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Journals
Processes
Special Issues
Sustainable Management of Wastewater and Sludge
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Sustainable Management of Wastewater and Sludge

A special issue of Processes (ISSN 2227-9717). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental and Green Processes".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2024 | Viewed by 1676

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Zhetai Hu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
Interests: Integrated urban water managment; Biogas upgrading; Sludge treatment; Iron salts
Dr. Zhiqiang Zuo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
Interests: wastewater treatment; biogas; sediments; wastewater; separation
Dr. Bo Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Colleage of Environmental science and engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
Interests: nitrogen and phosphorus removal; anaerobic digestion; anammox; sludge fermentation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The activated sludge system, a stable biotechnology that has been utilized in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) for decades, effectively removes nutrients such as organics, nitrogen, and phosphorus from wastewater. However, it generates substantial amounts of waste-activated sludge (WAS), which requires expensive disposal. Medium to large-scale WWTPs commonly use anaerobic sludge digestion processes to recover organics from WAS as bioenergy (i.e., biogas) and to stabilize the sludge. Many smaller-scale WWTPs rely on aerobic sludge digestion processes to mineralize and stabilize WAS. However, the current wastewater treatment processes require a significant energy input, and existing sludge treatment methods produce low-quality sludge while exhibiting relatively low efficiency. In the era of the circular economy, the wastewater industry necessitates technologies with high efficiency and low energy consumption. Therefore, our Special Issue titled “Sustainable Management of Wastewater and Sludge” focuses on the development of novel biotechnologies in the wastewater and sludge industry to promote the circular economy.

This Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:

  • Nitrogen removal biotechnology;
  • Phosphorus removal biotechnology;
  • Resource recovery biotechnology;
  • Low greenhouse gas emission biotechnology;
  • Integrated wastewater and sludge management;
  • Innovitive uses of digestate (both liquid and solid).

We look forward to receiving contributions that will advance the field and foster the principles of the circular economy.

Dr. Zhetai Hu
Dr. Zhiqiang Zuo
Dr. Bo Wang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Processes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainable biotechnology
  • wastewater treatment
  • sludge treatment
  • low greenhouse gas emission
  • resource recovery
  • nitrogen removal
  • integrated wastewater management
  • use of digestate
  • bioplastics

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 2615 KiB  
Article
A Comparison of the Carbon Footprints of Different Digested Sludge Post-Treatment Routes: A Case Study in China
by Hanlin Ci, Ning Fang, Hang Yang, Yali Guo, Xiaojie Mei and Xiaolei Zhao
Processes 2024, 12(7), 1444; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr12071444 - 10 Jul 2024
Viewed by 436
Abstract
As the “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” strategy advances, carbon emissions have gradually become a significant indicator in selecting and evaluating sewage and sludge treatment solutions. This study compared the carbon footprints of different digested sludge post-treatment routes, taking the Lu’an project in [...] Read more.
As the “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” strategy advances, carbon emissions have gradually become a significant indicator in selecting and evaluating sewage and sludge treatment solutions. This study compared the carbon footprints of different digested sludge post-treatment routes, taking the Lu’an project in China as an example. Considering anaerobic digestion and digested sludge post-treatment options, the carbon footprints are as follows: 347.7 kg CO2 (land application) < 459.7 kg CO2 (composting-involved land application) < 858.4 kg CO2 (brickmaking). In general, land application was superior to brickmaking from the perspective of carbon footprints. The power consumption incurred by aerating and turning and the direct N2O and CH4 emissions during composting increase the composting-involved land application carbon footprint. However, digested sludge that is not subject to high-temperature sterilization and compost is phytotoxic and can be fetid, which is a limitation of its applicability. And the composted sludge has a lower N ratio and water content, so the same N input means more sludge usage, which is conducive to solving the disposal problem of large amounts of sludge. Thus, if possible, composting-involved land application should be a preference, and improvements to the technique are required to minimize energy consumption and direct N2O and CH4 emissions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Management of Wastewater and Sludge)
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12 pages, 3448 KiB  
Article
Full-Scale Demonstration of Nitrogen Removal from Mature Landfill Leachate Using a Two-Stage Partial Nitritation and Anammox Process
by Rui Du, Dandan Lu, Zhiqiang Zuo, Renfu Zhang, Xi Lu, Chunshen Zhu and Zhetai Hu
Processes 2024, 12(7), 1307; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr12071307 - 24 Jun 2024
Viewed by 693
Abstract
The excessive discharge of nitrogen leads to water eutrophication. The partial nitritation and anammox (PN/A) process is a promising technology for biological nitrogen removal in wastewater treatment. However, applying it to mature landfill leachate (MLL) faces challenges, as the toxic substances (e.g., heavy [...] Read more.
The excessive discharge of nitrogen leads to water eutrophication. The partial nitritation and anammox (PN/A) process is a promising technology for biological nitrogen removal in wastewater treatment. However, applying it to mature landfill leachate (MLL) faces challenges, as the toxic substances (e.g., heavy metal) within MLL inhibit the activity of anammox bacteria. Therefore, most previous studies focused on diluted, pretreated, or chemically adjusted MLL. This study demonstrated at full scale that the two-stage PN/A process can treat raw MLL. Initially, the operational issue of sludge floatation resulted in rapid biomass loss with overflow discharging, which selectively suppresses nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB), promoting the achievement of nitrite accumulation. After that, the NOB suppression was self-sustained by the high in situ free ammonia concentration, i.e., 26.2 ± 15.9 mg N/L. In the subsequent anammox tank, nitrogen removal primarily occurred via the anammox process, complemented by denitrification, achieving total nitrogen removal efficiency exceeding 72%. In addition, the nitrogen removal capacity of this system was significantly influenced by temperature with the nitrogen-loading rate above 0.4 kg N/m3/d at 38 °C and approximately 0.1 kg N/m3/d at 21 °C. The optimization of system operation, such as gradually increasing MLL content, remains necessary to enhance nitrogen removal capacity further. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Management of Wastewater and Sludge)
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