of the soluble organic fraction during the second digestion stage. The decrease of soluble organic sulfur during the second digestion stage was attributed to the solubilisation and hydrolysis of sulfur-containing organic compounds during thermal hydrolysis. In both digestion stages, more organic sulfur was taken up than particulate inorganic sulfur (metal sulfide) was produced, indicating the formation of other reduced sulfur forms (e.g. H 2 S). Further batch experiments confirmed the role of organic sulfur uptake in the formation of H 2 S during anaerobic digestion as sulfate reduction only partly explained the total sulfide formed (H 2 S in biogas and precipitated FeS). Overall, the conversion of organic sulfur was demonstrated to play a major role in H 2 S formation (and thus the biogas quality), especially in case of thermal hydrolysis pretreatment., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Even though sulfur compounds and their transformations may strongly affect wastewater treatment processes, their importance in water resource recovery facilities (WRRF) operation remains quite unexplored, notably when it comes to full-scale and plant-wide characterization. This contribution presents a first-of-a-kind, plant-wide quantification of total sulfur mass flows for all water and sludge streams in a full-scale WRRF. Because of its important impact on (post-treatment) process operation, the gaseous emission of sulfur as hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S) was also included, thus enabling a comprehensive evaluation of sulfur flows. Data availability and quality were optimized by experimental design and data reconciliation, which were applied for the first time to total sulfur flows. Total sulfur flows were successfully balanced over individual process treatment units as well as the plant-wide system with only minor variation to their original values, confirming that total sulfur is a conservative quantity. The two-stage anaerobic digestion with intermediate thermal hydrolysis led to a decreased sulfur content of dewatered sludge (by 36%). Higher (gaseous) H 2 S emissions were observed in the second-stage digester (42% of total emission) than in the first one, suggesting an impact of thermal treatment on the production of H 2 S. While the majority of sulfur mass flow from the influent left the plant through the treated effluent (> 95%), the sulfur discharge through dewatered sludge and gaseous emissions are critical. The latter are indeed responsible for odour nuisance, lower biogas quality, SO 2 emissions upon sludge combustion and corrosion effects., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Models adapt constantly, usually increasing the degree of detail describing physical phenomena. In water resource recovery facilities, models based on mass and/or heat balances have been used to describe and improve operation. While both mass and heat balances have proven their worth individually, the question arises to which extent their coupling, which entails increased model complexity, warrants the supposedly more precise simulation results. In order to answer this question, the need for and effects of coupling mass and heat balances in modelling studies were evaluated in this work for a biological nitrogen removal process treating highly concentrated wastewater. This evaluation consisted on assessing the effect of the coupling of mass and heat balances on the prediction of: (1) nitrogen removal efficiency; (2) temperature; (3) heat recovery. In general, mass balances are sufficient for evaluating nitrogen removal efficiency and effluent nitrogen concentrations. If one desires to evaluate the effect of temperature changes (e.g. daily, weekly, seasonally) on nitrogen removal efficiency, the use of temperature profiles as an input variable to a mass balance-based model is recommended over the coupling of mass and heat balances. In terms of temperature prediction, considering a constant biological heat generation term in the heat balance model provides sufficient information - i.e. without the coupling of mass and heat balances. Also, for evaluating the heat recovery potential of the system, constant biological heat generation values provide valuable information, at least under normal operating conditions, i.e. when the solids retention time is large enough to maintain nitrification.

Anaerobic sewage treatment is a proven technology in warm climate regions, and sponge-bed trickling filters (SBTFs) are an important post-treatment technology to remove residual organic carbon and nitrogen. Even though SBTFs can achieve a reasonably good effluent quality, further process optimization is hampered by a lack of mechanistic understanding of the factors influencing nitrogen removal, notably when it comes to mainstream anaerobically treated sewage. In this study, the factors that control the performance of SBTFs following anaerobic (i.e., UASB) reactors for sewage treatment were investigated. A demo-scale SBTF fed with anaerobically pre-treated sewage was monitored for 300 days, showing a median nitrification efficiency of 79% and a median total nitrogen removal efficiency of 26%. Heterotrophic denitrification was limited by the low organic carbon content of the anaerobic effluent. It was demonstrated that nitrification was impaired by a lack of inorganic carbon rather than by alkalinity limitation. To properly describe inorganic carbon limitation in models, bicarbonate was added as a state variable and sigmoidal kinetics were applied. The resulting model was able to capture the overall long-term experimental behaviour. There was no nitrite accumulation, which indicated that nitrite oxidizing bacteria were little or less affected by the inorganic carbon limitation. Overall, this study indicated the vital role of influent characteristics and operating conditions concerning nitrogen conversions in SBTFs treating anaerobic effluent, thus facilitating further process optimization., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Multivariate statistical analysis was applied to investigate the dependencies and underlying patterns between N 2 O emissions and online operational variables (dissolved oxygen and nitrogen component concentrations, temperature and influent flow-rate) during biological nitrogen removal from wastewater. The system under study was a full-scale reactor, for which hourly sensor data were available. The 15-month long monitoring campaign was divided into 10 sub-periods based on the profile of N 2 O emissions, using Binary Segmentation. The dependencies between operating variables and N 2 O emissions fluctuated according to Spearman's rank correlation. The correlation between N 2 O emissions and nitrite concentrations ranged between 0.51 and 0.78. Correlation >0.7 between N 2 O emissions and nitrate concentrations was observed at sub-periods with average temperature lower than 12 °C. Hierarchical k-means clustering and principal component analysis linked N 2 O emission peaks with precipitation events and ammonium concentrations higher than 2 mg/L, especially in sub-periods characterized by low N 2 O fluxes. Additionally, the highest ranges of measured N 2 O fluxes belonged to clusters corresponding with NO 3 -N concentration less than 1 mg/L in the upstream plug-flow reactor (middle of oxic zone), indicating slow nitrification rates. The results showed that the range of N 2 O emissions partially depends on the prior behavior of the system. The principal component analysis validated the findings from the clustering analysis and showed that ammonium, nitrate, nitrite and temperature explained a considerable percentage of the variance in the system for the majority of the sub-periods. The applied statistical methods, linked the different ranges of emissions with the system variables, provided insights on the effect of operating conditions on N 2 O emissions in each sub-period and can be integrated into N 2 O emissions data processing at wastewater treatment plants., (Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

The objective of this paper is to report the effects that control/operational strategies may have on plant-wide phosphorus (P) transformations in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). The development of a new set of biological (activated sludge, anaerobic digestion), physico-chemical (aqueous phase, precipitation, mass transfer) process models and model interfaces (between water and sludge line) were required to describe the required tri-phasic (gas, liquid, solid) compound transformations and the close interlinks between the P and the sulfur (S) and iron (Fe) cycles. A modified version of the Benchmark Simulation Model No. 2 (BSM2) (open loop) is used as test platform upon which three different operational alternatives (A 1 , A 2 , A 3 ) are evaluated. Rigorous sensor and actuator models are also included in order to reproduce realistic control actions. Model-based analysis shows that the combination of an ammonium ( [Formula: see text] ) and total suspended solids (X TSS ) control strategy (A 1 ) better adapts the system to influent dynamics, improves phosphate [Formula: see text] accumulation by phosphorus accumulating organisms (X PAO ) (41%), increases nitrification/denitrification efficiency (18%) and reduces aeration energy (E aeration ) (21%). The addition of iron ( [Formula: see text] ) for chemical P removal (A 2 ) promotes the formation of ferric oxides (X HFO-H , X HFO-L ), phosphate adsorption (X HFO-H,P , X HFO-L,P ), co-precipitation (X HFO-H,P,old , X HFO-L,P,old ) and consequently reduces the P levels in the effluent (from 2.8 to 0.9 g P.m -3 ). This also has an impact on the sludge line, with hydrogen sulfide production ( [Formula: see text] ) reduced (36%) due to iron sulfide (X FeS ) precipitation. As a consequence, there is also a slightly higher energy production (E production ) from biogas. Lastly, the inclusion of a stripping and crystallization unit (A 3 ) for P recovery reduces the quantity of P in the anaerobic digester supernatant returning to the water line and allows potential struvite ( [Formula: see text] ) recovery ranging from 69 to 227 kg.day -1 depending on: (1) airflow (Q stripping ); and, (2) magnesium ( [Formula: see text] ) addition. All the proposed alternatives are evaluated from an environmental and economical point of view using appropriate performance indices. Finally, some deficiencies and opportunities of the proposed approach when performing (plant-wide) wastewater treatment modelling/engineering projects are discussed., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Ammonia, largely emitted by agriculture, involves a great risk for eutrophication and acidification leading to biodiversity loss. Air scrubbers are widely applied to reduce ammonia emission from pig and poultry housing facilities, but it is not always clear whether their performance meets the requirements. Besides, there is a growing international concern for the livestock related greenhouse gases methane and nitrous oxide but hardly any data concerning their fate in air scrubbers are available. This contribution presents the results from measurement campaigns conducted at a chemical, a biological and a two-stage biological air scrubber installed at pig housing facilities in Flanders. Ammonia, nitrous oxide and methane at the inlet and outlet of the air scrubbers were monitored on-line during one week using a photoacoustic gas monitor, which allowed to investigate diurnal fluctuations in the removal performance of air scrubbers. Additionally, the homogeneity of the air scrubbers, normally checked by gas detection tubes, was investigated in more detail using the continuous data. The biological air scrubber with extra nitrification tank performed well in terms of ammonia removal (86 ± 6%), while the two-stage air scrubber suffered from nitrifying bacteria inhibition. In the chemical air scrubber the pH was not kept constant, lowering the ammonia removal efficiency. A lower ammonia removal efficiency was found during the day, when the ventilation rate was the highest. Nitrous oxide was produced inside the biological and two-stage scrubber, resulting in an increased outlet concentration of more than 200%. Methane could not be removed in the different air scrubbers because of its low water solubility., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Heat is an important resource in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) which can be recovered. A prerequisite to determine the theoretical heat recovery potential is an accurate heat balance model for temperature prediction. The insulating effect of foam present on the basin surface and its influence on temperature prediction were assessed in this study. Experiments were carried out to characterize the foam layer and its insulating properties. A refined dynamic temperature prediction model, taking into account the effect of foam, was set up. Simulation studies for a WWTP treating highly concentrated (manure) wastewater revealed that the foam layer had a significant effect on temperature prediction (3.8 ± 0.7 K over the year) and thus on the theoretical heat recovery potential (30% reduction when foam is not considered). Seasonal effects on the individual heat losses and heat gains were assessed. Additionally, the effects of the critical basin temperature above which heat is recovered, foam thickness, surface evaporation rate reduction and the non-absorbed solar radiation on the theoretical heat recovery potential were evaluated., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Obtaining a reliable estimation of the methane potential of organic waste streams in anaerobic digestion, for which a biochemical methane potential (BMP) test is often used, is of high importance. Standardization of this BMP test is required to ensure inter-laboratory repeatability and accuracy of the BMP results. Therefore, guidelines were set out; yet, these do not provide sufficient information concerning origin of and the microbial community in the test inoculum. Here, the specific contribution of the methanogenic community on the BMP test results was evaluated. The biomethane potential of four different substrates (molasses, bio-refinery waste, liquid manure and high-rate activated sludge) was determined by means of four different inocula from full-scale anaerobic digestion plants. A significant effect of the selected inoculum on the BMP result was observed for two out of four substrates. This inoculum effect could be attributed to the abundance of methanogens and a potential inhibiting effect in the inoculum itself, demonstrating the importance of inoculum selection for BMP testing. We recommend the application of granular sludge as an inoculum, because of its higher methanogenic abundance and activity, and protection from bulk solutions, compared with other inocula., (© 2015 The Authors. Microbial Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for Applied Microbiology.)

