Advanced Landfill Waste Alleviation and Resource Mining Strategies

填埋是城市固体废物管理最便宜的选择之一，已经实施了几个世纪。然而，城市垃圾填埋场渗滤液（MLL）与集中的有害污染物的产生是这个过程的最大缺点。MLL处理由于其固有的毒性而具有传统处理技术的挑战性，并且迄今为止，没有一种技术能够以低碳足迹和能量消耗提供单阶段碳和营养物去除。例如，在欧洲，MLL主要在城市污水处理厂（UWTP）中使用预处理和能源密集型生物后策略进行管理，但许多小型UWTP未能遵守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式单级解决方案。在ALARMS中，我们建议开发一种基于紫色非硫细菌（PNSB）的综合生物技术，用于现场MLL处理和低碳足迹的资源回收。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养分固定循环。因此，大多数研究利用PNSB作为一种上级异养生物来处理广泛的废水。到目前为止，一些最近的研究揭示了PNSB作为阴极呼吸细菌以获得生物燃料的无限潜力（例如，H2），这对于真实的废水处理，特别是微生物废水处理还有待探索。在这里，我们将从天然来源中分离混合PNSB，并将其电化学活化以诱导所需的代谢反应，并利用其作为自养和异养生物，使用新型电化学光生物反应器在单个阶段中有效地从MLL中去除/回收营养物质和有机物。该项目是材料科学、生物技术、电化学和代谢工程相结合的跨学科项目，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.