The anaerobic treatment approach towards a more sustainable and robust environmental protection.
Anaerobic biological degradation processes (AnDe), when properly integrated with complementary biological and physical methods, constitute the ideal route to a sustainable protection of the life environment. However unfortunately for a smooth implementation of AnDe-processes drastic conceptual innovations are urgently needed in the field of environment protection; the present highly centralized approach in the public sanitation sector (CENSA) need to be substituted by a concept that focuses on optimal decentralization, problem prevention, self-sufficiency, resource recovery and reuse, with coupling to agriculture practices at or nearby the location (DESAR). Although a variety of excellent DESAR-based systems already are available and anaerobic digestion and treatment methods have found successful full-scale application for waste and wastewater treatment, there still is potential to improve these systems. Interesting questions to be elucidated are the effect of trace elements and macro-nutrients, the sludge immobilization phenomenon and the effect of environmental factors like temperature, pressure, mixing. Therefore tentatively a lot of challenging interdisciplinary research is waiting to attain further profitable innovations.
Lettinga
G
G
LeAF-foundation, Sub-department of Environmental Technology, Wageningen University, Wageningen, Netherlands. Gatze.Lettinga@wur.nl
D000383:Agriculture; D001421:Bacteria, Anaerobic / Q000378:metabolism*; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D019149:Bioreactors; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods*