Utlization of wastewater sludge for the production of value added products

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Wastewater treatment plants produce huge quantities of sludge annually. Today, sludge treatment and its safe disposal is an expensive and environmentally sensitive problem world-wide. To promote sustainable sludge management processes, there is urgent need to develop viable options for resource management through the creation of value-added products from wastewater sludge. In this context, the long term goal of our research is to produce value-added products using sludge as a source of mixed microbial community to generate simultaneously three products – namely - extracellular polysaccharides (EPS or bioflocculants), bioplastics (Polyhydorxy alkanoates or PHA) and lipids (to produce biodiesel). Recently, our study demonstrated that wastewater sludge contains numerous microorganisms that can simultaneously synthesise these products. Therefore, the principal objective of the proposed research is to develop an innovative and economically viable process for the production of these products using activated sludge as a source of microorganisms. The specific objectives of the present research project includes: analysis of the microbial sludge community; optimization of the process parameters to increase the yield of the products; use of different carbon sources and study of their impact on the composition and molecular weight of the products; and development of a suitable method for recovery of the value-added products. The research shall be conducted by five PhD students and a research associate. The successful completion of the research will allow to develop a novel process of economical and production of bioplastics, bioflocculants and lipids concomitantly and it will eventually promote environment-friendly and sustainable sludge management. The new process will obviate the need of expensive fermentors, their sophisticated and expensive operation, and minimize the production cost. Further, this research is very timely and will aid Canadian industry to develop eco-friendly and commercially viable bioplastics, bioflocculant and lipids and thus strengthening Canada`s environmental policy.