The Importance of Anaerobic Digestion for Global Environmental Development

The general performance of anaerobic digestiers and the diversity of wastes which they can treat have been increasing steadily as a result of new reactor design, operating conditions, or the use of specialised microbial consortia, during the last decade. This paper illustrates examples of prospects and challenges of anaerobic digestion. Anaerobic ammonium oxidation and phosphate fermentation to phosphine are new nutrient removal methods to be coupled to anaerobic digestion. Approaches to recover organic acids and biohydrogen prior to methane fermentation are attracting interest. Solid waste digestion should evolve towards integration of the concepts of energy recovery and Kyoto-agreed CO2 reduction

Remediation of TNT-Contaminated Soils by Anaerobic Proteinaceous Immobilisation

In this work a practical remediation technique for TNT-contaminated soils is demonstrated at the laboratory scale level. Addition of 2%% proteinaceous material and 20%% compostto a TNT-polluted soil (633 + 210 mg TNT kg-1) decreased free TNT with 87%% and water leachable TNT with 67%% after 3 weeks anaerobic incubation. Upon subsequent aerobic incubation,there was an increase in soil respiration, in the activity of both groups of nitrifiers and also in the activity of methane-oxidising bacteria compared to untreated TNT-contaminated soil.Italian ryegrass (% Lolium multiflorum var. % Bartolini)was succesfully grown after the treatment and developed an extensive root system within 28 days. After a subsequent anaerobic/aerobic phase and growth of Italian ryegrass comprisinga total treatment time of 10 weeks, earthworms were capable ofsurviving and increasing weight in the remediated soil. The overall procedure of anaerobic immobilisation and subsequent growth of Italian ryegrass offers a low-cost method for practitioners to significantly improve the quality of TNT-contaminated soils