Principles and potential of the anaerobic digestion of waste-activated sludge

This paper surveys expert systems (ES) development using a literature review and classification of articles from 1995 to 2004 with a keyword index and article abstract in order to explore how ES methodologies and applications have developed during this period. Based on the scope of 166 articles from 78 academic journals (retrieved from five online database) of ES applications, this paper surveys and classifies ES methodologies using the following eleven categories: rule-based systems, knowledge-based systems, neural networks, fuzzy ESs, object-oriented methodology, case-based reasoning, system architecture, intelligent agent systems, database methodology, modeling, and ontology together with their applications for different research and problem domains. Discussion is presented, indicating the followings future development directions for ES methodologies and applications: (1) ES methodologies are tending to develop towards expertise orientation and ES applications development is a problem-oriented domain. (2) It is suggested that different social science methodologies, such as psychology, cognitive science, and human behavior could implement ES as another kind of methodology. (3) The ability to continually change and obtain new understanding is the driving power of ES methodologies, and should be the ES application of future works.

http://www.sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~kopec/cis718/fall_2005/sdarticle5.pdf

Expert system methodologies and applications—a decade review from 1995 to 2004

Within the context of Earth’s limited natural resources and assimilation capacity, the current environmental footprint of humankind is not sustainable. Assessing land, water, energy, material, and other footprints along supply chains is paramount in understanding the sustainability, efficiency, and equity of resource use from the perspective of producers, consumers, and government. We review current footprints and relate those to maximum sustainable levels, highlighting the need for future work on combining footprints, assessing trade-offs between them, improving computational techniques, estimating maximum sustainable footprint levels, and benchmarking efficiency of resource use. Ultimately, major transformative changes in the global economy are necessary to reduce humanity’s environmental footprint to sustainable levels

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/344/6188/1114.full.pdf

Humanity’s unsustainable environmental footprint

A Review of Footprint analysis tools for monitoring impacts on sustainability

Sewage sludge management is now becoming a serious issue all over the world. Anaerobic digestion is a simple and well-studied process capable of biologically converting the chemical energy of sewage sludge into methane-rich biogas, as a carbon-neutral alternative to fossil fuels whilst destroying pathogens and removing odors. Hydrolysis is the rate-limiting step because of the sewage sludge complex floc structure (such as extracellular polymeric substances) and hard cell wall. To accelerate the rate-limiting hydrolysis and improve the efficiency of anaerobic digestion, various pretreatment technologies have been developed. This paper presents an up-to-date review of recent research achievements in the pretreatment technologies used for improving biogas production including mechanical (ultrasonic, microwave, electrokinetic and high-pressure homogenization), thermal, chemical (acidic, alkali, ozonation, Fenton and Fe(II)-activated persulfate oxidation), and biological options (temperature-phased anaerobic digestion and microbial electrolysis cell). The effectiveness and relative worth of each of the studied technologies are summarized and compared in terms of the resulting sludge properties, the digester performance, the environmental benefits and the current state of real-world application. The challenge and technical issues encountered during sludge cotreatment are discussed, and the future research needs in promoting full-scale implementations of those approaches are proposed.

Overview of pretreatment strategies for enhancing sewage sludge disintegration and subsequent anaerobic digestion: Current advances, full-scale application and future perspectives

https://digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/54382/3/Review_corporate_environmental.pdf

A. Franco

Papers

Review of corporate environmental indicators

Treatment of anaerobic sludge digester effluents by the CANON process in an air pulsing SBR.

Ozonation strategies to reduce sludge production of a seafood industry WWTP

Granulation in high-load denitrifying upflow sludge bed (USB) pulsed reactors.

An approach for the application of the Ecological Footprint as environmental indicator in the textile sector.