Intermediate dark fermentation as a platform technology for chemical recycling and biorefineries

减少废水处理对外部化学品供应的依赖是水务部门的一个战略优先事项，以维持不受化学品供应和成本影响的弹性处理。另外，对用于处理的化学品供应进行脱碳对于水务公司为客户提供低碳服务的长期目标起着关键作用。该项目将研究生物炼制在生产可替代化石燃料和化学品的生物基材料方面的战略作用。在短期内，中间黑暗发酵可以提供一种回收挥发性脂肪酸（VFA）的途径，用于污水处理厂（WWTP）内部使用，抑制生物脱氮除磷（BNPR）对外部碳源的需求，并提供碳中性化学源。从长远来看，VFA作为污水污泥中最通用的平台化学提取物，可以通过物理提取或化学/生物转化为一系列高价值的产品和燃料，例如生物塑料，动物饲料，沼气，氢气。尽管对污泥原料的探索不足，但暗发酵产生绿色氢气的潜力也是一个伴随的好处。该项目旨在开发黑暗发酵作为水行业循环经济的一项使能技术。

Reducing dependency on external chemical supplies for wastewater treatment is a strategic priority for the water sector, in order to sustain a resilient treatment that is not exposed to availability and costs of chemical supplies. Separately, decarbonising the chemical supply for treatment plays a key role on the long-term ambition of water utilities to deliver a low carbon service to customers. This project will investigate the strategic role of biorefineries in generating bio-based materials that can substitute fossil-based fuels and chemicals. In the short term, intermediate dark fermentation can offer a route to recover volatile fatty acids (VFAs) for internal use within wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), suppressing the need for external carbon sources for biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal (BNPR) and providing a carbon neutral chemical source. In the longer term, VFAs, as the most versatile platform chemical extractable form sewage sludge, can be physically extracted or chemically/biologically converted to a range of high value products and fuels, with bioplastics, animal feed, biogas, hydrogen as examples. Although underexplored for sludge feedstocks, the potential of dark fermentation to generate green hydrogen is also a concomitant benefit. This project aims to develop dark fermentation as an enabling technology for circular economy in the water sector.