This course provides a scientific basis in Environmental Bioprocess Technology from molecular aspects to process design. The course will cover engineering and molecular aspects of water and wastewater treatment processes, resource recovery from waste streams, and the remediation of contaminated land. New technologies using or inspired by biological systems are an important tool for this, and can contribute to the goal of sustainable industrial processes. Traditional processes will be compared with more modern approaches, with a consideration of the economic and environmental impacts of each process. The course will consider long-standing problems such as organic and inorganic pollutants as well as emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and micro-plastics. The course will illustrate examples of processes used in Sweden and the EU, as well as examples from the developing world. This includes four modules:
- Wastewater treatment, including: eutrophication, removal of nutrients and emerging contaminants (e.g. pharmaceuticals, toxins, micro-plastics) from wastewater.
- Drinking water treatment, including purification processes, ground water quality, water quality assessment, water quality and health.
- Strategies for natural remediation of contaminated sites, including bioremediation using bacteria, mycoremediation, phytoremediation and bioaugmentation.
- Resource recovery from industrial side streams that hitherto were considered as waste, including use of biogas production, recovery of nutrients from water, recovery of polyesters such as PHA and PHB and recovery of volatile fatty acids.