Fonoll Almansa, Xavier

Xavier Fonoll Almansa holds a PhD in Engineering and Advanced Technologies from the University of Barcelona and is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. His research combines Microbial Community Engineering, Environmental and Chemical Engineering to develop new technologies that work towards the recovery of resources from urban and agricultural organic waste streams. Two of the processes that Dr. Fonoll Almansa group is working on are anaerobic digestion and hydrothermal liquefaction

Titles from this speaker

A Surveillance Study: Per-and polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Biosolids

Abstract

This surveillance study was aimed at understanding concentrations of PFAS in biosolids. To address this objective, samples were collected from of twenty-five wastewater resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) throughout North America over a six-month period. A minimum of two samples were collected from each WRRF: Location A – sludge entering the stabilization process, and Location B – biosolids (post-stabilization sludge). Modified EPA Method 537.1 was used to analyze 40 PFAS compounds in these samples by Eurofins Laboratories. Only 20% of the measured PFAS compounds were detected in the biosolids samples. Three major solid stabilization methods were evaluated, anaerobic digestion, incineration, and chemical stabilization. Anaerobic digestion and chemical stabilization indicated increases in PFAS in Location B in comparison to Location A, except for in the case of incineration, where ash samples (Location B) did not contain any of the measured PFAS compounds above the method detection limit.

Per-and polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) are being extensively studied in all the matrices due to their ubiquitous presence in the environment and negative human health impacts. This study conducted a survey of twenty-five wastewater resource recovery facilities (WRRF) throughout North America over a six-month period to evaluate for PFAS other emerging contaminants in biosolids. Among the 40 PFAS compounds evaluated, only 20% were detected in biosolid samples. Concentrations of the detected PFA

SpeakerOza, Shubhashini

Presentation time

13:30:00

13:55:00

Session time

13:30:00

15:00:00

SessionUnderstanding and Addressing PFAS in Biosolids

Session locationRoom N426b - Level 4

TopicMunicipal Wastewater Treatment Design, PFAS

Author(s)

Oza, Shubhashini

Author(s)S. Oza 1; S. Estahbanati 2 ; J. Norton 3; N. Hontoria 4; X. Fonoll Almansa 5; M. Khan 6; C. Muller 7; K. Bell 8; J. Hatfield 4; S. Oza 1;

Author affiliation(s)Brown & Caldwell 1; Brown & Caldwell 2 ; Great Lake Water Authority 3; Brown & Caldwell 4; Great Lake Water Authority 5; Great Lake Water Authority 6; Brown & Caldwell 7; Brown & Caldwell 8; Brown & Caldwell 4; Brown & Caldwell 1;

SourceProceedings of the Water Environment Federation

Document typeConference Paper

PublisherWater Environment Federation

Print publication date Oct 2023

DOI10.2175/193864718825159011

Volume / Issue

Content sourceWEFTEC

Word count10

Description: Feasibility Study for the Implementation of Hydrothermal Liquefaction in Southeast...

Feasibility Study for the Implementation of Hydrothermal Liquefaction in Southeast Michigan: Considering Environmental, Economic, and Social Aspects

