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Syntrophic Communities in Methane Formation from High Strength Wastewaters

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Abstract

High-strength wastewaters from agro-industrial processes (sugar refineries, potato-processing factories, distilleries, paper mills, slaughter houses, etc.) are efficiently (pre-)treated using high rate anaerobic wastewater treatment systems. The organic pollution load can be reduced by 80–90% prior to aerobic polishing. The bio-fuel methane thus produced is generally used for the production of electricity and/or steam, thereby lowering the industrial fossil energy demand. Additional advantages of anaerobic (pre-)treatment are a distinct reduction in excess sludge production and space demand, and low operational costs, mainly owing to low sludge handling costs and low chemical costs. Anaerobic treatment in high rate anaerobic bioreactors is accomplished by mixed syntrophic communities of anaerobic bacteria and methanogenic archaea. Balanced and highly structured microbial communities are essential for high rate anaerobic wastewater treatment. This chapter deals with the syntrophic microbial associations in anaerobic sludge and their importance to high rate wastewater treatment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Microbiology, Wageningen University, Dreijenplein 10, 6703, HB, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Caroline M. Plugge & Alfons J. M. Stams

  2. Department of Sanitary Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geoscience, Delft University of Technology, 5048, 2600, GA, Delft, The Netherlands

    Jules B. van Lier

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  1. Caroline M. Plugge
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  2. Jules B. van Lier
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  3. Alfons J. M. Stams
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Correspondence to Caroline M. Plugge .

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  1. Inst. Mikrobiologie, Universität Innsbruck, Technikerstr. 25, Innsbruck, 6020, Austria

    Heribert Insam

  2. Inst. Mikrobiologie, Universität Innsbruck, Technikerstr. 25, Innsbruck, 6020, Austria

    Ingrid Franke-Whittle

  3. Inst. Mikrobiologie, Universität Innsbruck, Technikerstr. 25, Innsbruck, 6020, Austria

    Marta Goberna

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Plugge, C.M., van Lier, J.B., Stams, A.J.M. (2010). Syntrophic Communities in Methane Formation from High Strength Wastewaters. In: Insam, H., Franke-Whittle, I., Goberna, M. (eds) Microbes at Work. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04043-6_3

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