The ‘Biofungus’ initiative succeeds in removing up to 100% of nitrates in wastewater
The University of Murcia (UMU) has participated in the recently completed ‘Biofungus’ project, which has enabled the design and optimization of a biological wastewater treatment process through the application of oily fungi, as an alternative to traditional bacteria-based processes that are aerobically are. usually used in water treatment plants. The ultimate goal of this proposal was to obtain treated waste water that met the legal requirements for use as irrigation water and/or for discharge into public canals.
The project was led by the Municipal Water and Sanitation Company of Murcia (Emuasa) and the Technological Center for Energy and Environment (Cetenma) also participated.
Professors Victoriano Garre Mula and Sergio López García, from the Mushroom Genomics and Molecular Biotechnology research group, took part on behalf of UMU. These researchers were responsible for the laboratory selection and collection of fungal strains, particularly of the ‘Mucor lusitanicus’ family, which show better assimilation performance of various nutrients and water contaminants, and then validated their effectiveness in a pilot plant built in Emuasa.
It was also the aim of the UMU’s work to optimize the fungus culture conditions to maximize production, extend the average life of the cultures and optimize the amounts dosed to ensure wastewater treatment yields.
The developed pilot plant consists of a bioreactor, a kind of container, in which the fungi grow and through which the residual water is passed, which remains in contact with the fungus during the retention time necessary to remove the nutrients present in the water. composed of both organic and inorganic material and of which ammonium stands out as one of the main pollutants to be eliminated. The clarified water goes to another bioreactor, called anaerobic, and a second fungal strain is dosed, specialized in the elimination of nitrates not eliminated in the previous stage, reaching the system to suppress them 100% in a few hours. vaccination.
In these stages, sludge is generated, a solid waste that must be managed by the treatment plants. However, the fungal treatment has succeeded in generating less sludge and therefore lower management costs compared to other conventional biological treatments. In addition, the obtained sludge is rich in fungal biomass with a high concentration of fatty acids, which increases the possibilities for recovery and use for, for example, biogas generation through anaerobic digestion.
Another advantage of using the ‘Mucor’ fungus is its resistance to the so-called emerging contaminants (drugs, pesticides, herbicides and hormones), which are found in representative concentrations in waste water and which are usually very difficult to remove using traditional biological means. procedures. , which also reduce their efficiency in the presence of contaminants such as antibiotics. On the other hand, the use of molds makes it possible to reduce these emerging contaminants to a great extent, in some cases in percentages approaching 100%.
The project ‘Biofungus implementation of a two-stage wastewater treatment process using filamentous fungi’ has been funded by the CDTI.
Source: La Verdad
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