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	Author	Vandekerckhove, T.G.L.; De Mulder, C.; Boon, N.; Vlaeminck, S.E.
	Title	Temperature impact on sludge yield, settleability and kinetics of three heterotrophic conversions corroborates the prospect of thermophilic biological nitrogen removal			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2018	Publication	Bioresource technology	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	269	Issue		Pages	104-112
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	In specific municipal and industrial cases, thermophilic wastewater treatment (>45 °C) might bring cost advantages over commonly applied mesophilic processes (1035 °C). To develop such a novel process, one needs sound parameters on kinetics, sludge yield and sludge settleability of three heterotrophic conversions: aerobic carbon removal, denitritation and denitrification. These features were evaluated in acetate-fed sequencing batch reactors (30, 40, 50 and 60 °C). Higher temperatures were accompanied by lower sludge production and maximum specific removal rates, resulting mainly from lower maximum growth rates. Thermophilic denitritation was demonstrated for the first time, with lower sludge production (1826%), higher nitrogen removal rates (2492%) and lower carbon requirement (40%) compared to denitrification. Acceptable settling of thermophilic aerobic (60 °C) and anoxic biomass (50 and 60 °C) was obtained. Overall, this parameter set may catalyze the establishment of thermophilic nitrogen removal, once nitritation and nitratation are characterized. Furthermore, waters with low COD/N ratio might benefit from thermophilic nitritation/denitritation.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000445897400014	Publication Date	2018-08-04
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0960-8524	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:152946			Serial	8646
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Sui, Y.; Jiang, Y.; Moretti, M.; Vlaeminck, S.E.
	Title	Harvesting time and biomass composition affect the economics of microalgae production			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2020	Publication	Journal Of Cleaner Production	Abbreviated Journal	J Clean Prod
	Volume	259	Issue		Pages	120782-10
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL); Engineering Management (ENM)
	Abstract	Cost simulations provide a strong tool to render the production of microalgae economically viable. This study evaluated the unexplored effect of harvesting time and the corresponding microalgal biomass composition on the overall production cost, under both continuous light and light/dark regime using techno-economic analysis (TEA). At the same time, the TEA gives evidence that a novel product “proteinaceous salt” from Dunaliella microalgae production is a promising high-value product for commercialization with profitability. The optimum production scenario is to employ natural light/dark regime and harvest microalgal biomass around late exponential phase, obtaining the minimum production cost of 11 €/kg and a profitable minimum selling price (MSP) of 14.4 €/kg for the “proteinaceous salt”. For further optimization of the production, increasing microalgal biomass concentration is the most effective way to reduce the total production cost and increase the profits of microalgae products.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000530695500009	Publication Date	2020-02-29
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0959-6526	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	11.1	Times cited	5	Open Access
	Notes	; This work was supported by the China Scholarship Council (File No. 201507650015) and the MIP i-Cleantech Flanders (Milieu-innovatieplatform; Environment innovation platform) project Microbial Nutrients on Demand (MicroNOD). ;			Approved	Most recent IF: 11.1; 2020 IF: 5.715
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:166802			Serial	6531
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	Author	Vandekerckhove, T.G.L.; Kobayashi, K.; Janda, J.; Van Nevel, S.; Vlaeminck, S.E.
	Title	Sulfur-based denitrification treating regeneration water from ion exchange at high performance and low cost			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2018	Publication	Bioresource technology	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	257	Issue		Pages	266-273
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	Autotrophic denitrification with sulfur is an underexplored alternative to heterotrophic denitrification to remove nitrate from wastewater poor in organics. The application on ion exchange regeneration water (19.432.1 mS cm−1) is novel. Three fixed bed reactors were tested at 15 °C for >4 months, inoculated with activated sludge from sewage treatment. All were fast in start-up (<10 days) with high performance (94 ± 2% removal efficiency). pH control with NaOH rendered higher nitrate removal rates than limestone addition to the bed (211 ± 13 vs. 102 ± 13 mg N L−1 d−1), related to higher pH (6.64 vs. 6.24) and sulfur surface area. Bacterial communities were strongly enriched in Sulfurimonas (6367%) and Thiobacillus (2426%). In an economic comparison, sulfur-based denitrification (5.3 kg−1 N) was 15% cheaper than methanol-based denitrification (6.22 kg−1 N) and both treatments were opex dominated (85.9 vs. 86.5%). Overall, the technological and economic feasibility should boost further implementation of sulfurotrophic denitrification.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000430401100033	Publication Date	2018-02-13
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0960-8524	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:149975			Serial	8619
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Vandekerckhove, T.G.L.; Boon, N.; Vlaeminck, S.E.
	Title	Pioneering on single-sludge nitrification/denitrification at 50 °C			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2020	Publication	Chemosphere	Abbreviated Journal	Chemosphere
	Volume	252	Issue		Pages	126527-10
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	Thermophilic nitrification has been proven in lab-scale bioreactors at 50 °C. The challenge is now to develop a solution for thermophilic nitrogen removal, integrating nitrification with denitrification and aerobic carbon removal. This pioneering study aimed at a single-sludge nitrification/denitrification process at 50 °C, through exposing nitrification in a step by step approach to anoxia and/or organics. Firstly, recurrent anoxia was tolerated by a nitrifying community during long-term membrane bioreactor (MBR) operation (85 days), with high ammonium oxidation efficiencies (>98%). Secondly, five organic carbon sources did not affect thermophilic ammonium and nitrite oxidation rates in three-day aerobic batch flask incubations. Moving to long-term tests with sequencing batch reactors (SBR) and MBR (>250 days), good nitrification performance was obtained at increasing COD/Ninfluent ratios (0, 0.5, 1, 2 and 3). Thirdly, combining nitrification, recurrent anoxia and presence of organic carbon resulted in a nitrogen removal efficiency of 92–100%, with a COD/Nremoved of 4.8 ± 0.6 and a nitrogen removal rate of 50 ± 14 mg N g−1 VSS d−1. Overall, this is the first proof of principle thermophilic nitrifiers can cope with redox fluctuations (aerobic/anoxic) and the aerobic or anoxic presence of organic carbon, can functionally co-exist with heterotrophs and that single-sludge nitrification/denitrification can be achieved.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000534377000121	Publication Date	2020-03-17
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0045-6535; 1879-1298	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	8.8	Times cited		Open Access
	Notes	; The authors acknowledge (i) the Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT Flanders) [grant number SB-141205] for funding Tom G.L. Vandekerckhove, (ii) Wouter Peleman and Zoe Pesonen for practical support during their master thesis, (iii) Jolien De Paepe for assisting in the reactor operation, and (iv) Jo De Vrieze and Tim Lacoere for their help with qPCR and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. ;			Approved	Most recent IF: 8.8; 2020 IF: 4.208
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:167324			Serial	6581
Permanent link to this record



	Author	De Cocker, P.; Bessiere, Y.; Hernandez-Raquet, G.; Dubos, S.; Mozo, I.; Gaval, G.; Caligaris, M.; Barillon, B.; Vlaeminck, S.E.; Sperandio, M.
	Title	Enrichment and adaptation yield high anammox conversion rates under low temperatures			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2018	Publication	Bioresource technology	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	250	Issue		Pages	505-512
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	This study compared two anammox sequencing batch reactors (SBR) for one year. SBRconstantT was kept at 30 °C while temperature in SBRloweringT was decreased step-wise from 30 °C to 20 °C and 15 °C followed by over 140 days at 12.5 °C and 10 °C. High retention of anammox bacteria (AnAOB) and minimization of competition with AnAOB were key. 5-L anoxic reactors with the same inoculum were fed synthetic influent containing 25.9 mg NH4+-N/L and 34.1 mg NO2−-N/L (no COD). Specific ammonium removal rates continuously increased in SBRconstantT, reaching 785 mg NH4+-N/gVSS/d, and were maintained in SBRloweringT, reaching 82.2 and 91.8 mg NH4+-N/gVSS/d at 12.5 and 10 °C respectively. AnAOB enrichment (increasing hzsA and 16S rDNA gene concentrations) and adaptation (shift from Ca. Brocadia to Ca. Kuenenia in SBRloweringT) contributed to these high rates. Rapidly settling granules developed, with average diameters of 1.2 (SBRconstantT) and 1.6 mm (SBRloweringT). Results reinforce the potential of anammox for mainstream applications.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000430740000062	Publication Date	2017-11-25
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0960-8524	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:148998			Serial	7920
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Han, M.; Vlaeminck, S.E.; Al-Omari, A.; Wett, B.; Bott, C.; Murthy, S.; De Clippeleir, H.
	Title	Uncoupling the solids retention times of flocs and granules in mainstream deammonification : a screen as effective out-selection tool for nitrite oxidizing bacteria			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2016	Publication	Bioresource technology	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	221	Issue		Pages	195-204
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	This study focused on a physical separator in the form of a screen to out-select nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) for mainstream sewage treatment. This separation relied on the principle that the NOB prefer to grow in flocs, while anammox bacteria (AnAOB) reside in granules. Two types of screens (vacuum and vibrating) were tested for separating these fractions. The vibrating screen was preferred due to more moderate normal forces and additional tangential forces, better balancing retention efficiency of AnAOB granules (41% of the AnAOB activity) and washout of NOB (92% activity washout). This operation resulted in increased NOB out-selection (AerAOB/NOB ratio of 2.3) and a total nitrogen removal efficiency of 70% at influent COD/N ratio of 1.4. An effluent total nitrogen concentration <10 mg N/L was achieved using this novel approach combining biological selection with physical separation, opening up the path towards energy positive sewage treatment. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000386241000025	Publication Date	2016-09-08
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0960-8524	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:138157			Serial	8705
Permanent link to this record



	Author	De Vrieze, J.; Smet, D.; Klok, J.; Colsen, J.; Angenent, L.T.; Vlaeminck, S.E.
	Title	Thermophilic sludge digestion improves energy balance and nutrient recovery potential in full-scale municipal wastewater treatment plants			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2016	Publication	Bioresource technology	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	218	Issue		Pages	1237-1245
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	The conventional treatment of municipal wastewater by means of activated sludge is typically energy demanding. Here, the potential benefits of: (1) the optimization of mesophilic digestion; and (2) transitioning to thermophilic sludge digestion in three wastewater treatment plants (Tilburg-Noord, Land van Cuijk and Bath) in the Netherlands is evaluated, including a full-scale trial validation in Bath. In Tilburg-Noord, thermophilic sludge digestion covered the energy requirements of the plant (102%), whereas 111% of sludge operational treatment costs could be covered in Bath. Thermophilic sludge digestion also resulted in a strong increase in nutrient release. The potential for nutrient recovery was evaluated via: (1) stripping/absorption of ammonium; (2) autotrophic removal of ammonium via partial nitritation/anammox; and (3) struvite precipitation. This research shows that optimization of sludge digestion may lead to a strong increase in energy recovery, sludge treatment costs reduction, and the potential for advanced nutrient management in full-scale sewage treatment plants. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000384710500155	Publication Date	2016-07-02
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0960-8524	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:137236			Serial	8666
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Cagnetta, C.; Coma, M.; Vlaeminck, S.E.; Rabaey, K.
	Title	Production of carboxylates from high rate activated sludge through fermentation			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2016	Publication	Bioresource technology	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	217	Issue		Pages	165-172
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	The aim of this work was to study the key parameters affecting fermentation of high rate activated A-sludge to carboxylates, including pH, temperature, inoculum, sludge composition and iron content. The maximum volatile fatty acids production was 141 mg C g−1 VSSfed, at pH 7. Subsequently the potential for carboxylate and methane production for A-sludge from four different plants at pH 7 and 35 °C were compared. Initial BOD of the sludge appeared to be key determining carboxylate yield from A-sludge. Whereas methanogenesis could be correlated linearly to the quantity of ferric used for coagulation, fermentation did not show a dependency on iron presence. This difference may enable a strategy whereby A-stage sludge is separated to achieve fermentation, and iron dosing for phosphate removal is only implemented at the B-stage.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000380226300023	Publication Date	2016-03-22
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0960-8524	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:139912			Serial	8421
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Van Winckel, T.; Liu, X.; Vlaeminck, S.E.; Takács, I.; Al-Omari, A.; Sturm, B.; Kjellerup, B.V.; Murthy, S.N.; De Clippeleir, H.
	Title	Overcoming floc formation limitations in high-rate activated sludge systems			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2019	Publication	Chemosphere	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	215	Issue		Pages	342-352
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	High-rate activated sludge (HRAS) is an essential cornerstone of the pursuit towards energy positive sewage treatment through maximizing capture of organics. The capture efficiency heavily relies on the degree of solid separation achieved in the clarifiers. Limitations in the floc formation process commonly emerge in HRAS systems, with detrimental consequences for the capture of organics. This study pinpointed and overcame floc formation limitations present in full-scale HRAS reactors. Orthokinetic flocculation tests were performed with varying shear, sludge concentration, and coagulant or flocculant addition. These were analyzed with traditional and novel settling parameters and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) measurements. HRAS was limited by insufficient collision efficiency and occurred because the solids retention time (SRT) was short and colloid loading was high. The limitation was predominantly caused by impaired flocculation rather than coagulation. In addition, the collision efficiency limitation was driven by EPS composition (low protein over polysaccharide ratio) instead of total EPS amount. Collision efficiency limitation was successfully overcome by bio-augmenting sludge from a biological nutrient removal reactor operating at long SRT which did not show any floc formation limitations. However, this action brought up a floc strength limitation. The latter was not correlated with EPS composition, but rather EPS amount and hindered settling parameters, which determined floc morphology. With this, an analysis toolkit was proposed that will enable design engineers and operators to tackle activated solid separation challenges found in HRAS systems and maximize the recovery potential of the process. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000450383400038	Publication Date	2018-10-01
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0045-6535; 1879-1298	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:153978			Serial	8350
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Verstraete, W.; Clauwaert, P.; Vlaeminck, S.E.
	Title	Used water and nutrients : recovery perspectives in a 'panta rhei' context			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2016	Publication	Bioresource technology	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	215	Issue		Pages	199-208
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	There is an urgent need to secure global supplies in safe water and proteinaceous food in an eco-sustainable manner, as manifested from tensions in the nexus Nutrients-Energy-Water-Environment-Land. This paper is concept based and provides solutions based on resource recovery from municipal and industrial wastewater and from manure. A set of decisive factors is reviewed facilitating an attractive business case. Our key message is that a robust barrier must clear the recovered product from its original status. Besides refined inorganic fertilizers, a central role for five types of microbial protein is proposed. A resource cycling solution for the extremely confined environment of space habitation should serve as an incentive to assimilate a new user mindset. To achieve the ambitious goal of sustainable food security, the solutions suggested here need a broad implementation, hand in hand with minimizing losses along the entire fertilizer-feed-food-fork chain. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000377935100022	Publication Date	2016-04-29
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0960-8524	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:134591			Serial	8726
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Coppens, J.; Lindeboom, R.; Muys, M.; Coessens, W.; Alloul, A.; Meerbergen, K.; Lievens, B.; Clauwaert, P.; Boon, N.; Vlaeminck, S.E.
	Title	Nitrification and microalgae cultivation for two-stage biological nutrient valorization from source separated urine			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2016	Publication	Bioresource technology	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	211	Issue		Pages	41-50
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	Urine contains the majority of nutrients in urban wastewaters and is an ideal nutrient recovery target. In this study, stabilization of real undiluted urine through nitrification and subsequent microalgae cultivation were explored as strategy for biological nutrient recovery. A nitrifying inoculum screening revealed a commercial aquaculture inoculum to have the highest halotolerance. This inoculum was compared with municipal activated sludge for the start-up of two nitrification membrane bioreactors. Complete nitrification of undiluted urine was achieved in both systems at a conductivity of 75 mS cm−1 and loading rate above 450 mg N L−1 d−1. The halotolerant inoculum shortened the start-up time with 54%. Nitrite oxidizers showed faster salt adaptation and Nitrobacter spp. became the dominant nitrite oxidizers. Nitrified urine as growth medium for Arthrospira platensis demonstrated superior growth compared to untreated urine and resulted in a high protein content of 62%. This two-stage strategy is therefore a promising approach for biological nutrient recovery.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000375186700006	Publication Date	2016-03-06
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0960-8524	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:139913			Serial	8307
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Wittner, N.; Gergely, S.; Slezsák, J.; Broos, W.; Vlaeminck, S.E.; Cornet, I.
	Title	Follow-up of solid-state fungal wood pretreatment by a novel near-infrared spectroscopy-based lignin calibration model			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2023	Publication	Journal of microbiological methods	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	208	Issue		Pages	106725-106727
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL); Biochemical Wastewater Valorization & Engineering (BioWaVE)
	Abstract	Lignin removal plays a crucial role in the efficient bioconversion of lignocellulose to fermentable sugars. As a delignification process, fungal pretreatment has gained great interest due to its environmental friendliness and low energy consumption. In our previous study, a positive linear correlation between acid-insoluble lignin degradation and the achievable enzymatic saccharification yield has been found, hereby highlighting the importance of the close follow-up of lignin degradation during the solid-state fungal pretreatment process. However, the standard quantification of lignin, which relies on the two-step acid hydrolysis of the biomass, is highly laborious and time-consuming. Vibrational spectroscopy has been proven as a fast and easy alternative; however, it has not been extensively researched on lignocellulose subjected to solid-state fungal pretreatment. Therefore, the present study examined the suitability of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) for the rapid and easy assessment of lignin content in poplar wood pretreated with Phanerochaete chrysosporium. Furthermore, the predictive power of the obtained calibration model and the recently published ATR-FTIR spectroscopy-based model were compared for the first time using the same fungus-treated wood data set. PLSR was used to correlate the NIR spectra to the acid-insoluble lignin contents (19.9%-27.1%) of pretreated wood. After normalization and second derivation, a PLSR model with a good coefficient of determination (RCV2 = 0.89) and a low root mean square error (RMSECV = 0.55%) were obtained despite the heterogeneous nature of the fungal solid-state fermentation. The performance of this PLSR model was comparably good to the one obtained by ATR-FTIR (RCV2 = 0.87) while it required more extensive spectral pre-processing. In conclusion, both methods will be highly useful for the high-throughput and user-friendly monitoring of lignin degradation in a solid-state fungal pretreatment-based biorefinery concept.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000983287400001	Publication Date	2023-04-13
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0167-7012	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:195814			Serial	9038
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Agrawal, S.; Weissbrodt, D.G.; Annavajhala, M.; Jensen, M.M.; Arroyo, J.M.C.; Wells, G.; Chandran, K.; Vlaeminck, S.E.; Terada, A.; Smets, B.F.; Lackner, S.
	Title	Time to act–assessing variations in qPCR analyses in biological nitrogen removal with examples from partial nitritation/anammox systems			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2021	Publication	Water Research	Abbreviated Journal	Water Res
	Volume	190	Issue		Pages	116604
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	Quantitative PCR (qPCR) is broadly used as the gold standard to quantify microbial community fractions in environmental microbiology and biotechnology. Benchmarking efforts to ensure the comparability of qPCR data for environmental bioprocesses are still scarce. Also, for partial nitritation/anammox (PN/A) systems systematic investigations are still missing, rendering meta-analysis of reported trends and generic insights potentially precarious. We report a baseline investigation of the variability of qPCR-based analyses for microbial communities applied to PN/A systems. Round-robin testing was performed for three PN/A biomass samples in six laboratories, using the respective in-house DNA extraction and qPCR protocols. The concentration of extracted DNA was significantly different between labs, ranged between 2.7 and 328 ng mg−1 wet biomass. The variability among the qPCR abundance data of different labs was very high (1−7 log fold) but differed for different target microbial guilds. DNA extraction caused maximum variation (3–7 log fold), followed by the primers (1–3 log fold). These insights will guide environmental scientists and engineers as well as treatment plant operators in the interpretation of qPCR data.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000632807700001	Publication Date	2020-11-05
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0043-1354; 1879-2448	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	6.942	Times cited		Open Access	OpenAccess
	Notes				Approved	Most recent IF: 6.942
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:173838			Serial	8672
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Segura, P.C.; De Meur, Q.; Alloul, A.; Tanghe, A.; Onderwater, R.; Vlaeminck, S.E.; Vande Wouwer, A.; Wattiez, R.; Dewasme, L.; Leroy, B.
	Title	Preferential photoassimilation of volatile fatty acids by purple non-sulfur bacteria : experimental kinetics and dynamic modelling			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2022	Publication	Biochemical engineering journal	Abbreviated Journal	Biochem Eng J
	Volume	186	Issue		Pages	108547-10
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	Purple non-sulfur bacteria (PNSB) are known for their metabolic versatility and thrive as anoxygenic photoheterotrophs. In environmental engineering and resource recovery, cells would grow on mixtures of volatile fatty acids (VFA) generated by anaerobic fermentation of waste streams. In this study, we aim to better understand the behavior of Rhodospirillum rubrum, a model PNSB species, grown using multiple VFA as carbon sources. We highlighted that assimilation of individual VFA follows a sequential pattern. Based on observations in other PNSB, this seems to be specific to isocitrate lyase-lacking organisms. We hypothesized that the inhibition phenomenon could be due to the regulation of the metabolic fluxes in the substrate cycle between acetoacetyl-CoA and crotonyl-CoA. Developed macroscopic dynamic models showed a good predictive capability for substrate competition for every VFA mixture containing acetate, propionate, and/or butyrate. These novel insights provide valuable input for better design and operation of PNSB-based waste treatment solutions.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000891992900005	Publication Date	2022-07-21
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	1369-703x; 1873-295x	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record
	Impact Factor	3.9	Times cited		Open Access	OpenAccess
	Notes				Approved	Most recent IF: 3.9
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:192741			Serial	7332
Permanent link to this record



	Author	De Paepe, J.; De Paepe, K.; Gòdia, F.; Rabaey, K.; Vlaeminck, S.E.; Clauwaert, P.
	Title	Bio-electrochemical COD removal for energy-efficient, maximum and robust nitrogen recovery from urine through membrane aerated nitrification			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2020	Publication	Water Research	Abbreviated Journal	Water Res
	Volume	185	Issue		Pages	116223
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	Resource recovery from source-separated urine can shorten nutrient cycles on Earth and is essential in regenerative life support systems for deep-space exploration. In this study, a robust two-stage, energy-efficient, gravity-independent urine treatment system was developed to transform fresh real human urine into a stable nutrient solution. In the first stage, up to 85% of the COD was removed in a microbial electrolysis cell (MEC), converting part of the energy in organic compounds (27-46%) into hydrogen gas and enabling full nitrogen recovery by preventing nitrogen losses through denitrification in the second stage. Besides COD removal, all urea was hydrolysed in the MEC, resulting in a stream rich in ammoniacal nitrogen and alkalinity, and low in COD. This stream was fed into a membrane-aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) in order to convert the volatile and toxic ammoniacal nitrogen to non-volatile nitrate by nitrification. Bio-electrochemical pre-treatment allowed to recover all nitrogen as nitrate in the MABR at a bulk-phase dissolved oxygen level below 0.1 mg O2 L-1. In contrast, feeding the MABR directly with raw urine (omitting the first stage), at the same nitrogen loading rate, resulted in nitrogen loss (18%) due to denitrification. The MEC and MABR were characterised by very distinct and diverse microbial communities. While (strictly) anaerobic genera, such as Geobacter (electroactive bacteria), Thiopseudomonas, a Lentimicrobiaceae member, Alcaligenes and Proteiniphilum prevailed in the MEC, the MABR was dominated by aerobic genera, including Nitrosomonas (a known ammonium oxidiser), Moheibacter and Gordonia. The two-stage approach yielded a stable nitrate-rich, COD-low nutrient solution, suitable for plant and microalgae cultivation.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000580639800035	Publication Date	2020-07-23
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0043-1354	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	12.8	Times cited		Open Access
	Notes				Approved	Most recent IF: 12.8; 2020 IF: 6.942
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:170524			Serial	6461
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Spiller, M.; Moretti, M.; De Paepe, J.; Vlaeminck, S.E.
	Title	Environmental and economic sustainability of the nitrogen recovery paradigm : evidence from a structured literature review			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2022	Publication	Resources, conservation and recycling	Abbreviated Journal	Resour Conserv Recy
	Volume	184	Issue		Pages	106406-106413
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	Our economy drives on reactive nitrogen (Nr); while Nr emissions to the environment surpass the planetary boundary. Increasingly, it is advocated to recover Nr contained in waste streams and to reuse it ‘directly’ in the agri-food chain. Alternatively, Nr in waste streams may be removed as N2 and refixed via the Haber-Bosch process in an ‘indirect’ reuse loop. As a systematic sustainability analysis of ‘direct’ Nr reuse and its comparison to the ‘indirect’ reuse loop is lacking, this structured review aimed to analyze literature determining the environmental and economic sustainability of Nr recovery technologies. Bibliometric records were queried from 2000 to 2020 using Boolean search strings, and manual text coding. In total, 63 studies were selected for the review. Results suggest that ‘direct’ Nr reuse using Nr recovery technologies is the preferred paradigm as the majority of studies concluded that it is sustainable or that it can be sustainable depending on technological assumptions and other scenario variables. Only 17 studies compared the ‘direct’ with the ‘indirect’ Nr reuse route, therefore a system perspective in Nr recovery sustainability assessments should be more widely adopted. Furthermore, Nr reuse should also be analyzed in the context of a ‘new Nr economy’ that relies on decentralized Nr production from renewable energy. It is also recommended that on-par technology readiness level comparisons should be carried out, making use of technology development and technology learning methodologies. Finally, by-products of Nr recovery are important to be accounted for as they are reducing the environmental burdens through avoided impacts.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000804938100001	Publication Date	2022-05-18
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0921-3449	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	13.2	Times cited		Open Access	OpenAccess
	Notes				Approved	Most recent IF: 13.2
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:188873			Serial	7156
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Geerts, R.; Vandermoere, F.; Van Winckel, T.; Halet, D.; Joos, P.; Van Den Steen, K.; Van Meenen, E.; Blust, R.; Borregán-Ochando, E.; Vlaeminck, S.E.
	Title	Bottle or tap? Toward an integrated approach to water type consumption			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2020	Publication	Water Research	Abbreviated Journal	Water Res
	Volume	173	Issue		Pages	115578-10
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL); Centre for Research on Environmental and Social Change
	Abstract	While in many countries, people have access to cheap and safe potable tap water, the global consumption of bottled water is rising. Flanders, Belgium, where this study is located, has an exceptionally high consumption of bottled water per capita. However, in the interest of resource efficiency and global environmental challenges, the consumption of tap water is preferable. To our knowledge, an integrated analysis of the main reasons why people consume tap and bottled water is absent in Flanders, Belgium. Using Flemish survey data (N = 2309), we first compared tap and bottled water consumers through bivariate correlation analysis. Subsequently, path modelling techniques were used to further investigate these correlations. Our results show that bottled water consumption in Flanders is widespread despite environmental and financial considerations. For a large part, this is caused by negative perceptions about tap water. Many consumers consider it unhealthy, unsafe and prefer the taste of bottled water. Furthermore, we found that the broader social context often inhibits the consumption of tap water. On the one hand, improper infrastructures (e.g. lead piping) can limit access to potable tap water. On the other hand, social norms exist that promote bottled water. Lastly, results suggest that the consumption of bottled water is most common among men, older people and less educated groups. We conclude that future research and policy measures will benefit from an approach that integrates all behavioural aspects associated with water type consumption. This will enable both governments and tap water companies to devise more effective policies to manage and support tap water supply networks.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000523569000012	Publication Date	2020-01-31
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0043-1354	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	12.8	Times cited	2	Open Access
	Notes	; This was supported by a grant from Water-link. ;			Approved	Most recent IF: 12.8; 2020 IF: 6.942
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:165873			Serial	6464
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Vandekerckhove, T.G.L.; Props, R.; Carvajal-Arroyo, J.M.; Boon, N.; Vlaeminck, S.E.
	Title	Adaptation and characterization of thermophilic anammox in bioreactors			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2020	Publication	Water Research	Abbreviated Journal	Water Res
	Volume	172	Issue		Pages	115462
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	Anammox, the oxidation of ammonium with nitrite, is a key microbial process in the nitrogen cycle. Under mesophilic conditions (below 40 °C), it is widely implemented to remove nitrogen from wastewaters lacking organic carbon. Despite evidence of the presence of anammox bacteria in high-temperature environments, reports on the cultivation of thermophilic anammox bacteria are limited to a short-term experiment of 2 weeks. This study showcases the adaptation of a mesophilic inoculum to thermophilic conditions, and its characterization. First, an attached growth technology was chosen to obtain the process. In an anoxic fixed-bed biofilm bioreactor (FBBR), a slow linear temperature increase from 38 to over 48 °C (0.05–0.07 °C d−1) was imposed to the community over 220 days, after which the reactor was operated at 48 °C for over 200 days. Maximum total nitrogen removal rates reached up to 0.62 g N L−1 d−1. Given this promising performance, a suspended growth system was tested. The obtained enrichment culture served as inoculum for membrane bioreactors (MBR) operated at 50 °C, reaching a maximum total nitrogen removal rate of 1.7 g N L−1 d−1 after 35 days. The biomass in the MBR had a maximum specific anammox activity of 1.1 ± 0.1 g NH4+-N g−1 VSS d−1, and the growth rate was estimated at 0.075–0.19 d−1. The thermophilic cultures displayed nitrogen stoichiometry ratios typical for mesophilic anammox: 0.93–1.42 g NO2--Nremoved g−1 NH4+-Nremoved and 0.16–0.35 g NO3--Nproduced g−1 NH4+-Nremoved. Amplicon and Sanger sequencing of the 16S rRNA genes revealed a disappearance of the original “Ca. Brocadia” and “Ca. Jettenia” taxa, yielding Planctomycetes members with only 94–95% similarity to “Ca. Brocadia anammoxidans” and “Ca. B. caroliniensis”, accounting for 45% of the bacterial FBBR community. The long-term operation of thermophilic anammox reactors and snapshot views on the nitrogen stoichiometry, kinetics and microbial community open up the development path of thermophilic partial nitritation/anammox. A first economic assessment highlighted that treatment of sludge reject water from thermophilic anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge may become attractive.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000517663600014	Publication Date	2020-01-10
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0043-1354	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	12.8	Times cited	5	Open Access
	Notes	; The authors acknowledge (i) the Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT Flanders) [grant number SB-141205] for funding T.G.L.V., (ii) Ghent University (BOFDOC2015000601) and the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK.CEN) for funding R.P., (iii) Bart De Gusseme from Farys/UGent for providing the hollow fiber membranes, (iv) Tim Lacoere for performing the DNA extraction and data processing of the Sanger sequencing and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing data, (v) Tim Hendrickx from Paques BV for providing the inoculum, (vi) Bert Bundervoet and Wim Groen in 't Woud from Colsen for the valuable input on the economic assessment and (vii) Joop Colsen, Stijn Van Hulle, Mark Van Loosdrecht, Erik Smolders and Leen De Gelder for their constructive discussions on this work. ;			Approved	Most recent IF: 12.8; 2020 IF: 6.942
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:165392			Serial	6449
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Spiller, M.; Muys, M.; Papini, G.; Sakarika, M.; Buyle, M.; Vlaeminck, S.E.
	Title	Environmental impact of microbial protein from potato wastewater as feed ingredient : comparative consequential life cycle assessment of three production systems and soybean meal			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2020	Publication	Water Research	Abbreviated Journal	Water Res
	Volume	171	Issue		Pages	115406
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL); Energy and Materials in Infrastructure and Buildings (EMIB)
	Abstract	Livestock production is utilizing large amounts of protein-rich feed ingredients such as soybean meal. The proven negative environmental impacts of soybean meal production incentivize the search for alternative protein sources. One promising alternative is Microbial Protein (MP), i.e. dried microbial biomass. To date, only few life cycle assessments (LCAs) for MP have been carried out, none of which has used a consequential modelling approach nor has been investigating the production of MP on food and beverage wastewater. Therefore, the objective of this study is to evaluate the environmental impact of MP production on a food and beverage effluent as a substitute for soybean meal using a consequential modelling approach. Three different types of MP production were analysed, namely consortia containing Aerobic Heterotrophic Bacteria (AHB), Microalgae and AHB (MaB), and Purple Non-Sulfur Bacteria (PNSB). The production of MP was modelled for high-strength potato wastewater (COD = 10 kg/m3) at a flow rate of 1,000 m3/day. LCA results were compared against soybean meal production for the endpoint impact categories human health, ecosystems, and resources. Soybean meal showed up to 52% higher impact on human health and up to 87% higher impact on ecosystems than MP. However, energy-related aspects resulted in an 8–88% higher resource exploitation for MP. A comparison between the MP production systems showed that MaB performed best when considering ecosystems (between 13 and 14% better) and resource (between 71 and 80% better) impact categories, while AHB and PNSB had lower values for the impact category human health (8–12%). The sensitivity analysis suggests that the conclusions drawn are robust as in the majority of 1,000 Monte Carlo runs the initial results are confirmed. In conclusion, it is suggested that MP is an alternative protein source of comparatively low environmental impact that should play a role in the future protein transition, in particular when further process improvements can be implemented and more renewable or waste energy sources will be used.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000514748900032	Publication Date	2019-12-18
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0043-1354	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor	12.8	Times cited	10	Open Access
	Notes	; The authors would like to thank (i) the MIP i-Cleantech Flanders (Milieu innovatieplatform; Environment innovation platform) project Microbial Nutrients on Demand (MicroNOD; 150360) for financial support, (ii) the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen) for supporting Gustavo Papini with a doctoral fellowship (strategic basic research; 1S38917N), (iii) Research Foundation Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen) for supporting Matthias Buyle with a post-doctoral fellowship (Postdoctoral Fellow junior; 1207520N), and (iv) Bo Weidema, Abbas Alloul, Yixing Sui and Tim Van Winckel for their insightful discussions. ;			Approved	Most recent IF: 12.8; 2020 IF: 6.942
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:164944			Serial	6509
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Vanderkerckhove, T.G.L.; Kerckhof, F.-M.; De Mulder, C.; Vlaeminck, S.E.; Boon, N.
	Title	Determining stoichiometry and kinetics of two thermophilic nitrifying communities as a crucial step in the development of thermophilic nitrogen removal			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2019	Publication	Water research	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	156	Issue		Pages	34-45
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	Nitrification and denitrification, the key biological processes for thermophilic nitrogen removal, have separately been established in bioreactors at 50 °C. A well-characterized set of kinetic parameters is essential to integrate these processes while safeguarding the autotrophs performing nitrification. Knowledge on thermophilic nitrifying kinetics is restricted to isolated or highly enriched batch cultures, which do not represent bioreactor conditions. This study characterized the stoichiometry and kinetics of two thermophilic (50 °C) nitrifying communities. The most abundant ammonia oxidizing archaea (AOA) were related to the Nitrososphaera genus, clustering relatively far from known species Nitrososphaera gargensis (95.5% 16S rRNA gene sequence identity). The most abundant nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) were related to Nitrospira calida (97% 16S rRNA gene sequence identity). The nitrification biomass yield was 0.200.24 g VSS g−1 N, resulting mainly from a high AOA yield (0.160.20 g VSS g−1 N), which was reflected in a high AOA abundance in the community (5776%) compared to NOB (511%). Batch-wise determination of decay rates (AOA: 0.230.29 d−1; NOB: 0.320.43 d−1) rendered an overestimation compared to in situ estimations of overall decay rate (0.0260.078 d−1). Possibly, the inactivation rate rather than the actual decay rate was determined in batch experiments. Maximum growth rates of AOA and NOB were 0.120.15 d−1 and 0.130.33 d−1 respectively. NOB were susceptible to nitrite, opening up opportunities for shortcut nitrogen removal. However, NOB had a similar growth rate and oxygen affinity (0.150.55 mg O2 L−1) as AOA and were resilient towards free ammonia (IC50 > 16 mg NH3-N L−1). This might complicate NOB outselection using common practices to establish shortcut nitrogen removal (SRT control; aeration control; free ammonia shocks). Overall, the obtained insights can assist in integrating thermophilic conversions and facilitate single-sludge nitrification/denitrification.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000466618400004	Publication Date	2019-03-14
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0043-1354; 1879-2448	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:158226			Serial	7798
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Alloul, A.; Wuyts, S.; Lebeer, S.; Vlaeminck, S.E.
	Title	Volatile fatty acids impacting phototrophic growth kinetics of purple bacteria : paving the way for protein production on fermented wastewater			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2019	Publication	Water research	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	152	Issue		Pages	138-147
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	Nutrient losses in our food chain severely surpass our planetary boundaries. Resource recovery can contribute to mitigation, for instance through converting wastewater resources to microbial protein for animal feed. Wastewater typically holds a complex mixture of organics, posing a challenge to selectively produce heterotrophic biomass. Ensuring the product's quality could be achieved by anaerobic generation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) followed by photoheterotrophic production of purple non-sulfur bacteria (PNSB) with infrared light. This study aimed to determine the most suitable PNSB culture for VFA conversion and map the effect of acetate, propionate, butyrate and a VFA mixture on growth and biomass yield. Six cultures were screened in batch: (i) Rhodopseudomonas palustris, (ii) Rhodobacter sphaeroides, (iii) Rhodospirillum rubrum, (iv) a 3-species synthetic community (i+ii+iii), (v) a community enriched on VFA holding Rb. capsulatus, and (vi) Rb. capsulatus (isolate v). The VFA mixture elevated growth rates with a factor 1.32.5 compared to individual VFA. Rb. capsulatus showed the highest growth rates: 1.82.2 d−1 (enriched) and 2.33.8 d−1 (isolated). In a photobioreactor (PBR) inoculated with the Rb. capsulatus enrichment, decreasing sludge retention time (SRT) yielded lower biomass concentrations, yet increased productivities, reaching 1.7 g dry weight (DW) L−1 d−1, the highest phototrophic rate reported thus far, and a growth rate of up to 5 d−1. PNSB represented 2657% of the community and the diversity index was low (37), with a dominance of Rhodopseudomonas at long SRT and Rhodobacter at short SRT. The biomass yield for all cultures, in batch and reactor cultivation, approached 1 g CODBiomass g−1 CODRemoved. An economic estimation for a two-stage approach on brewery wastewater (load 2427 kg COD d−1) showed that 0.5 d SRT allowed for the lowest production cost ( 10 kg−1 DW; equal shares for capex and opex). The findings strengthen the potential for a novel two-stage approach for resource recovery from industrial wastewater, enabling high-rate PNSB production.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000458223900013	Publication Date	2018-12-27
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0043-1354; 1879-2448	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:156462			Serial	8739
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Sfez, S.; De Meester, S.; Vlaeminck, S.E.; Dewulf, J.
	Title	Improving the resource footprint evaluation of products recovered from wastewater : a discussion on appropriate allocation in the context of circular economy			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2019	Publication	Resources, conservation and recycling	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	148	Issue		Pages	132-144
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	Shifting from a linear to a circular economy has consequences on how the sustainability of products is assessed. This is the case for products recovered from resources such as sewage sludge. The “zero-burden” assumption is commonly used in Life Cycle Assessment and considers that waste streams are burden-free, which becomes debatable when comparing waste-based with virgin material-based products in the context of the growing circular economy. If waste streams are considered as resources rather than waste, upstream burdens should be partly allocated to all products to allow a fair comparison with their virgin material-based equivalents. In this paper, five allocation approaches are applied to allocate the resource use of upstream processes (consumer goods production) to products recovered from the processing of sewage sludge in the Netherlands, which produces biogas, (phosphorus-based) chemicals and building materials. Except for the approach which allocates 100% of the impact from resource recovery processes to the preceding consumer goods, the allocation approaches show a resource use 27 to 80% higher than with the “zero-burden” assumption. In this particular case, using these allocation approaches is likely to find little support from recyclers. The producers of household products, recyclers and policy makers should find a consensus to consider the shift from a linear to a circular economy in sustainability assessment studies while avoiding discouraging the implementation of recovery technologies. This paper suggests starting the discussion with the approach which allocates the impacts from upstream processes degressively to the downstream products as it best translates the industrial ecology principles.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000472242800012	Publication Date	2019-05-28
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0921-3449	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:159887			Serial	8072
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Seuntjens, D.; Carvajal-Arroyo, J.M.; Ruopp, M.; Bunse, P.; De Mulder, C.P.; Lochmatter, S.; Agrawal, S.; Boon, N.; Lackner, S.; Vlaeminck, S.E.
	Title	High-resolution mapping and modeling of anammox recovery from recurrent oxygen exposure			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2018	Publication	Water research	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	144	Issue		Pages	522-531
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	Oxygen inhibits anammox, a bioconversion executed by anoxic ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AnAOB). Nonetheless, oxygen is mostly found in the proximity of AnAOB in nitrogen removal applications, being a substrate for nitritation. The experiments performed to date were mostly limited to batch activity tests where AnAOB activity is estimated during oxygen exposure. However, little attention has been paid to the recovery and reversibility of activity following aerobic conditions, of direct relevance for bioreactor operation. In this work, anoxic and autotrophic reactor cultivation at 20 degrees C yielded an enriched microbial community in AnAOB, consisting for 75% of a member of the genus Brocadia. High-resolution kinetic data were obtained with online ammonium measurements and further processed with a newly developed Python data pipeline. The experimentally obtained AnAOB response showed complete inhibition until micro-aerobic conditions were reached again (<0.02 mg O-2 L-1). After oxygen inhibition, AnAOB recovered gradually, with recovery times of 5-37 h to reach a steady-state activity, dependent on the perceived inhibition. The recovery immediately after inhibition was lowest when exposed to higher oxygen concentrations (range: 0.5-8 mg O-2 L-1) with long contact times (range: 9-24 h). The experimental data did not fit well with a conventional 'instant recovery' Monod-type inhibition model. Yet, the fit greatly improved by incorporating a dynamic growth rate formula accurately describing gradual activity recovery. With the upgraded model, long-term kinetic simulations for partial nitritation/anammox (PN/A) with intermittent aeration showed a decrease in growth rate compared to the instant recovery mode. These results indicate that recovery of AnAOB after oxygen exposure was previously overlooked. It is recommended to account for this effect in the intensification of partial nitritation/anammox. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000447569300051	Publication Date	2018-07-11
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0043-1354; 1879-2448	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:152910			Serial	8037
Permanent link to this record



	Author	De Paepe, J.; Lindeboom, R.E.F.; Vanoppen, M.; De Paepe, K.; Demey, D.; Coessens, W.; Lamaze, B.; Verliefde, A.R.D.; Clauwaert, P.; Vlaeminck, S.E.