Abstract

Introduction: While some sectors can be fully decarbonized through the implementation of renewable energy sources, the decarbonization pathways for the wastewater sector are more complex. Resource recovery through sludge management can be an option to reduce GHG emissions in water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs). Of all the sludge produced in the U.S., 22% is being landfilled, 16% is being incinerated, and 52% is being land applied (with 80% of the sludge being digested before land application).[1] New regulations and concerns about emerging contaminants such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are creating challenges and increasing costs for land application, the most used disposal strategy. Thus, it is critical to implement new processes to maximize resource recovery and remove emerging contaminants without increasing overall costs and GHG emissions. HTL is a promising technology that can reduce sludge volume by 90%, recover phosphorous, remove emerging contaminants, and convert 65% of the energy content in the sludge into biocrude oil, a precursor for aviation fuel.[2,3] A large-scale adaption of HTL for WRRFs requires an evaluation of the economic, environmental and social impacts of HTL. Here we premier the first evaluation of technical feasibility and assessment of economic, environmental and social impacts related to the implementation of HTL in the WRRF of the City of Detroit (GLWA), which operates one of the largest WRRF in the nation. The feasibility study consisted of three tasks. Task 1 assessed the availability and detailed characterization of waste streams. Task 2 conducted community engagement (hearing from the community and professional stakeholders). Task 3 involved Economic and environmental analysis. GLWA generates 320 dry ton of sludge per day. 240 dry ton/day of sludge is being converted in class A-EQ biosolids for land application through a thermal process and the rest (80 dry ton/day), is incinerated. Our feasibility assessment focused on identifying three promising scenarios for replacing incineration at GLWA with HTL. Furthermore, one of the scenarios was compared from an environmental and economic perspective with two other sludge management options (current GLWA sludge management practices and the replacement of the incinerator with AD). Current GLWA sludge management practices GLWA generates 320 dry ton of sludge per day. 240 dry ton/day of sludge is being converted in class A-EQ biosolids for land application through a thermal process and the rest (80 dry ton/day), is incinerated. Our feasibility assessment focuses on replacing the incinerator with HTL. Task 1: Availability and detailed characterization of waste streams The number of multiple types of organic wastes was quantified in the City of Detroit and its surroundings (Table 1). Samples of different types of wastes were characterized by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to evaluate them as a substrate for HTL. For each waste PNNL evaluated its pumpability and the solids and ash percentage. Furthermore, Proximate, FAMES and ICP analyses were conducted on the different wastes collected. This data was used for subsequent tasks related to HTL modeling, and economic and environmental assessment. Task 2: Community engagement (hearing from the community and professional stakeholders) We performed two separate workshops: (1) a community workshop with neighbors from Detroit and (2) a professional workshop with personnel from wastewater utilities and refineries, consultants and waste haulers. These workshops collected relevant data for our environmental and economic analysis. The community workshop identified sustainability metrics that were relevant for the neighbors of the WRRF in Detroit. The workshop also revealed the community's perspective on the HTL co-substrates. For example, the community groups preferred food waste to be diverted to composting instead of HTL, which was taken into consideration when determining the three best scenarios to implement HTL. Furthermore, a survey was sent to the neighbors in Delray (neighborhood close to WRRF) to know their opinion about resource recovery from wastes. Overall, the survey showed that neighbors have a positive perception about resource recovery and HTL (Figure 1). The professional stakeholders expressed benefits and risks HTL can have for their type of industry. The benefits are related to economic incentives of biocrude, the reduction of solids and the potential to destroy emerging contaminants. The risks they expressed were related to the willingness of refineries to accept the crude and the safety and operation of high temperature and pressure systems. Specially, having personnel able to work with such systems are not abundant in WRRFs. Task 3: Economic and environmental analysis Task 3.1: Three most optimal waste-to-energy scenarios involving HTL Based on wet waste resources and logistic analyses in the Detroit area, communication with project team, community groups and stakeholders, and economic and environmental analyses, three blending scenarios made through our selection of optimal waste-to-energy scenarios (see Table 2). Table 3 and Figure 2 show the economic and environmental indicators for the three blending scenarios. As per the GREET model, the potential avoided emissions for food waste and sludge are 1238 and 735 kg CO2e/dry ton, respectively. In the LCOD calculation of scenarios involving food waste, a $36/wet ton tipping fee is assumed for food waste along with the transportation costs associated of delivering food waste to the HTL plant gate. In Scenario 3, 35 dry tons per day of food waste are mixed with 110 dry tons of sludge to generate biocrude. Increasing the utilization of food waste leads to enhancements in environmental indicators like GHG, WI, NRRU, and SW, albeit at the expense of a higher LCOD. Task 3.2: Comparison among current practices, AD and HTL For this task we compared scenario 1 from task 3.1 with GLWA current practices and with a scenario where GLWA replaces the incineration with AD. Table 4 and 5 show the life cycle inventories and the sustainability indicator values, respectively. Compared to AD alternatives, HTL offers better energy efficiency and production, as well as lower levelized disposal costs and water intensity. However, the AD scenario has the lowest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions among the three scenarios because part of the generated biogas is assumed to heat the digesters, eliminating the need for additional natural gas in the AD process.

This paper was presented at the WEF Residuals & Biosolids and Innovations in Treatment Technology Joint Conference, May 6-9, 2025.

SpeakerFonoll Almansa, Xavier

Presentation time

10:55:00

11:15:00

Session time

10:15:00

11:45:00

SessionAdvanced Thermal Processes for Sustainable Biosolids Management: Case Studies and Innovations

Session number25

Session locationBaltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

TopicBiosolids treatment, business case evaluation, Hydrothermal Liquefaction, Innovative Technology, PFAS/Emerging Contaminants, Sludge treatment

Author(s)

Fonoll Almansa, Xavier, Norton, John, Marcus, Andrew, Wehner, William, Li, Shuyun, Jiang, Yuan, Seiple, Timothy, Miller, Carol, Wager, Yongli

Author(s)X. Fonoll Almansa1, J. Norton2, A. Marcus2, W. Wehner1, S. Li3, Y. Jiang3, T. Seiple C. Miller4, Y. Wager4

Author affiliation(s)University of Texas at Austin, 1Great Lakes Water Authority, 2, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 3Wayne State University, 4

SourceProceedings of the Water Environment Federation

Document typeConference Paper

PublisherWater Environment Federation

Print publication date May 2025

DOI10.2175/193864718825159753

Volume / Issue

Content sourceResiduals and Biosolids Conference

Word count18

Description: Reducing the Toxicity in Hydrothermal Liquefaction aqueous phase using a New...

