IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i22p9336-d442767.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Increased (Antibiotic-Resistant) Pathogen Indicator Organism Removal during (Hyper-)Thermophilic Anaerobic Digestion of Concentrated Black Water for Safe Nutrient Recovery

Author

Listed:
  • Marinus J. Moerland

    (Environmental Technology, Wageningen University and Research, Bornse Weilanden 9, 6708 WG Wageningen, The Netherlands)

  • Alicia Borneman

    (Wetsus, European Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology, Oostergoweg 9, 8911 MA Leeuwarden, The Netherlands)

  • Paraschos Chatzopoulos

    (DeSaH B.V., Pieter Zeemanstraat 6, 8606 JR Sneek, The Netherlands)

  • Adrian Gonzalez Fraile

    (DeSaH B.V., Pieter Zeemanstraat 6, 8606 JR Sneek, The Netherlands)

  • Miriam H. A. van Eekert

    (Environmental Technology, Wageningen University and Research, Bornse Weilanden 9, 6708 WG Wageningen, The Netherlands)

  • Grietje Zeeman

    (LeAF B.V., Bornse Weilanden 9, 6708 WG Wageningen, The Netherlands)

  • Cees J. N. Buisman

    (Environmental Technology, Wageningen University and Research, Bornse Weilanden 9, 6708 WG Wageningen, The Netherlands)

Abstract

Source separated toilet water is a valuable resource for energy and fertilizers as it has a high concentration of organics and nutrients, which can be reused in agriculture. Recovery of nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium (NPK) decreases the dependency on energy-intensive processes or processes that rely on depleting natural resources. In new sanitation systems, concentrated black water (BW) is obtained by source-separated collection of toilet water. BW-derived products are often associated with safety issues, amongst which pathogens and antibiotic-resistant pathogens. This study presents results showing that thermophilic (55–60 °C) and hyperthermophilic (70 °C) anaerobic treatments had higher (antibiotic-resistant) culturable pathogen indicators removal than mesophilic anaerobic treatment. Hyperthermophilic and thermophilic anaerobic treatment successfully removed Escherichia coli and extended-spectrum β-lactamases producing E. coli from source-separated vacuum collected BW at retention times of 6–11 days and reached significantly higher removal rates than mesophilic (35 °C) anaerobic treatment ( p < 0.05). The difference between thermophilic and hyperthermophilic treatment was insignificant, which justifies operation at 55 °C rather than 70 °C. This study is the first to quantify (antibiotic-resistant) E. coli in concentrated BW (10–40 gCOD/L) and to show that both thermophilic and hyperthermophilic anaerobic treatment can adequately remove these pathogen indicators.

Suggested Citation

  • Marinus J. Moerland & Alicia Borneman & Paraschos Chatzopoulos & Adrian Gonzalez Fraile & Miriam H. A. van Eekert & Grietje Zeeman & Cees J. N. Buisman, 2020. "Increased (Antibiotic-Resistant) Pathogen Indicator Organism Removal during (Hyper-)Thermophilic Anaerobic Digestion of Concentrated Black Water for Safe Nutrient Recovery," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-13, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:22:p:9336-:d:442767
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/22/9336/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/22/9336/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ma, Guiling & Chen, Yanting & Ndegwa, Pius, 2022. "Anaerobic digestion process deactivates major pathogens in biowaste: A meta-analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:22:p:9336-:d:442767. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.