Fermentation wastewater treatment

Uses Defoamer for industrial and food-processing systems (fermentation, brine systems, wine, yeast, etc.), chemical processing (adhesive mfg., aq. ink mfg., latex processing, soap mfg., starch processing, paint additive, alcohol fermentation), wastewater treatment, petrochemical (resin polymerization, glycol dehydrators, ethylene oxide prod., urea prod.)... 

The 1980 s and the early 1990 s have seen the blossoming development of the biotechnology field. Three-phase fluidized bed bioreactors have become an essential element in the commercialization of processes to yield products and treat wastewater via biological mechanisms. Fluidized bed bioreactors have been applied in the areas of wastewater treatment, discussed previously, fermentation, and cell culture. The large scale application of three-phase fluidized bed or slurry bubble column fermen-tors are represented by ethanol production in a 10,000 liter fermentor (Samejima et al., 1984), penicillin production in a 200 liter fermentor (Endo et al., 1986), and the production of monoclonal antibodies in a 1,000 liter slurry bubble column bioreactor (Birch et al., 1985). Fan (1989) provides a complete review of biological applications of three-phase fluidized beds up to 1989. Part II of this chapter covers the recent developments in three-phase fluidized bed bioreactor technology. 

The most widespread biological application of three-phase fluidization at a commercial scale is in wastewater treatment. Several large scale applications exist for fermentation processes, as well, and, recently, applications in cell culture have been developed. Each of these areas have particular features that make three-phase fluidization particularly well-suited for them Wastewater Treatment. As can be seen in Tables 14a to 14d, numerous examples of the application of three-phase fluidization to waste-water treatment exist. Laboratory studies in the 1970 s were followed by large scale commercial units in the early 1980 s, with aerobic applications preceding anaerobic systems (Heijnen et al., 1989). The technique is well accepted as a viable tool for wastewater treatment for municipal sewage, food process waste streams, and other industrial effluents. Though pure cultures known to degrade a particular waste component are occasionally used (Sreekrishnan et al., 1991 Austermann-Haun et al., 1994 Lazarova et al., 1994), most applications use a mixed culture enriched from a similar waste stream or treatment facility or no inoculation at all (Sanz and Fdez-Polanco, 1990). 

Gas logging, the adherence of small bubbles to particles, causing them to rise to the surface in the reactor and form an inefficient packed bed with poor mass transfer properties, can be a problem in various fermentations and in wastewater treatment. A double entry fluidized bed reactor has been developed with simultaneous top (inverse) and bottom (conventional) inlets to overcome this problem (Gilson and Thomas, 1993). 

For waste treatment rather than fermentation for product formation, again few examples of process economics exist in the literature. Those that do, favor fluidization. Badot et al. (1994) described an industrial prototype fluidized bed reactor that competed favorably on an economical basis with activated sludge processes for treating carbon pollution and was estimated to be economically comparable to fixed bed processes for denitrification. Schneeberg (1994) described the successful and economically-sound implementation of fluidization as an upgrade to an existing wastewater treatment plant. The restricted space available for extension of the wastewater plant made fluidization particularly advantageous in this case. 

Single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) Wastewater bioreactors (including denitrifying and phosphate-removal system, Chinese traditional medicine wastewater treatment system, beer wastewater treatment system, fermentative biohydrogen producing system, and sulfate-reduction system) Microbial community structures, diversity and distribution in different wastewater treatment processes, and relationship between the structures and the status of processes [157]... 

The crude paclitaxel is recovered from the rich aqueous fermentation broth by liquid/liquid extraction with a mixture of isobutyl acetate (IBA) and isopropanol (IPA), both class 3 solvents. The waste aqueous phase is stripped to remove residual organic solvents (IBA/IPA), treated with sodium hydroxide to deactivate any paclitaxel residues, and processed through a standard wastewater treatment facility. The amount of solid waste biomass generated in the process is negligible. 

Although whey protein products have several food uses, the lactose contained in the permeate is less valuable, and many plants discharge the permeate to a biological wastewater treatment plant. A few plants recover lactose as dry lactose sugar, as shown in Figure 6.23. Some plants also ferment the lactose concentrate to make ethanol. An introduction to membrane ultrafiltration in cheese production is given by Kosikowski [26],... 

In membrane extraction, the treated solution and the extractant/solvent are separated from each other by means of a solid or liquid membrane. The technique is applied primarily in three areas wastewater treatment (e.g., removal of pollutants or recovery of trace components), biotechnology (e.g., removal of products from fermentation broths or separation of enantiomers), and analytical chemistry (e.g., online monitoring of pollutant concentrations in wastewater). Figure 18a shows schematically an industrial hollow fiber-based pertraction unit for water treatment, according to the TNO technology (263). The unit can be integrated with a him evaporator to enable the release of pollutants in pure form (Figure 18b). 

Besides wastewater treatment, pervaporation systems have also been tested on a development scale for continually removing volatile organic products (e.g., ethanol, volatile acids) from fermentation broths. 

Today, many different fermentation processes are applied in industry. They range from large-scale low-tech processes, like wastewater treatment to very sophisticated biotechnology processes to produce... 

First production of neat lactic acid by industrial fermentation Public wastewater treatment plants Industrial production of butanol and acetone by aseptic fermentation... 

Another example of the application of fermentation is the removal of organic compounds from exhaust air. Such biofilters are often trickle-bed reactors, in which the microorganisms grow on a solid support, such as wood chips or porous stones. Water is trickled through the reactor, whereas the exhaust air flows in the opposite direction. The bacteria digest the organic components and destroy odor-causing chemicals. Biofilters are applied in municipal wastewater treatment, food production, paint, paper, and timber industries or soil remediation. They provide an attractive alternative to thermal, chemical, and adsorptive processes for cost-effective treatment of air pollutants. 

Membrane contactor offers potential solution in a wide range of gas/liquid and liquid/liquid applications gas adsorption and stripping, liquid/liquid extraction, dense gas extraction, fermentation and enzymatic transformation, pharmaceutical applications, protein extraction, wastewater treatment, chiral separations, semiconductor manufacturing, carbonation of beverages, metal ion extraction, protein extraction, and VOCs removal from waste gas [55]. 

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