Reducing the Toxicity in Hydrothermal Liquefaction aqueous phase using a New Anaerobic Digestion Bioreactor to maximize resource recovery from sludge

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) have recovered energy from waste carbon mostly through Anaerobic Digestion (AD). However, only 10% of the WRRFs in the US have implemented energy recovery resulting in very low sludge-derived biogas utilization nationwide (Jones et al., 2019; Shen et al., 2015). Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) can recover more energy from sludge (70% of the energy content from sludge) than AD, remove emerging contaminants and, due to its low footprint (retention time 5 to 60 min), it can be applied at a wide variety of WRRF scales, expanding resource recovery in the US (Basar et al., 2021; Seiple et al., 2020). However, HTL generates a toxic aqueous by-product (HTL-AB) that cannot be safely circulated into the headworks of the WRRF (Watson et al., 2020). Here, the largest WRRF in the US (Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA)) and a national lab (Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL)) created a multidisciplinary partnership to develop a research project to assess the use of a novel Recirculating Anaerobic Dynamic Membrane Bioreactor (RAnDMBR) to transform the HTL-AB into a non-toxic low-strength (<1,000 mg COD/L) effluent to maximize resource recovery at WRRFs. MATERIALS AND METHODS A mixture of primary and secondary sludge (7:1; wet weight) with a 75% moisture content was collected at GLWA WRRF (Detroit, USA) and transported with a refrigerated truck to PNNL. At PNNL the sludge was processed through an HTL system. The system processed the sludge at 12 L/h at 350 oC, 2900 psig and at a liquid hourly space velocity of 4 L/L/h. The HTL-AB produced was sent to GLWA for testing. At GLWA the HTL-AB is being processed through a 5-L (working volume) RAnDMBR. The design of the RAnDMBR involves a tree-like structure (Figure 1) surrounded by a stainless-steel mesh of 25 Î¼m pore size. The tree-like structure provides a very high surface area in the system and the bioreactor is constantly recirculating the partially treated wastewater from the HTL through the mesh, promoting the formation of an enhanced biofilm (dynamic membrane). Biofilms have been shown to be useful when degrading recalcitrant compounds present in HTL-AB due to the promotion of direct interspecies electron transfer and increase in the microbial activity (Smith et al., 2015; Usman et al., 2019). The pore size of the mesh (25 Î¼m) is big enough so the RAnDMBR can be operated at low transmembrane pressures while producing a high-quality final permeate. The dynamic membrane also allows the system to operate under high solid retention times while operating at a lower hydraulic retention time (HRT) (<10 days) than conventional AD (15-40 days), minimizing the overall footprint. The effluent from an anaerobic digester co-digesting food waste and sewage sludge was used as inoculum for the RAnDMBR which has been processing diluted HTL-AB for the last 120 days under mesophilic conditions (37oC). The reactor operating conditions can be seen in Table 1. In this paper, the reactor performance is presented through pH, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and volatile fatty acids (VFA) concentrations measurements (APHA et al., 2012). Biogas production was measured daily, and its composition was determined with a gas analyser (SWR 100, MRU). The presence of different soluble compounds was also measured through GC/MS. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS To not overwhelm the microbial community during start-up, a dilution factor of 30 was applied on the HTL-AB with DI water. However, the propionate/acetate ratio was constantly increasing and the pH decreasing during the first 25 days of the experiment (Figure 2). This is a sign of potential inhibition of the syntrophic populations, something common when HTL-AB is processed through AD (Watson et al., 2020). To avoid problems due to inhibition of the microbial community, the HRT was increased from 6.4 ± 2.3 days to 11.5 ± 3.5 days at day 25 and the recirculation rate was decreased on day 36 from 3.3 ± 1.0 L/(LR*h) to 0.8 ± 0.3 L/(LR*h). Following this change, the bioreactor performance improved, and the pH increased up to 7.3 ± 0.1 and the propionate/actetate ratio decreased to 