An apparatus, method and system is provided for treating sewage sludge by dewatering the sewage sludge, heating the sewage sludge being treated to destroy pathogens, and then reducing volatile solids in the sewage sludge being treated through biochemical decomposition to produce a treated biosolids product that meets government regulations for pathogen reduction and vector attraction reduction.

A biogas collection and purification system that includes a plurality of sources of biogas and a network of conduits configured to convey the biogas from the sources to a central processing facility for processing the biogas into methane. The central processing facility removes impurities to convert biogas to biomethane and may include an H.sub.2S removal stage; an activated carbon scrubber; a gas drier; and a carbon dioxide removal stage. The facility also has a biomethane gas compressor configured to deliver the biomethane for use in power plants, for CNG production. Ancillaries to the system include fuel cells for direct electricity generation from biogas/biomethane.

A product, including digestate, that has been pasteurized through thermal hydrolysis, thermal alkaline hydrolysis, or thermal carbonization is cured to enhance its marketability. Variations of this disclosure include embodiments where pasteurized material is inoculated to further enhance marketability where the inoculation is performed by injecting a fungicide, other means of inoculation by injecting beneficial microorganisms to produce characteristics in digestate that are anti-fungal or produce suitable enzyme cofactors or nutrients to stabilize digestate, injections of vitamins to enhance the ability of plants grown using select digestate to thrive in adverse conditions, injection of chemicals to enhance the ability of digestate to retain heat and prevent freezing during wintry conditions, or any combination thereof. Other embodiments include using recycled waste heat generated from wastewater treatment or another process or solar energy for accelerating the drying process which occurs before, during or after curing.

Disclosed is a waste processing plant and method of processing waste biomass. The plant includes a waste receiving apparatus for receiving biomass waste and processing it into a liquid stream before passing it to, anaerobic hydrolysis tanks for hydrolysis, acidification and acetylation of the stream, before passing it to, a heat exchanger for raising the temperature of the stream to a pasteurization temperature, pasteurization tanks for holding the stream at the pasteurization temperature to ensure adequate pasteurization before passing it to, and anaerobic methanogenesis tanks for anaerobic digestion of a portion of the stream into biogas. Also included is a centrifugation apparatus to separate oil from the stream, wherein at least a portion of the stream which is downstream of the hydrolysis tank(s) and upstream of the methanogenesis tank(s), and which has a temperature of above 68? C., is centrifuged by the centrifugation apparatus to remove a portion of the oil.

A device (1) for drying and sanitising organic waste materials, comprising a container body (10) for housing the waste materials to be dried and provided with an inlet (16) for the materials to be dried and an outlet (17) for the dried materials, mixing elements (20) located in the container body (10) and provided with at least a blade (21) able to mix the materials to be dried and sanitised, projectingly supported by a rotating shaft (23), a ventilation circuit (30) able to generate a forced ventilation of air internally of the container body (10), and comprising generator means (33) of an air flow located externally of the container body (10) communicating with at least a dispenser nozzle (34) located internally of the container body (10), in which the at least a dispenser nozzle (34) is associated to the at least a blade (21) able to mix the waste materials located in the container body (10) wherein it comprises at least a temperature sensor (42) configured such as to measure a temperature internally of the container body (10) and in that it comprises a control system which receives a signal from the at least a temperature sensor (42) and is able to control the air flow injected into the container body (10) by the ventilation circuit (30) as a function of the signal received from the temperature sensor (42).

A biogas collection and purification system that includes a plurality of sources of biogas and a network of conduits configured to convey the biogas from the sources to a central processing facility for processing the biogas into methane. The central processing facility removes impurities to convert biogas to biomethane and may include an H.sub.2S removal stage; an activated carbon scrubber; a gas drier; and a carbon dioxide removal stage. The facility also has a biomethane gas compressor configured to deliver the biomethane for use in power plants, for CNG production. Ancillaries to the system include fuel cells for direct electricity generation from biogas/biomethane.

A method is proposed for producing a fertilizer from wastewater sludge by disinfecting a wastewater sludge in a layered form by heating at a temperature in the range of 70 C. and 80 C. and aging the heated wastewater sludge for three to five days at a temperature ranging between 30 C. to 36 C. The aging is preceded by admixing the wastewater sludge with a biological initiator. Also proposed is a system for carrying out the method. The system consists of a disinfecting unit having a heater for heating the wastewater sludge fed to the heater in a layered form and an aging unit having an aging chamber for accommodating the wastewater sludge fed from the disinfecting unit. The aging unit is provided with an agitator for admixing a biological initiator to the wastewater sludge that fills the aging chamber.

An apparatus, method and system is provided for treating sewage sludge by dewatering the sewage sludge, heating the sewage sludge being treated to destroy pathogens, and then reducing volatile solids in the sewage sludge being treated through biochemical decomposition to produce a treated biosolids product that meets government regulations for pathogen reduction and vector attraction reduction.

Biosludge comprising high amounts of lignocellulose can be made suitable as feed for larvae such as black soldier fly larvae by hygienization or sterilization at temperatures up to 200 degrees. The heating process may be combined with hydrolysis.

A method and apparatus for organic waste treatment are disclosed. The method comprises the steps of adding a sorbent to a waste product to form a fluid matrix which may then be subjected to a compressive force to dewater the matrix. Thermal desorption and pasteurisation of the matrix may then be carried out. The sorbent added is draff, which may be obtained as a by-product from various industries, including the distillation of spirits. The apparatus comprises generally a dewatering compressor, but may also include a thermal desorption unit, which may thermally dewater the matrix and pasteurise it.