Skip to main content

Dissertation: Anaerobic treatment of industrial waste gases and wastewater reduce carbon footprint and facilitate resource recovery

Tampere University
LocationKorkeakoulunkatu 8, Tampere
Hervanta Campus, Festia FA032 (Pieni sali 1)
23.5.2019 6.15–10.00
LanguageEnglish
Entrance feeFree of charge
The anaerobic treatment of methanol-rich waste streams from the chemical pulping industry are enabled by resource recovery through biogas or volatile fatty acid (VFA) production. In her doctoral dissertation, Tejaswini Eregowda found resource recovery to be a technically viable option.

​With a global drive towards reducing the carbon footprint from greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, anaerobic treatment and resource recovery are potential approaches for handling the industrial effluents that are rich in organic carbon.

In her doctoral dissertation, MSc Tejaswini Eregowda focused on the anaerobic treatment of methanol-rich industrial effluents. She examined the removal rates of gas-phase methanol and the treatment of a methanol-rich industrial effluent viz. foul condensate from the chemical pulping industry. She compared the resource recovery as biogas or volatile fatty acid (VFA) production and pursued VFA recovery using anion exchange resins.

Eregowda presents various hybrid approaches for the treatment and utilization of methanol-rich gaseous and liquid effluents of a chemical pulping mill for VFA production and recovery. Additionally, gas-phase methanol can be utilized as a carbon source and electron donor for the reduction of sulfur and selenium oxyanion-rich wastewater.

“When treating foul condensate, resource recovery through biogas production is technically more viable than VFA production. With gaseous effluents, such as non-condensable gases, resource recovery through VFA production is preferable. As a downstream process, the recovery of individual VFAs can be achieved through sequential adsorption using different types of ion exchange resins,” Eregowda summarises.

The doctoral dissertation of MSc Tejaswini Eregowda in the field of environmental engineering titled Anaerobic treatment and resource recovery from methanol rich waste gases and wastewaters will be publicly examined in the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences at Tampere University at 9:15 am on 23 May 2019 in room FA032 (Pieni sali 1) (address: Korkeakoulunkatu 8, Festia, Hervanta Campus, Tampere University, Finland). The Opponents will be Professor Bo H Svensson from Linköping University (Sweden), Professor Largus Angenent from the University of Tübingen (Germany) and Dr. Tanja Radu from the Loughborough University (UK). The Custos will be Professor Bo H Svensson from Linköping University (Sweden).

Tejaswini Eregowda’s doctoral research was conducted in the framework of the Advanced Biological Waste to Energy Technologies (ABWET) Innovative Training Network (ITN) European Joint Degree Programme. ABWET has four partner organizations: University of Cassino and Southern Lazio (Italy, coordinator), Université Paris-Est (France), IHE Delft (the Netherlands) and Tampere University (Finland). The Examination Committee of Tejaswini Eregowda’s doctoral dissertation includes one representative from each partner organization.

Tejaswini Eregowda comes from Bengaluru (India) and works as a PhD fellow in the Department of Environmental Engineering and Water Technology at IHE Delft Institute of Water Education in the Netherlands.

The dissertation is available in the faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (Konetalo building K2222A) at Tampere University and by request from suvi.ikonen [at] tuni.fi (suvi[dot]ikonen[at]tuni[dot]fi)

Further information:  Tejaswini Eregowda, tel. +91 748 395 8600, tejaswini.gowda.me [at] gmail.com (tejaswini[dot]gowda[dot]me[at]gmail[dot]com)

Watch the defence online here.