Industrially today, biodiesel is produced by processing of vegetable oil or animal fat which have several drawbacks, essentially high cost, serious emission and combustion characteristics, and alarming concerns related to “food vs. fuel” competition.
Marie-Louise Uwizeye, a doctoral candidate at the University of Luxembourg, is designing a bioreactor for enhanced growth and lipid accumulation of a microorganism responsible for generation of sewage sludge rich in lipids. Such bioreactor is first being developed in the lab and subsequently upscaled, implemented and tested in a real sewage treatment plant (Audun le Tiche, France).
The possibility to produce biodiesel from wastewater derived lipids (fat, oil and grease) is investigated at the University of Luxembourg, group of Urban Water Management, within the Interregional European Project WOW!. The current recovery and reuse of wastewater-lipids is limited to biogas production in digesters. The residual (majority) of lipid potential in sewage is being disposed by incineration or deposition in landfill.