Anaerobic nitrogen removal technologies offer advantages in terms of energy and cost savings over conventional nitrification-denitrification systems. A mathematical model was constructed to evaluate the influence of process operation on the coexistence of nitrite dependent anaerobic methane oxidizing bacteria (n-damo) and anaerobic ammonium oxidizing bacteria (anammox) in a single granule. The nitrite and methane affinity constants of n-damo bacteria were measured experimentally. The biomass yield of n-damo bacteria was derived from experimental data and a thermodynamic state analysis. Through simulations, it was found that the possible survival of n-damo besides anammox bacteria was sensitive to the nitrite/ammonium influent ratio. If ammonium was supplied in excess, n-damo bacteria were outcompeted. At low biomass concentration, n-damo bacteria lost the competition against anammox bacteria. When the biomass loading closely matched the biomass concentration needed for full nutrient removal, strong substrate competition occurred resulting in oscillating removal rates. The simulation results further reveal that smaller granules enabled higher simultaneous ammonium and methane removal efficiencies. The implementation of simultaneous anaerobic methane and ammonium removal will decrease greenhouse gas emissions, but an economic analysis showed that adding anaerobic methane removal to a partial nitritation/anammox process may increase the aeration costs with over 20%. Finally, some considerations were given regarding the practical implementation of the process., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This paper focuses on the specific growth rate estimation problem in a Polyhydroxybutyrate bioplastic production process by industrial fermentation. The kinetics of the process are unknown and there are uncertainties in the model parameters and inputs. During the first hours of the growth phase of the process, biomass concentration can be measured online by an optical density sensor, but as cell density increases this method becomes ineffective and biomass measurement is lost. An asymptotic observer is developed to estimate the growth rate for the case without biomass measurement based on corrections made by a pH control loop. Furthermore, an exponential observer based on the biomass measurement is developed to estimate the growth rate during the first hours, which gives the initial condition to the asymptotic observer. Error bounds and robustness to uncertainties in the models and in the inputs are found. The estimation is independent of the kinetic models of the microorganism. The characteristic features of the observer are illustrated by numerical simulations and validated by experimental results.

Simple titration methods certainly deserve consideration for on-site routine monitoring of volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentration and alkalinity during anaerobic digestion (AD), because of their simplicity, speed and cost-effectiveness. In this study, the 5 and 8 pH point titration methods for measuring the VFA concentration and carbonate system alkalinity (H2CO3*-alkalinity) were assessed and compared. For this purpose, synthetic solutions with known H2CO3*-alkalinity and VFA concentration as well as samples from anaerobic digesters treating three different kind of solid wastes were analysed. The results of these two related titration methods were verified with photometric and high-pressure liquid chromatography measurements. It was shown that photometric measurements lead to overestimations of the VFA concentration in the case of coloured samples. In contrast, the 5 pH point titration method provides an accurate estimation of the VFA concentration, clearly corresponding with the true value. Concerning the H2CO3*-alkalinity, the most accurate and precise estimations, showing very similar results for repeated measurements, were obtained using the 8 pH point titration. Overall, it was concluded that the 5 pH point titration method is the preferred method for the practical monitoring of AD of solid wastes due to its robustness, cost efficiency and user-friendliness.

N₂O emission from wastewater treatment plants is high of concern due to the strong environmental impact of this greenhouse gas. Good understanding of the factors affecting the emission and formation of this gas is crucial to minimize its impact. This study addressed the investigation of the N₂O emission dynamics in a full-scale one-stage granular sludge reactor performing partial nitritation-anammox (PNA) operated at a N-loading of 1.75 kg NH₄⁺-N m⁻³ d⁻¹. A monitoring campaign was conducted, gathering on-line data of the N₂O concentration in the off-gas of the reactor as well as of the ammonium and nitrite concentrations in the liquid phase. The N₂O formation rate and the liquid N₂O concentration profile were calculated from the gas phase measurements. The mean (gaseous) N₂O-N emission obtained was 2.0% of the total incoming nitrogen during normal reactor operation. During normal operation of the reactor under variable aeration rate, intense aeration resulted in higher N₂O emission and formation than during low aeration periods (mean N₂O formation rate of 0.050 kg N m⁻³ d⁻¹ for high aeration and 0.029 kg N m⁻³ d⁻¹ for low aeration). Accumulation of N₂O in the liquid phase was detected during low aeration periods and was accompanied by a relatively lower ammonium conversion rate, while N₂O stripping was observed once the aeration was increased. During a dedicated experiment, gas recirculation without fresh air addition into the reactor led to the consumption of N₂O, while accumulation of N₂O was not detected. The transition from a prolonged period without fresh air addition and with little recirculation to enhanced aeration with fresh air addition resulted in the highest N₂O formation (0.064 kg N m⁻³ d⁻¹). The results indicate that adequate aeration control may be used to minimize N₂O emissions from PNA reactors.