L.A. Fdez-Güelfo

Universidad de Cádiz | UCA · Department of Environmental Technologies

This study focuses on mitigating the socioeconomic and environmental damage of the invasive macroalga Rugulopteryx okamurae and counteracting the pollution from petroleum-based plastics by using the alga as a feedstock for polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) production. The enzymatic hydrolysis of R. okamurae, non-pretreated and hydrothermally acid-pretreate...

Beach-cast seaweed of the invasive brown macroalga Rugulopteryx okamurae was used in this study as raw material to obtain fermentable sugars, which can be converted into high added-value products. The dietary fibre composition of this macroalgae was determined and compared to other brown and red macroalgae, showing one of the highest proportions of...

This study investigates the potential of anaerobic digestion (AD) as an alternative method to improve the treatment performance of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the presence of inhibitors. This work will focus on studying the effect of the presence of certain heavy metals on the structure of microbial community and biogas production pathwa...

Passively aerated biological pretreatment was applied to four different lignocellulosic biomasses with varying fiber content profiles: sugar beet pulp (SBP), brewery bagasse (BB), rice husk (RH), and orange peel (OP). In order to analyze the organic matter solubilization yield at 24 and 48 h, different percentages of activated sewage sludge (2.5-10...

This study was focused on bio-hydrogen production from thermophilic dry anaerobic acidogenic co-digestion (55 °C and 20 % of total solids) of pre-composted mixtures of organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and food waste (FW). Three different mixture ratios of OFMSW:FW (80:20, 70:30 and 50:50) have been tested. The application of pre-co...

Anaerobic co-digestion of organic wastes is an effective technology for the management of two or more substrates with different characteristics. In this context, the main objective of this work was the optimization of biogas production for the treatment of a mixture of two-phase olive-mill waste (2POMW) and cattle manure (CM) (60:40 w/w) at mesophi...

Start-up procedure Two-phase olive-mill waste Cattle manure Propionic acid Mesophilic temperature A B S T R A C T In this work, the start-up and stabilization stages of mesophilic anaerobic co-digestion of 2POMW and CM in a semi-continuously fed stirred tank reactor (SSTR) were analyzed. Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) were monitored and used as the ma...

The solids content is a key parameter in the development of anaerobic digestion as it can determine the proper operation and performance of the process. The influence of the total solids content on the mesophilic anaerobic co-digestion of two-phase olive-mill waste (2POMW) and cattle manure (CM) was investigated. Four different total solids (TS) co...

Lignocellulosic biomass, comprising of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, is a difficult-to-degrade substrate when subjected to anaerobic digestion. Hydrothermal pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass could enhance the process performance by increasing the generation of methane, hydrogen, and bioethanol. The recalcitrants (furfurals, and 5-HMF)...

Anaerobic digestion (AD) of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) offers the possibility of a clean and renewable energy source – i.e. biogas. However, OFMSW lacks certain characteristics that may limit its efficacy as such a resource. Bio-resources such as sewage sludge and animal wastes have these characteristics and so may be use...

Effect of hydraulic retention time (HRT) on bio-hydrogen production from co-digestion of organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and mixed sludge (MS) in dry thermophilic conditions (55°C and 20% total solids) was investigated. A decreasing sequence of six HRTs, from 2.9 to 0.8-days, was performed to evaluate the stability of the system a...

In this paper, a destabilization episode in a semi-continuous dry thermophilic acidogenic reactor for the co-digestion of organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and food waste (FW) was induced. The aim was to determinate the effect of the organic loading rate (OLR) and co-substrate ratio on hydrogen production by dark fermentation. OLR w...

The effect of thermal pre-treatment on the microbial populations balance and biogas production was studied during anaerobic digestion of waste activated sludge (WAS) coming from urban (US: urban sludge) and industrial (IS: industrial sludge) wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). The highest biogas yields of 0.42l/gvolatile solid (VS) removed and 0.37...

The organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) usually contains high lignocellulosic and fatty fractions. These fractions are well-known to be a hard biodegradable substrate for biological treatments and its presence involves limitations on the performance of anaerobic processes. To avoid this, thermochemical pretreatments have been applied...

h i g h l i g h t s Acidogenic effluent from dark fermentation was used as substrate for biomethanization. Maximum methane production yield is reached in UFAF reactor at 3 days HRT. Destabilization episodes by overloading occur in UFAF reactor at 1.5 days HRT. Higher methane generation is reached with UFAF reactor versus a conventional CSTR.: Biome...

The main objective of this work has been to analyze the effect of hydraulic retention time (HRT) on the hydrogen production from the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) coming from a full-scale mechanical–biological-treatment (MBT) plant. Furthermore, it has also been studied, simultaneously, the effect of HRT on the solubilization of...

In anaerobic processes, the volatile fatty acid profile (VFA) is closely related with the methanogenic activity and, hence, the knowledge of the relationship between these two parameters (VFA evolution and methane production) is fundamental to characterize the behavior of anaerobic reactors for treatment of organic wastes.In this study, a destabili...

The start-up strategies for thermophilic anaerobic reactors usually consist of an initial mesophilic stage (35°C), with an approximate duration of 185 days, and a subsequent thermophilic stage (55°C), which normally requires around 60 days to achieve the system stabilizatio. During the first 8-10 days of the mesophilic stage, the reactor is not fed...

Thermochemical and biological pretreatments have been applied to the organic fraction of the municipal solid wastes (OFMSW) coming from an industrial 30 mm-trommel placed in a full-scale mechanical–biological treatment (MBT) plant in order to study their effects on the organic matter solubilization yield and the biomethanization process.To compare...

The influence of particle size and organic matter content of organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) in the overall kinetics of dry (30% total solids) thermophilic (55°C) anaerobic digestion have been studied in a semi-continuous stirred tank reactor (SSTR). Two types of wastes were used: synthetic OFMSW (average particle size of 1mm; 0.7...

The application of the anaerobic digestion for the treatment of the industrial organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) has currently been of special interest. The main barrier in the treatment of this type or organic waste is its biotransformation, due to the complexity of organic material. Therefore, the first step must be its physical,...

This paper studies the effect of both thermochemical (under different pressures, temperatures and alkaline agent dosage) and biological (using mature compost, sludge and the fungus Aspergillus awamori) pretreatments on the kinetic of dry-thermophilic (20% Total Solids and 55°C) anaerobic digestion of industrial organic fraction of the municipal sol...

In this paper, the critical and the optimum conditions for thermophilic-dry anaerobic digestion have been determined employing two types of Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW): synthetic (average particle size of 1mm) and industrial (average particle size of 30mm). On the basis of the methane production rate and the removal percentage...

Solid retention time (SRT) is a very important operational variable in continuous and semicontinuous waste treatment processes since the organic matter removal efficiency--expressed in terms of percentage of Dissolved Organic Carbon (% DOC) or Volatile Solids (% VS) removed--and the biogas or methane production are closely related with the SRT impo...

The anaerobic digestion (AD) process for waste stabilization is a very attractive option in managing the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW); hence, many industrial OFMSW biomethanation plants are operating today all around the world. In general, the literature contains many operational and control parameters to check the behavior of...

The work presented here concerns the start-up and stabilization stages of a Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) semicontinuously fed for the treatment of the Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW) through anaerobic digestion at thermophilic temperature range (55 degrees C) and dry conditions (30% Total Solids). The procedure reported...