Hungry bacteria extract energy from sewage
New research shows that sewage contains a source of energy that can be harvested by using hungry bacteria.
Domestic sewage contains various organic substances, mainly from toilets and kitchens. These are harmful to the environment, but also contain energy. Researchers from Ghent University discovered how to efficiently extract this energy from the wastewater.
Researcher dr. Francis Meerburg (Center for Microbial Ecology and Technology): “The levels of organic matter in sewage are too low to be directly recovered. We investigated how we can use bacteria to capture this material. Our approach is unique because we have developed a high-rate variation of the so-called contact-stabilization process.”
Professor Nico Boon: “We periodically starve the bacteria, in a kind of ‘fasting regimen’. Afterwards, wastewater is briefly brought into contact with the starved bacteria which are gluttonous and gobble up the organic matter without ingesting all of it. This enables us to harvest the undigested materials for the production of energy and high-quality products. We starve the rest of the bacteria, so that they can purify fresh sewage again. ”
Energy neutral wastewater treatment
By using the contact-stabilization process, up to 55% of the organic matter could be recovered from sewage. This is a huge step forward, because the existing processes cannot recover more than 20 to 30%. The researchers calculated that this amount can provide sufficient amounts of energy to completely treat sewage without the need for external electricity.
“This is an important step in the direction of wastewater treatment that is energy neutral, or even produces energy,” Professor Siegfried Vlaeminck said.
Learn more: Binge-eating bacteria extract energy from sewage
The Latest on: Microbial energy
[google_news title=”” keyword=”microbial energy” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Microbial energy
- Ponies show step-wise changes in faecal bacteria with increasing human managementon June 4, 2023 at 2:10 pm
"We observed profound step-wise changes in microbiome structure in the transition from low management to medium management to high management." ...
- Discovery in Pacific coral reefs suggests Earth's microbial diversity may be underestimatedon June 4, 2023 at 4:23 am
But there is a trend toward trying to do large-scale projects, says Emiley Eloe-Fadrosh of the Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute. The crowd-sourced Earth Microbiome Project analyzes ...
- Creating Food From Thin Air: The Future of Nutritionon June 1, 2023 at 5:46 pm
Johns Hopkins APL researchers are leveraging advances in carbon dioxide capture, chemical engineering and synthetic biology to produce nutritionally complete and tasty foods — on demand, in the field.
- Warming climate could turn ocean plankton microbes into carbon emitterson May 31, 2023 at 9:00 pm
New research finds that a warming climate could flip globally abundant microbial communities from carbon sinks to carbon emitters, potentially triggering climate change tipping points. The findings ...
- Arctic avengers: New microbial strains unleashed in the fight against plastic pollutionon May 31, 2023 at 5:52 pm
Organisms from the phyla Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Ascomycota were the only strains that were found in the plastisphere in cold regions of the Earth. In particular, Ascomycota appears to be ...
- First experimental confirmation that some microbes are powered by electricityon May 31, 2023 at 7:41 am
In microbial electrosynthesis, microorganisms use CO2 and electricity to produce alcohol, for example. How this process works biologically, however, has only been speculated about, until now.
- Microbes Discovered in the Alps and Arctic That Can Digest Plastic at Low Temperatureson May 30, 2023 at 8:20 pm
Biodegradation of plastic at low temperatures can save money and energy. Researchers have discovered microbial strains in the high altitudes of the Alps and in the polar regions that can break down ...
- Microbial Products Global Market to 2027: Increasing Demand for Sustainable and Eco-friendly Solutions in Various Industries Drives Growthon May 29, 2023 at 9:45 am
This report addresses the global market for microbes and microbial products used in commercial applications from 2021 through 2027. This includes agricultural, healthcare, manufac ...
via Bing News
