†Laboratory of Microbial Ecology and Technology (LabMET), Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Gent, Belgium.
‡Avecom NV, Industrieweg 122P, 9032 Wondelgem, Belgium.
Environ Sci Technol. 2015 May 5;49(9):5247-54. doi: 10.1021/es505432w. Epub 2015 Apr 28.
The increase in the world population, vulnerability of conventional crop production to climate change, and population shifts to megacities justify a re-examination of current methods of converting reactive nitrogen to dinitrogen gas in sewage and waste treatment plants. Indeed, by up-grading treatment plants to factories in which the incoming materials are first deconstructed to units such as ammonia, carbon dioxide and clean minerals, one can implement a highly intensive and efficient microbial resynthesis process in which the used nitrogen is harvested as microbial protein (at efficiencies close to 100%). This can be used for animal feed and food purposes. The technology for recovery of reactive nitrogen as microbial protein is available but a change of mindset needs to be achieved to make such recovery acceptable.
世界人口的增长、传统作物生产对气候变化的脆弱性以及人口向特大城市的转移,都证明有必要重新审视当前在污水处理厂和废物处理厂中将活性氮转化为氮气的方法。事实上,通过将处理厂升级为工厂,将进入的材料首先分解为氨、二氧化碳和清洁矿物质等单元,可以实施一种高度密集和高效的微生物再合成过程,将用过的氮作为微生物蛋白回收(效率接近 100%)。这可以用于动物饲料和食品用途。回收活性氮作为微生物蛋白的技术已经可用,但需要改变思维模式,使其回收被接受。