Will wastewater treatment plants look green in future?

摘要

Algae in activated sludge can be an alternative to highly energy-consuming aeration. This is the key result of two years intense research in the ALBAQUA EU project. Laboratory and pilot plant trials with paper mill effluents have shown that algae can integrate well into activated sludge floes, producing oxygen for the degradation activity of bacteria. The water quality achieved by the 'green' sludge was good. The algae-bacteria biomass could easily be removed from treated wastewaters because of its highly favourable settling characteristics. The excess sludge showed good potential for biogas production.