Advanced Landfill Waste Alleviation and Resource Mining Strategies

填埋是城市固体废物管理中最便宜的选择之一，已经实践了几个世纪。然而，城市垃圾填埋场渗滤液（MLL）的产生与高浓度的有害污染物是这一过程的最大缺点。由于其固有的毒性，MLL处理是传统处理技术的挑战，迄今为止，没有一种技术可以在低碳足迹和低能源消耗的情况下提供单阶段的碳和营养去除。例如，在欧洲，MLL大多在城市污水处理厂（UWTPs）中采用预处理和能源密集型后生物策略相结合的方式进行管理，但许多小型UWTPs未能达到氨和新兴污染物的排放限制。这强调了迫切需要开发一种新的分散的单级解决方案。在ALARMS中，我们提出了一种基于紫色非硫细菌（PNSB）的综合生物技术，用于低碳足迹的现场MLL处理和资源回收。PNSB具有多种代谢途径，使其能够通过光合作用过程参与天然营养物质的固定循环。因此，大多数研究都将PNSB作为一种优良的异养菌来处理各种废水。迄今为止，最近的一些研究揭示了PNSB作为阴极呼吸细菌的无限潜力，可以从合成介质中以高转化效率获得生物燃料（例如H2），这还有待于在实际废水处理中进行探索，特别是在MLL中。在这里，我们将从天然来源中分离出混合PNSB，并对其进行电化学激活以诱导所需的代谢反应，并利用其作为自养和异养生物，利用新型电化学光生物反应器在单阶段有效地去除/回收MLL中的营养物质和有机物。该项目是材料科学、生物技术、电化学和代谢工程的跨学科结合，符合欧盟2050年零碳足迹的目标。

Landfilling is one of the cheapest options for municipal solid waste management, which has been in practice for centuries. However, generation of municipal landfill leachate (MLL) with concentrated hazardous pollutants is the biggest downside of this process. MLL treatment is challenging with conventional treatment technologies due to its intrinsic toxicity and to date, none of the technology can provide a single-stage carbon and nutrient removal at a low carbon footprint and energy expenditure. For instance, in Europe, MLL is mostly managed in urban wastewater treatment plants (UWTPs) using combined pre-treatment and energy-intensive post-biological strategies yet many small UWTPs fail to comply with the discharge limit of ammonia and emerging pollutants. This is emphasizing an urgent need to develop a new decentralized single-stage solution. In ALARMS, we propose to develop an integrated purple non-sulfur bacteria (PNSB)-based biotechnology for onsite MLL treatment and resource recovery at low-carbon footprint. PNSB own versatile metabolic pathways, enabling them to participate in the natural nutrients fixation cycle using photosynthesis process. Thus, most of the studies utilized PNSB as a superior heterotroph to treat a wide range of wastewater. To date, a few recent research uncovered unlimited potential of PNSB as cathode respiring bacteria to derive biofuels (e.g., H2) at high conversion efficiency from synthetic media, which is yet to be explored for real wastewater treatment, especially for MLL. Here, we will isolate mixed PNSB from natural sources and electrochemically activate it to induce a desired metabolic response and utilize it as both autotroph and heterotroph to efficiently remove/recover nutrients and organics in a single stage from MLL using novel electrochemical photobioreactors. This project is interdisciplinary combining material science, biotechnology, electrochemistry, and metabolic engineering, and is aligned with the EU's 2050 goal of zero carbon footprint.