Biogas from wastewater sludges

Wastewater treatment generates organic sludges that pose a great opportunity for biogas generation if treated by anaerobic digestion (AD). This course will explore the nature of those sludges and the biogas yields attainable with different AD flowsheets. We will also investigate opportunities to boost biogas generation by implementing thermal or biological pre-treatments and how these can impact digestate quality and its uses. The ultimate goal of this training is to provide insights on biogas generation from wastewater sludges, focussing on understanding full-treatment flowsheets.  We will be covering:

• Wastewater sludge properties
• The need of thickening wastewater sludges to enable treatment in AD
• Conventional AD designs and the role of pre-treatments in increasing biogas generation
• Insights into digestate uses and challenges

The session will finish with an interactive flowsheet exercise, providing attendants with an opportunity to apply their learning to deliver a full treatment solution for wastewater sludges.

Yadira Bajon Fernandez

Yadira is a Senior Lecturer at Cranfield University, where she leads the bioresources treatment research within the Water Science Institute. She has developed expertise and a growing international profile in applied and fundamental research on sludge and waste treatment, with particular emphasis on increasing asset resilience and value recovery through implementation of biorefinery concepts; which directly contributes to the UK’s Carbon and Circular Economy targets. Yadira is recognised for her bioresources strategy-setting work, supporting the UK water sector delivering their NetZero targets and keeping resilience over uncertainties on the future of sludge to land recycling. She is a council member of the world biogas association (WBA), serves as bioresources expert for one of the UK’s water utilities H&S Advisory Board and acts as the Awards and Bursaries Coordinator for IChemE’s Water Special Interest Group.