	Title	Refinery and concentration of nutrients from urine with electrodialysis enabled by upstream precipitation and nitrification			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2018	Publication	Water research	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	144	Issue		Pages	76-86
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	Human urine is a valuable resource for nutrient recovery, given its high levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, but the compositional complexity of urine presents a challenge for an energy-efficient concentration and refinery of nutrients. In this study, a pilot installation combining precipitation, nitrification and electrodialysis (ED), designed for one person equivalent (1.2 L-urine d(-l)), was continuously operated for similar to 7 months. First, NaOH addition yielded calcium and magnesium precipitation, preventing scaling in ED. Second, a moving bed biofilm reactor oxidized organics, preventing downstream biofouling, and yielded complete nitrification on diluted urine (20-40%, i.e. dilution factors 5 and 2.5) at an average loading rate of 215 mg N L-1 d(-1). Batch tests demonstrated the halotolerance of the nitrifying community, with nitrification rates not affected up to an electrical conductivity of 40 mS cm(-1) and gradually decreasing, yet ongoing, activity up to 96 mS cm(-1) at 18% of the maximum rate. Next-generation 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing revealed that switching from a synthetic influent to real urine induced a profound shift in microbial community and that the AOB community was dominated by halophilic species closely related to Nitrosomonas aestuarii and Nitrosomonas marina. Third, nitrate, phosphate and potassium in the filtered (0.1 mu m) bioreactor effluent were concentrated by factors 43, 2.6 and 4.6, respectively, with ED. Doubling the urine concentration from 20% to 40% further increased the ED recovery efficiency by similar to 10%. Batch experiments at pH 6, 7 and 8 indicated a more efficient phosphate transport to the concentrate at pH 7. The newly proposed three-stage strategy opens up opportunities for energy- and chemical-efficient nutrient recovery from urine. Precipitation and nitrification enabled the long-term continuous operation of ED on fresh urine requiring minimal maintenance, which has, to the best of our knowledge, never been achieved before. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000447569300008	Publication Date	2018-07-07
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0043-1354; 1879-2448	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:152907			Serial	8468
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Zhang, Q.; Vlaeminck, S.E.; DeBarbadillo, C.; Su, C.; Al-Omari, A.; Wett, B.; Pümpel, T.; Shaw, A.; Chandran, K.; Murthy, S.; De Clippeleir, H.
	Title	Supernatant organics from anaerobic digestion after thermal hydrolysis cause direct and/or diffusional activity loss for nitritation and anammox			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2018	Publication	Water research	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	143	Issue		Pages	270-281
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	Treatment of sewage sludge with a thermal hydrolysis process (THP) followed by anaerobic digestion (AD) enables to boost biogas production and minimize residual sludge volumes. However, the reject water can cause inhibition to aerobic and anoxic ammonium-oxidizing bacteria (AerAOB & AnAOB), the two key microbial groups involved in the deammonification process. Firstly, a detailed investigation elucidated the impact of different organic fractions present in THP-AD return liquor on AerAOB and AnAOB activity. For AnAOB, soluble compounds linked to THP conditions and AD performance caused the main inhibition. Direct inhibition by dissolved organics was also observed for AerAOB, but could be overcome by treating the filtrate with extended aerobic or anaerobic incubation or with activated carbon. AerAOB additionally suffered from particulate and colloidal organics limiting the diffusion of substrates. This was resolved by improving the dewatering process through an optimized flocculant polymer dose and/or addition of coagulant polymer to better capture the large colloidal fraction, especially in case of unstable AD performance. Secondly, a new inhibition model for AerAOB included diffusion-limiting compounds based on the porter-equation, and achieved the best fit with the experimental data, highlighting that AerAOB were highly sensitive to large colloids. Overall, this paper for the first time provides separate identification of organic fractions within THP-AD filtrate causing differential types of inhibition. Moreover, it highlights the combined effect of the performance of THP, AD and dewatering on the downstream autotrophic nitrogen removal kinetics. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000443664000027	Publication Date	2018-06-18
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0043-1354; 1879-2448	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:152911			Serial	8623
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Seuntjens, D.; Han, M.; Kerckhof, F.-M.; Boon, N.; Al-Omari, A.; Takacs, I.; Meerburg, F.; De Mulder, C.; Wett, B.; Bott, C.; Murthy, S.; Carvajal Arroyo, J.M.; De Clippeleir, H.; Vlaeminck, S.E.
	Title	Pinpointing wastewater and process parameters controlling the AOB to NOB activity ratio in sewage treatment plants			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2018	Publication	Water research	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	138	Issue		Pages	37-46
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	Even though nitrification/denitrification is a robust technology to remove nitrogen from sewage, economic incentives drive its future replacement by shortcut nitrogen removal processes. The latter necessitates high potential activity ratios of ammonia oxidizing to nitrite oxidizing bacteria (rAOB/rNOB). The goal of this study was to identify which wastewater and process parameters can govern this in reality. Two sewage treatment plants (STP) were chosen based on their inverse rAOB/rNOB values (at 20 °C): 0.6 for Blue Plains (BP, Washington DC, US) and 1.6 for Nieuwveer (NV, Breda, NL). Disproportional and dissimilar relationships between AOB or NOB relative abundances and respective activities pointed towards differences in community and growth/activity limiting parameters. The AOB communities showed to be particularly different. Temperature had no discriminatory effect on the nitrifiers' activities, with similar Arrhenius temperature dependences (ΘAOB = 1.10, ΘNOB = 1.061.07). To uncouple the temperature effect from potential limitations like inorganic carbon, phosphorus and nitrogen, an add-on mechanistic methodology based on kinetic modelling was developed. Results suggest that BP's AOB activity was limited by the concentration of inorganic carbon (not by residual N and P), while NOB experienced less limitation from this. For NV, the sludge-specific nitrogen loading rate seemed to be the most prevalent factor limiting AOB and NOB activities. Altogether, this study shows that bottom-up mechanistic modelling can identify parameters that influence the nitrification performance. Increasing inorganic carbon in BP could invert its rAOB/rNOB value, facilitating its transition to shortcut nitrogen removal.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000431747300005	Publication Date	2017-11-24
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0043-1354; 1879-2448	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:149976			Serial	8385
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	Author	Broos, W.; Wittner, N.; Dries, J.; Vlaeminck, S.E.; Gunde-Cimerman, N.; Cornet, I.