0.03. The system has been stable since the change, even after changing the dilution factor of the HTL-AB from 30 to 15 on day 66 (pH=7.3 ± 0.1 and VFA<35 mg COD/L. The COD removal has been constant (68 ± 3%; last 30 days average) (Figure 3). In most of the studies where AD configurations were used for HTL-AB, COD removals were between 14-67% with feedstock concentrations between 0.75-20 g COD/L. Therefore, the presence of an enhanced biofilm in the RAnDMBR is likely promoting high COD removal. The GC-MS data show that most of the components in HTL-AB are being removed (Figure 4). However, nitrogen organic compounds (NOC) like pyrrolidine or pyrazine are still present in the effluent of the RAnDMBR. While we still don't know the concentrations of these compounds, we can assume that NOCs would be removed during the activated sludge process when the effluent of the RAnDMBR is recirculated to the headworks (Van Der Zee and Villaverde, 2005). Moreover, the methane yield during the experiment was 0.26 ± 0.03 LCH4/gCODfed (Figure 3), also quite high when compared to the values obtained by systems using AD for HTL-AB treatment (Watson et al., 2020). CONCLUSIONS AND ONGOING WORK RAnDMBR is a promising technology for HTL-AB treatment and the combination of HTL-RAnDMBR could be a leading-edge application to promote resource recovery at WRRFs. This work is still ongoing with the goal of treating undiluted HTL-AB. During the ongoing work we are also studying the microbial populations present in the biofilm and the effect that the recirculation rate has on COD removal and on the removal of NOCs. REFERENCES APHA, AWWA, WEF, 2012. Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 22nd ed. Washington DC. Basar, I.A., Liu, H., Carrere, H., Trably, E., Eskicioglu, C., 2021. A Review on Key Design and Operational Parameters to Optimize and Develop Hydrothermal Liquefaction of Biomass for Biorefinery Applications. Green Chem. 1404&1446. Jones, C.A., Coker, C., Kirk, K., Reynolds, L., 2019. Food Waste Co-Digestion at Water Resource Recovery Facilities Business Case Analysis. Seiple, T.E., Skaggs, R.L., Fillmore, L., Coleman, A.M., 2020. Municipal wastewater sludge as a renewable, cost-effective feedstock for transportation biofuels using hydrothermal liquefaction. J. Environ. Manage. 270. Shen, Y., Linville, J.L., Urgun-Demirtas, M., Mintz, M.M., Snyder, S.W., 2015. An overview of biogas production and utilization at full-scale wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the United States: Challenges and opportunities towards energy-neutral WWTPs. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 50, 346&362. Smith, a. L., Skerlos, S.J., Raskin, L., 2015. Anaerobic membrane bioreactor treatment of domestic wastewater at psychrophilic temperatures ranging from 15 °C to 3 °C. Environ. Sci. Water Res. Technol. 1, 56&64. Usman, M., Chen, H., Chen, K., Ren, S., Clark, J.H., Fan, J., Luo, G., Zhang, S., 2019. Characterization and utilization of aqueous products from hydrothermal conversion of biomass for bio-oil and hydro-char production: A review. Green Chem. 21, 1553&1572. Van Der Zee, F.P., Villaverde, S., 2005. Combined anaerobic-aerobic treatment of azo dyes - A short review of bioreactor studies. Water Res. 39, 1425&1440. Watson, J., Wang, T., Si, B., Chen, W.T., Aierzhati, A., Zhang, Y., 2020. Valorization of hydrothermal liquefaction aqueous phase: pathways towards commercial viability. Prog. Energy Combust. Sci. 77, 100819.

This paper was presented at the WEF Residuals and Biosolids Conference in Columbus, Ohio, May 24-27, 2022.

SpeakerFonoll Almansa, Xavier

Presentation time

16:15:00

16:45:00

Session time

13:30:00

16:45:00

Session number14

Session locationGreater Columbus Convention Center, Columbus, Ohio

TopicAnaerobic Membrane Bioreactor, Biocrude, Hydrothermal Liquefaction

Author(s)

X. Fonoll Almansa

Author(s)X. Fonoll Almansa1; A. Schmidt2; A. Busch3; M. Thorson4; J. Norton5

Author affiliation(s)GLWA; 1Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; 2Residuals and Biosolids Speaker; 3Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; 4Great Lakes Water Authority; 5

SourceProceedings of the Water Environment Federation

Document typeConference Paper

PublisherWater Environment Federation

Print publication date May 2022

DOI10.2175/193864718825158444

Volume / Issue

Content sourceResiduals and Biosolids

Word count21