PhD thesis on sustainable denitrification of wastewater

 In a modern wastewater treatment plant, in addition to carbon (named COD and BOD) removal, nitrogen and phosphorus should also be removed. For this purpose, they usually have a denitrification unit. However, the microorganisms need an easily accessible carbon source to be able to remove nitrogen. This carbon source is usually fossil-based methanol or sometimes expensive ethanol.

However, the question is if it is possible to use volatile fatty acids that could be produced from sludge, food wastes etc., and use it as this carbon source? This was the topic for research for Tugba Sapmaz who has nailed her thesis today entitled "Unlocking Sustainability in Wastewater Denitrification through Waste-Derived Volatile Fatty Acids" and will defend it on Friday 15 March 2024. She put these publications in her thesis:

1- Towards maximum value creation from potato protein liquor: Volatile fatty acids production from fungal cultivation effluent

2- Waste-derived volatile fatty acid production and ammonium removal from it by ion exchange process with natural zeolite

3- Potential of food waste-derived volatile fatty acids as alternative carbon source for denitrifying moving bed biofilm reactors

4- The Effect of Sequential and Simultaneous Supplementation of Waste-Derived Volatile Fatty Acids and Methanol as Alternative Carbon Source Blend for Wastewater Denitrification

I wish her good luck with the defense.

 

Filamentous fungi for fish feed?

 Almost half of the fish we eat are farmed in aquaculture, and to grow the fish we consume more than 100 million tons fish feed. Fish meal is a major protein source of the fish feed, and they capture more than 20 million tons fish for seas and oceans, just to produce fish feed.

Sajjad Karimi worked on his PhD thesis to grow filamentous fungi to produce fish feed with very interesting results. He nailed his thesis today and is defending on 23 Feb. 2023. His PhD thesis is about Filamentous Fungi as a Sustainable Ingredient for Fish Feed, and contains these articles:

1- Evaluation of Nutritional Composition of Pure Filamentous Fungal Biomass as a Novel Ingredient for Fish Feed, Fermentation

2- Dietary Filamentous Fungi and Duration of Feeding Modulates Gut Microbial Composition in Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

3- Evaluating the potential of three fungal biomass grown on diluted thin stillage as potential fish feed ingredients

4- Digestibility of the filamentous fungal biomass, Neurospora intermedia, in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

We wish him good luck during the defense.