In the last years, the production of plastics at large-scale has been an issue of great concern due to their environmental and health impacts. Biobased and biodegradable plastics, such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), have emerged as a possible more ecological and sustainable alternative to those conventional plastics. PHA can be produced by mixed microbial cultures (MMC) from waste-based feedstocks. This work a...
The pernicious impact of plastic originating from petroleum-based sources has been an increasing threat to our environment. Amongst several strategies tested and implied to manage these plastic wastes, one promising alternative is switching to biodegradable polymers. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are a class of microbial polyesters that are biodegradable, biocompatible and an attractive alternative for future pa...
Biological systems are commonly controlled and monitored through offline and time-consuming tools, which often impairs an effective and real-time response to counteract system disturbances. The feasibility of using two-dimensional (2D) fluorescence spectroscopy as a non-invasive, non-destructive, and real-time procedure to monitor the acidogenic fermentation of brewer’s spent grain (BSG) in a granular sludge re...
Raw brewers’ spent grain (BSG), a by-product of beer production and produced at a large scale, presents a composition that has been shown to have potential as feedstock for several biological processes, such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) production. Although the high interest in the PHA production from waste, the bioconversion of BSG into PHA using microbial mixed cultures (MMC) has not yet been explored. Thi...
Raw brewers’ spent grain (BSG), a by-product of beer production and produced at a large scale, presents a composition that has been shown to have potential as feedstock for several biological processes, such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) production. Although the high interest in the PHA production from waste, the bioconversion of BSG into PHA using microbial mixed cultures (MMC) has not yet been explored. Thi...
The presence of toxic compounds in wastewater can cause problems for organic matter and nutrient removal. In this study, the long-term effect of a model xenobiotic, 2-fluorophenol (2-FP), on ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) and phosphate accumulating organisms (PAO) in aerobic granular sludge was investigated. Phosphate (P) and ammonium (N) removal efficiencies were high (>93%)...
Over the last few years, wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have been rebranded as water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs), which recognize the resource recovery potential that exists in wastewater streams. WRRFs contribute to a circular economy by not only producing clean water but by recovering valuable resources such as nutrients, energy, and other bio-based materials. To this aim, huge efforts in techno...