Methods to improve dewatering in industrial and municipal sludges are described. One method involves admixing sludge from a papermaking process and modified cellulose to provide modified sludge with the modified cellulose present in an effective amount to improve dewatering in the treated sludge, such as in allowing use of reduced amounts of coagulant and/or reducing dewatering times, increased dewatered volumes, and reduced sludge product moisture contents, and the like. The dewatered sludge may be formed into a dried particulate, and may be used as filler or other component of concrete, rubber, asphalt, plastics, resin-wood composite products, and other composite products.

Described herein are processes for increasing biogas yield and reducing volatile solids in biosolids sludge. The biosolids sludge is passed through a controlled flow, hydrodynamic cavitation apparatus and further subjected to anaerobic digestion. The biosolids sludge can be treated with hydrodynamic cavitation prior to or after the sludge is exposed to a thermal hydrolysis step to hydrolyze the sludge.

A process for enhanced anaerobic digestion of sludge by alcoholization of food waste, comprising steps of: (1) ethanol prefermentation of food waste—feeding the food waste having been crushed into a uniform grain size into an ethanol production reactor, where the food waste is subjected to rapid and efficient anaerobic fermentation activated by addition of yeast and pH adjustment to produce ethanol and obtain a fermentation broth and a fermentation residue; (2) sludge pretreatment—pretreating the sludge after mixing with the fermentation residue; and (3) methanogenesis of anaerobic digestion—subjecting products resulting from the sludge pretreatment to be mixed with the fermentation broth and then to methanogenesis of anaerobic digestion in a methane production reactor. With this process, the sludge and the food waste can be treated efficiently via multi-phase reactions, and the resource recovery and biogas quality can be enhanced.

A process and system for treating wastewater is described. The invention degrades sludge produced by treatment of the wastewater to reduce or eliminate the need for sludge dewatering and disposal. The invention also reduces the amount of nutrient additives required to sustain the aerobic wastewater treatment process. In one embodiment the invention includes the steps of (a) providing an aerobic treatment system receiving a supply of the wastewater; (b) treating a supply of the sludge to rupture microbial cells present therein to produce treated sludge having an increased liquid:solid ratio and an increased degradation potential in comparison to untreated sludge; (c) conveying a supply of the treated sludge to the aerobic treatment system; and (d) substantially degrading the supply of treated sludge in the aerobic treatment system. The treated sludge may optionally be subjected to anaerobic digestion prior to delivery to the aerobic treatment system.

A wastewater treatment process that produces primary sludge and biological sludge. The system and process hydrolyzes the biological sludge in a hydrolysis reactor. The primary sludge is directed to a pasteurization unit and pasteurized. Thereafter, the hydrolyzed biological sludge and the pasteurized primary sludge are directed to an anaerobic digester where the combined sludges are subjected to anaerobic digestion.

A method for wastewater treatment having a zero discharge of sludge, the method including: a) providing a membrane bioreactor system including a membrane separation system and a reaction vessel; and b) aerating the membrane separation system and the reaction vessel to control the dissolved oxygen concentration around the membrane separation system to be greater than 0 and smaller than 2 mg/L and the dissolved oxygen concentration in the reaction vessel excluding the membrane separation system to be greater than 0 and smaller than 1 mg/L. A wastewater treatment system having a zero discharge of sludge includes a membrane bioreactor system including: a reaction vessel, a membrane separation system, a water production system, and an aeration system.

The present invention relates to a method for enhancing deep degradation of proteins in sludge. The method includes the following steps: an anaerobic digestion product of excess sludge as a substrate is treated by Van Soest's washing method to obtain the sludge free of easily degradable organics and containing degradation-resistant proteins; then, with the anaerobic digestion product of excess sludge as an inoculum and the sludge free of easily degradable organics and containing degradation-resistant proteins as a substrate, a first-stage microbial electrolytic cell coupled anaerobic digestion system is started for treatment to obtain a microbial mixture related to targeted degradation of the degradation-resistant proteins; with the microbial mixture related to targeted degradation of the degradation-resistant proteins as an inoculum and the anaerobic digestion product of excess sludge as a substrate, a second-stage microbial electrolytic cell coupled anaerobic digestion system is started to obtain the sludge with deeply degraded proteins.

Provided are an apparatus and a method for biological treatment of an organic wastewater where it is possible to efficiently remove organic matter under high load while reducing the amount of air used for aerobic biological treatment and substantially decreasing the amount of sludge generated. The apparatus is provided with: a first biological treatment tank which has a fixed-type immobilized biocarrier and an aeration means; a second biological treatment tank to which a treated liquid from the first tank is introduced so as to perform treatment using suspended microorganisms, and which has an aeration means; and a sedimentation tank in which solid-liquid from the second tank is separated said liquid into settled sludge and treated water, wherein the apparatus has an influent line through which an organic wastewater is introduced to the first tank and the second tank, and a return line through which part of settled sludge discharged from the tank is returned to the tank.

Provided are a bacterium having a 16S rRNA gene comprising a nucleotide sequence having 98.2% or more identity to the nucleotide sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 1, and having an ability to degrade a target microorganism, a microbial preparation for degrading a target microorganism, comprising a bacterium (a1), and a method for degrading a target microorganism and a device for degrading a target microorganism using the same. Bacterium (a1) is a bacterium having a 16S rRNA gene comprising a nucleotide sequence having 90% or more identity to the nucleotide sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 1, and having an ability to degrade a target microorganism.

The invention relates to a continuous process for treating organic waste taking place in a plant, said process for treating organic waste comprising a process of anaerobic digestion of a first part of said waste, which takes place in at least one digestion chamber, and a process of aerobic composting of a second part of said waste, which takes place in at least one composting chamber, the process for treating organic waste comprising the steps of:—collecting digestate and biogas at the end of said anaerobic digestion process,—collecting compost and humic percolate at the end of said aerobic composting process,—feeding at least part of said digestate