Jack van de Vossenberg

• PhD
• IHE Delft Institute for Water Education

In Fiji, 90% of the population has access to basic sanitation; however, there are still persistent health risks from endemic faecal-oral diseases such as typhoid fever. There is a need to assess the contribution of existing sanitation facilities in the faecal pathogen transmission pathway. This study was conducted as part of a larger planetary heal...

The bioconversion of food waste to renewable products has an important role in alleviating the environmental burden of food wastage. This study evaluates the effect of solids retention time (1.5, 4, and 7 days) and lipid content (up to 30% DS) on the solid’s destruction efficiency and VFA yield from food waste fermentation. Although SRT below 4 day...

The aerobic granular sludge (AGS) process is an effective wastewater treatment technology for organic matter and nutrient removal that has been introduced in the market rapidly. Until now, limited information is available on AGS regarding the removal of bacterial and viral pathogenic organisms present in sewage. This study focussed on determining t...

Conventional wastewater treatment plants remove phosphorus, which is captured in sewage sludge. Increasing attention is paid to suitable process pathways that allow recovery and recycling of phosphorus. One of the processes under investigation is acid leaching and recovery of phosphorus, but this requires considerable chemical additives, which coul...

Accurate assessments of drinking water quality, household hygenic practices, and the mindset of the consumers are critical for developing effective water intervention strategies. This paper presents a microbial quality assessment of 512 samples from household water storage containers and 167 samples from points of collection (POC) in remote rural c...

Food waste can be described as the discarded food material that was intended for human consumption and is generated from a variety of sources such as households, institutions, restaurants and the food industries. The characteristics of the food waste differ in terms of physical and chemical properties depending on its origin. Due to the high moistu...

The high frequency and intensity of urban floods caused by climate change, urbanisation and infrastructure failures increase public health risks when the flood water contaminated from combined sewer overflows (CSOs) or other sources of faecal contamination remains on urban surfaces. This study contributes to a better understanding of the effects of...

A better understanding of the effects of different urban and recreational surfaces on the die-off of water-borne pathogens that can cause infections after urban floods if released from surcharged combined sewers and other sources of fecal contamination is needed. The die-off of fecal indicator Escherichia coli was studied under controlled exposure...

Cable bacteria of the family Desulfobulbaceae form centimeter-long filaments comprising thousands of cells. They occur worldwide in the surface of aquatic sediments, where they connect sulfide oxidation with oxygen or nitrate reduction via long-distance electron transport. In the absence of pure cultures, we used single-filament genomics and metage...

The effect of biochar addition on the anaerobic digestion (AD) of food waste was evaluated. From the five biochars tested, Fe, Co, Ni, and Mn were leached in very small quantities (<10 mg/kg), while a high amount of K (1,510 and 1,969 mg/kg) was leached from treated waste wood and willow tree pyrochar, respectively. AD batch experiments were perfor...

Keywords: Anaerobic Baffled Reactor; Gravel Bed Filter The goal of this research is to examine the potential use of anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) followed by a gravel bed filter (GBF) towards domestic wastewater treatment and to observe the effect of this coupling on the water quality. The efficiency of the system was evaluated through testing th...

In the last decade, flooding has caused the death of over 60,000 people and affected over 900 million people globally. This is expected to increase as a result of climate change, increased populations and urbanisation. Floods can cause infections due to the release of water-borne pathogenic microorganisms from surcharged combined sewers and other s...

The goal of this research is to examine the potential use of anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) followed by a gravel bed filter (GBF) towards domestic wastewater treatment and to observe the effect of this coupling on the water quality. The efficiency of the system was evaluated through testing the wastewater that is generated from the nearby primary...

The goal of this research is to examine the potential use of anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) followed by a gravel bed filter (GBF) towards domestic wastewater treatment and to observe the effect of this coupling on the water quality. The efficiency of the system was evaluated through testing the wastewater that is generated from the nearby primary...

The goal of this research is to examine the potential use of anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) followed by a gravel bed filter (GBF) towards domestic wastewater treatment and to observe the effect of this coupling on the water quality. The efficiency of the system was evaluated through testing the wastewater that is generated from the nearby primary...

Chromite beneficiation operations in Sukinda valley (India) produce large amounts of tailings, which are stored in open air. In this study, bioleaching experiments were carried out in batch reactors with Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans or Pseudomonas putida in order to determine the potential leachability of metals contained in these tailings due to...

Electronic waste, termed interchangeably as e-waste and/or waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), is the fastest-growing segment of solid waste. The global electronic waste generation has reached 42 million tons in 2014, and is expected to reach 50 million tons in 2020. In addition to being a hazardous waste type, WEEE also includes rela...

Ultraviolet germicidal (short wavelength UV-C) light was studied as surface disinfectant in an Emergency Sanitation Operation System® smart toilet to aid to the work of manual cleaning. The UV-C light was installed and regulated as a self-cleaning feature of the toilet, which automatically irradiate after each toilet use. Two experimental phases we...

The feasibility of methanol removal using an anaerobic biotrickling filter (BTF) was studied under different operational conditions. Anaerobic BTF experiments were performed by changing the empty bed residence times (EBRT) and inlet methanol (gas-phase) concentrations for ~66 days. The nutrient medium containing thiosulphate was fed to the BTF in t...

BACKGROUND Gradual depletion of the high-grade ores for heavy metals has encouraged industries to search for alternative resources to recover metals. Wastes generated from metallurgical industries can be used as a secondary resource as it still contains high concentrations of metals. RESULTS The bioleaching kinetics and bio-recovery of zinc from...

