Renewable Energy Production and Chemical Recovery from Municipal and Industrial Wastewater using Biofilm Processes

长期以来，废水一直被视为人类健康问题和环境危害，因此，经过处理，产生的废水质量令人满意，可以排放到环境中。目前正在进行一种从将废水流视为需要处理的废物到主动能源和材料资源的范式转变。拟议研究计划的总体目标是开发经济、稳健和高效的工艺来生产生物能源，并从废水中回收有价值的化学物质和生物材料，将废水转化为有价值的资源，从中可以回收不同的增值产品，包括营养物质/材料、能源和水。在这个研究项目的主题下，一种创新的生物技术被开发出来，目标是从城市和工业废水中生产和回收可再生生物能源和生物材料。该提案的第一个重点领域是将生物膜过程整合到从城市和工业废物流中回收生物能源中。该研究计划的第二个重点领域是利用创新的生物膜工艺通过隔离温室气体（生物甲烷（CH4））回收和生产增值材料，即生物甲醇（CH3OH）和生物塑料（聚羟基丁酸酯（PHB））。***为了未来的可持续发展，加拿大需要使用基于可再生材料的工艺生产更多的能源和化学品，利用最新的技术进步。此外，加拿大需要培养能够开发和操作这些流程的高素质研究人员/工程师。对于安大略省来说，从环境和社会的角度来看，强烈建议将沼气作为天然气生产和使用，并将其回收为有价值的资源替代品。因此，未来的一个重要部分将依赖于使用创新的生物技术来生产/回收能源、资源和增值产品。这些生物技术的新颖性不仅在于其整合了由100%加拿大研究人员和专业工程师开发的创新技术，如厌氧生物膜工艺、生物电化学生物膜工艺和顺序好氧生物膜工艺，而且每一项技术都提出了解决实际问题的新方法，并推动了最先进的技术。这项研究的结果将使我们能够建立一种普遍适用于小型和大型城市和工业废物流的技术，并将代表城市和工业工厂的突破，因为同时减少废物，清洁能源产生，化学资源回收，减少工业化学品生产及其固有的污染问题，因为增强的生物甲烷；biomethanol;和PHB生产，将提高收入和拯救环境

For a long time, wastewater has been considered as a human health concern and an environmental hazard and therefore, treated to produce an effluent with satisfactory quality for discharge to the environment. A paradigm shift from considering wastewater streams as waste to be treated to a proactive energy and material resource is currently underway. The overall objective of the proposed research program is to develop economical, robust and efficient processes to produce bioenergy and recover valuable chemicals and biomaterials from wastewater, in the context of transforming wastewater to valuable resources from which different value-added products including nutrients/material, energy, and water can be recovered. Under the theme of this research program, an innovative biotechnology is developed targeting the production and recovery of renewable bioenergy and biomaterials from municipal and industrial wastewater. The first focus area of this proposal is to integrate biofilm processes into the recovery of bioenergy from municipal and industrial waste streams. The second focus area of this research program is the recovery and production of value-added materials i.e. biomethanol (CH3OH) and bioplastic (Poly-hydroxybutyrate (PHB)) by sequestering a greenhouse gas (biomethane (CH4)) using innovative biofilm processes.***For future sustainability, Canada needs to produce more of its energy and chemicals using a process based on renewable materials that utilize the latest advances in technology. Furthermore, Canada needs to train highly qualified researchers/engineers that can develop and operate these processes. For Ontario, creating and using biogas as a natural gas and recover into valuable resources substitute is strongly recommended from environmental and societal perspectives. Hence, an essential part of that future will rely on using innovative biotechnology to produce/recover energy, resources, and value added products. The novelty of these biotechnologies not only lies in its integration of innovative technologies i.e. anaerobic biofilm process, bioelectrochemical biofilm process, and sequential aerobic biofilm processes that are being developed by 100% Canadian researchers and professional engineers, but also every technology presents a novel approach to resolve a practical problem, and advances the state-of-the-art. The results of this research would enable us to establish a technology that is generally applied to small and large municipal and industrial waste streams and will represent a breakthrough for municipal and industrial plants, as the simultaneous waste minimization, clean energy generation, chemical resources recovery, reduction of industrial chemical production with its inherent pollution problems due to enhanced biomethane; biomethanol; and PHB productions, will improve both revenues and save the environment.**