Advanced Bioprocess Development Limited
ABD
Advanced Bioprocess Development Limited (ABD) develops processes for water and wastewater treatment, although its expanded bed biofilm reactor (EBBR) technology can also be used for fermentation or biocatalysis.
ID: 273024727300-68
Lobbying Activity
Response to Strategic approach to pharmaceuticals in the environment
26 May 2017
I am providing feedback through my experience and expertise as a researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) and Managing Director of MMU spin-out company, Advanced Bioprocess Development Ltd. (ABD). These views do not necessarily represent those of MMU.
ABD has developed a tertiary process for wastewater treatment that removes ammonia, organic matter (BOD), suspended solids, coliform bacteria, and oestrogens E1, E2 & EE2. It is likely that the oestrogens are removed through hydroxylation by ammonia mono-oxygenase, the enzyme responsible for oxidation of ammonia to hydroxylamine by ammonia oxidising bacteria. Independent analysis of two pairs of samples (influent and effluent, taken two weeks apart, one pair in the morning and the other in the afternoon) from a pilot-scale process operating at a large, municipal wastewater treatment works in Manchester demonstrated up to 59% removal of EE2, compared to only 3% in a nitrifying activated sludge plant at a different site but sampled and analysed by the same individuals and methods. It is my contention that the high concentration of ammonia-oxidising bacteria in ABD's process was largely responsible for the removal of EE2.
ABD has made improvements to expanded bed biofilm reactor technology, which is a method of process intensification that allows the growth of a complex microbial community as a biofilm on small (1 mm) particles of porous carbon (ABDite(R)). This technology allows a high concentration of active cells to be retained in the bioreactor, which in turn allows a high degree of contact between pollutant molecules and the microbes. ABD's EBBR provides up to 2,400 m2 biofilm / m3 of bioreactor and a biomass concentration of up to 42 kg / m3, both of which are considerably higher than other technologies can provide. Compared to a conventional activated sludge process with 3 kg biomass (VLSS) / m3 and a hydraulic residence time of 8 h, ABD's EBBR (42 kg/m3; 1 h) provides 112 times the pollutant-microbe contact time (/kg_biomass/m3_bioreactor/h).
ABD is now preparing an application for H2020 SME Instrument funding to validate commercial prototype EBBRs in different climate areas of Europe. As part of this project, we will monitor the inlet and outlet concentrations of oestrogens and other priority substances, to determine the effectiveness of this innovative technology at removing them.
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