Grants and Contributions:

Title:

Increasing wastewater treatment plant capacity by cellulose recovery with a rotating belt filter : lab and plant-wide modelling studies

Agreement Number:

EGP2

Agreement Value:

$12,500.00

Agreement Date:

Jun 14, 2017 -

Organization:

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

Location:

Quebec, CA

Reference Number:

GC-2017-Q1-00538

Agreement Type:

Grant

Report Type:

Grants and Contributions

Additional Information:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2018-2019)

Recipient's Legal Name:

Vanrolleghem, Peter (Université Laval)

Program:

Engage Plus Grants for Universities

Program Purpose:

Cellulose (originating from toilet paper) makes up a large part of the suspended solids in domestic wastewater.x000D
Previous work within this project has shown that cellulose has a very complex degradation kinetics which isx000D
much slower than other compounds in typical domestic wastewaters. Given this difficult degradation, cellulosex000D
is an important contributor to sludge production in wastewater treatment plants and can as such present anx000D
important limiting factor on a plant's capacity. Removal of cellulose in a pre-treatment step by sieving with ax000D
Rotating Belt Filter (RBF) shows great potential to increase the performance of wastewater treatment systemsx000D
while keeping investment and space requirements low. Moreover, the solids that are retained by the RBF canx000D
be recovered for either reuse or conversion to energy. However, in order to make decisions on properx000D
installation and operation of an RBF pre-treatment, more detailed, qualitative information on the fate ofx000D
cellulose in a treatment plant is needed and the specific biodegradation dynamics of cellulose need to bex000D
investigated further.x000D
So far, cellulose degradation could only be investigated in an indirect way due to the lack of a valid analysisx000D
method to directly measure the concentration of cellulose in wastewater and sludge samples. However, a newx000D
analysis method allowing for direct cellulose measurements has recently been developed thus opening up newx000D
perspectives for the analysis of the cellulose degradation mechanism. It is the goal of the Engage plus project tox000D
combine this novel analysis method with traditional biodegradation experiments for a more direct analysis ofx000D
the fate of cellulose during its degradation as well as detailed characterisation of the cellulose content inx000D
incoming wastewater. The combined knowledge of degradation rate and proper influent fractionation canx000D
subsequently be used in a detailed modelling study to support the industrial partner in decision makingx000D
regarding the installation and operation of their product (a Salsnes RBF).