	Title	Rhodotorula kratochvilovae outperforms Cutaneotrichosporon oleaginosum in the valorisation of lignocellulosic wastewater to microbial oil			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2024	Publication	Process biochemistry (1991)	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	137	Issue		Pages	229-238
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL); Biochemical Wastewater Valorization & Engineering (BioWaVE)
	Abstract	Rhodotorula kratochvilovae has shown to be a promising species for microbial oil production from lignin-derived compounds. Yet, information on R. kratochvilovae’s detoxification and microbial oil production is scarce. This study investigated the growth and microbial oil production on the phenolic-containing effluent from poplar steam explosion and its detoxification with five R. kratochvilovae strains (EXF11626, EXF9590, EXF7516, EXF3697, EXF3471) and compared them with Cutaneotrichosporon oleaginosum. The R. kratochvilovae strains reached a maximum growth rate up to four times higher than C. oleaginosum. Furthermore, all R. kratochvilovae strains generally degraded phenolics more rapidly and to a larger extent than C. oleaginosum. However, the diluted substrate limited the lipid production by all strains as the maximum lipid content and titre were 10.5% CDW and 0.40 g/L, respectively. Therefore, future work should focus on increasing lipid production by using advanced fermentation strategies and stimulating the enzyme excretion by the yeasts for complex substrate breakdown.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos		Publication Date	2024-01-13
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	1359-5113	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access	Not_Open_Access
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:202365			Serial	9087
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	Author	Peng, L.; Carvajal-Arroyo, J.M.; Seuntjens, D.; Prat, D.; Colica, G.; Pintucci, C.; Vlaeminck, S.E.
	Title	Smart operation of nitritation/denitritation virtually abolishes nitrous oxide emission during treatment of co-digested pig slurry centrate			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2017	Publication	Water research	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	127	Issue		Pages	1-10
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	The implementation of nitritation/denitritation (Nit/DNit) as alternative to nitrification/denitrification (N/DN) is driven by operational cost savings, e.g. 1.0-1.8 EUR/ton slurry treated. However, as for any biological nitrogen removal process, Nit/DNit can emit the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). Challenges remain in understanding formation mechanisms and in mitigating the emissions, particularly at a low ratio of organic carbon consumption to nitrogen removal (CODrem/N-rem). In this study, the centrate (centrifuge supernatant) from anaerobic co-digestion of pig slurry was treated in a sequencing batch reactor. The process removed approximately 100% of ammonium a satisfactory nitrogen loading rate (0.4 g N/L/d), with minimum nitrite and nitrate in the effluent. Substantial N2O emission (around 17% of the ammonium nitrogen loading) was observed at the baseline operational condition (dissolved oxygen, DO, levels averaged at 0.85 mg O-2/L; CODrem/N-rem of 2.8) with similar to 68% of the total emission contributed by nitritation. Emissions increased with higher nitrite accumulation and lower organic carbon to nitrogen ratio. Yet, higher DO levels (similar to 2.2 mg O-2/L) lowered the aerobic N2O emission and weakened the dependency on nitrite concentration, suggesting a shift in N2O production pathway. The most effective N2O mitigation strategy combined intermittent patterns of aeration, anoxic feeding and anoxic carbon dosage, decreasing emission by over 99% (down to similar to 0.12% of the ammonium nitrogen loading). Without anaerobic digestion, mitigated Nit/DNit decreases the operational carbon footprint with about 80% compared to N/DN. With anaerobic digestion included, about 4 times more carbon is sequestered. In conclusion, the low CODrem/N-rem feature of Nit/DNit no longer offsets its environmental sustainability provided the process is smartly operated. (c) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000418219000001	Publication Date	2017-09-30
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0043-1354; 1879-2448	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:148521			Serial	8548
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	Author	Coppens, J.; Meers, E.; Boon, N.; Buysse, J.; Vlaeminck, S.E.
	Title	Follow the N and P road : high-resolution nutrient flow analysis of the Flanders region as precursor for sustainable resource management			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2016	Publication	Resources, conservation and recycling	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	115	Issue		Pages	9-21
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	Resource-efficient nutrient management is key to secure food production in the context of a growing global population, rising resource scarcity and increasing pressure on the environment. To map the potential towards increasing nutrient use efficiencies and reduce environmental losses, a high-resolution insight of the nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) nutrient streams is pivotal. In this study, a substance flow analysis for N and P is presented for the nutrient intensive region of Flanders (6,211,065 inhabitants) in Belgium for the year 2009. A set of 160 nutrient fluxes was quantified throughout 21 economic and environmental compartments, with a particular focus on 10 waste management processes. A total nutrient load of 20 kg N cap(-1) yr(-1) (ca. 73% to the air and 28% to surface waters) and 0.53 kg P cap(-1) yr(-1) (to surface waters) is emitted to the environment; with crop and livestock production as the main contributors (49% of N and 36% of P). The food supply chain revealed a fertilizer-to-consumer efficiency of 14% for N as well as for P, with important losses embedded in waste streams such as excess manure. Advanced manure and waste processing facilities nevertheless offer the opportunity for enhanced nutrient recycling to increase the nutrient use efficiencies and reduce the dependency of inorganic fertilizers. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000384852500002	Publication Date	2016-08-30
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0921-3449	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:137229			Serial	7977
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	Author	Zhang, Q.; De Clippeleir, H.; Su, C.; Al-Omari, A.; Wett, B.; Vlaeminck, S.E.; Murthy, S.
	Title	Deammonification for digester supernatant pretreated with thermal hydrolysis : overcoming inhibition through process optimization			Type	A1 Journal article
	Year	2016	Publication	Applied microbiology and biotechnology	Abbreviated Journal
	Volume	100	Issue	12	Pages	5595-5606
	Keywords	A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology (DuEL)
	Abstract	The thermal hydrolysis process (THP) has been proven to be an excellent pretreatment step for an anaerobic digester (AD), increasing biogas yield and decreasing sludge disposal. The goal of this work was to optimize deammonification for efficient nitrogen removal despite the inhibition effects caused by the organics present in the THP-AD sludge filtrate (digestate). Two sequencing batch reactors were studied treating conventional digestate and THP-AD digestate, respectively. Improved process control based on higher dissolved oxygen set-point (1 mg O-2/L) and longer aeration times could achieve successful treatment of THP-AD digestate. This increased set-point could overcome the inhibition effect on aerobic ammonium-oxidizing bacteria (AerAOB), potentially caused by particulate and colloidal organics. Moreover, based on the mass balance, anoxic ammonium-oxidizing bacteria (AnAOB) contribution to the total nitrogen removal decreased from 97 +/- A 1 % for conventional to 72 +/- A 5 % for THP-AD digestate treatment, but remained stable by selective AnAOB retention using a vibrating screen. Overall, similar total nitrogen removal rates of 520 +/- A 28 mg N/L/day at a loading rate of 600 mg N/L/day were achieved in the THP-AD reactor compared to the conventional digestate treatment operating at low dissolved oxygen (DO) (0.38 +/- A 0.10 mg O-2/L).
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Wos	000376456700033	Publication Date	2016-02-19
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	0175-7598; 1432-0614	ISBN		Additional Links	UA library record; WoS full record; WoS citing articles
	Impact Factor		Times cited		Open Access
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	UA @ admin @ c:irua:134166			Serial	7755
Permanent link to this record