Metal leaching from metallurgical wastes (slags) by means of environmentally friendly approaches is promising for practical applications. The goal of this study was to compare the feasibility of metal bioleaching from Cu-slags by means of bacteria Pseudomonas fluorescens and Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans. Two size fractions (< 0.3 mm and 1-2 mm) of...

This study demonstrates the feasibility of combining microalgae, ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), and Anammox in a photosequencing batch reactor. Alternating light and dark periods were applied to achieve biological nitrogen removal without mechanical aeration or external electron donor addition. This process is termed ALGAMMOX (algal anaerobic am...

An effective strategy for environmentally sound biological recovery of copper and gold from discarded printed circuit boards (PCB) in a two-step bioleaching process was experimented. In the first step, chemolithotrophic acidophilic Acidithiobacillus ferrivorans and Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans were used. In the second step, cyanide-producing heter...

In this research, three faecal sludge sanitizing methods—lactic acid fermentation, urea treatment and lime treatment—were studied for application in emergency situations. These methods were investigated by undertaking small scale field trials with pit latrine sludge in Blantyre, Malawi. Hydrated lime was able to reduce the E. coli count in the slud...

The kinetics and biodegradation of both thiosulphate and methanol were studied under anaerobic condition using batch experiments, at ambient temperature and alkaline conditions. Mixed microbial consortia obtained from a previously operated biotrickling filter (BTF) and fresh activated sludge was used as the biomass source. The growth of biomass dur...

Recently, a novel electrogenic type of sulphur oxidation was documented in marine sediments, whereby filamentous cable bacteria (Desulfobulbaceae) are mediating electron transport over cm-scale distances. These cable bacteria are capable of developing an extensive network within days, implying a highly efficient carbon acquisition strategy. Present...

Anaerobic ammonium oxidizing (anammox) bacteria are detected in many natural ecosystems and wastewater treatment plants worldwide. This study describes the enrichment of anammox bacteria in the presence of acetate. The results obtained extend the concept that the anammox bacteria can be enriched to high densities in the presence of substrates for h...

To identify a ruminal isolate which transforms oleic, linoleic and linolenic acids to stearic acid and to identify transient intermediates formed during biohydrogenation. The stearic acid-forming bacterium, isolated from the rumen of a grazing cow, was a Gram-negative motile rod which utilized a range of growth substrates including starch and pecti...

The ion and particularly the proton and sodium ion permeabilities of cytoplasmic membranes play crucial roles in the bioenergetics of microorganisms. The proton and sodium permeabilities of membranes increase with temperature. Psychrophilic and mesophilic bacteria and mesophilic, (hyper)thermophilic, and halophilic archaea are capable of adjusting...

In extreme environments varying from hot to cold, acidic to alkaline, and highly saline, mainly Archaea are found. Thermophilic and extremely acidophilic Archaea have a membrane that contains membrane spanning tetraether lipids. These tetra-ether membranes have a limited permeability for protons even at the high growth temperature and makes it poss...

In extreme environments varying from hot to cold, acidic to alkaline, and highly saline, mainly Archaea are found. Thermophilic and extremely acidophilic Archaea have a membrane that contains membrane spanning tetraether lipids. These tetra-ether membranes have a limited permeability for protons even at the high temperatures of growth and this prop...

The influence of pH and the salt concentration on the proton and sodium ion permeability of liposomes formed from lipids of the halophile Halobacterium salinarum and the haloalkaliphile Halorubrum vacuolatum were studied. In contrast with liposomes formed from Escherichia coli lipids, liposomes formed from halophilic lipids remained stable up to 4M...

Bacillus subtilis was grown at its growth temperature limits and at various temperatures in between the lower and upper growth temperature boundary. Liposomes were made of the extracted membrane lipids derived from these cells. The headgroup composition of the cytoplasmic membrane lipids did not differ significantly at the lower (13°C) and upper (5...

In extreme environments, mainly Archaea are encountered. The archaeal cytoplasmic membrane contains unique ether lipids that cannot easily be degraded, are temperature- and mechanically resistant, and highly salt tolerant. Moreover, thermophilic and extreme acidophilic Archaea possess membrane-spanning tetraether lipids that form a rigid monolayer...

Strain LBS3 is a novel anaerobic thermoalkaliphilic bacterium that grows optimally at pH 9.5 and 50°C. Since a high concentration of Na+ ions is required for growth, we have analyzed the primary bioenergetic mechanism of energy transduction in this organism. For this purpose, a method was devised for the isolation of right-side-out membrane vesicle...

Protons and sodium ions are the only used coupling ions in energy transduction in Bacteria and Archaea. At their growth temperature, the permeability of the cytoplasmic membrane of thermophilic bacteria to protons is high as compared to sodium ions. In some thermophiles, therefore, sodium is the sole energy coupling ion. Comparison of the proton- a...

Protons and sodium ions are the most commonly used coupling ions in energy transduction in bacteria and archaea. At their growth temperature, the permeability of the cytoplasmic membrane of thermophilic bacteria to protons is high compared with that of sodium ions. In some thermophiles, sodium is the sole energy-coupling ion. To test whether sodium...

Pseudomonas putida WCS358 can transport iron complexed to a wide variety of pseudobactins produced by other Pseudomonas strains. The pupB gene encoding an outer membrane ferric-pseudobactin receptor was isolated from a genomic library of P. putida WCS358. The PupB receptor facilitated iron transport via two distinct heterologous siderophores, i.e....