Improving wasterwater treatment efficiency
The EC-funded project AGROIWATECH project sought cost-effecting ways to treat wastewater from agricultural processing industries. The overall aim was to eventually develop methodologies that would allow the re-use of the reclaimed water for industrial purposes. Removing pollutants and rendering wastewater reusable is not an easy task. Project partner Bijelina Institute for Water focused on the development of an innovative granular sludge approach. The Anaerobic Sludge Bed Reactor was developed at lab-scale and fine-tuned to provide maximum efficiency. The innovative aspect of this approach, in comparison to other wastewater treatment methodologies, was the granulation of the sludge. Granular sludge was shown to increase overall efficiency significantly, as indicated by the production of biogas. The methanogenic activity of the sludge was assessed throughout the experiment and significant increases over current methods were observed. These new methods could prove very useful in a variety of wastewater treatment settings.
