Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) is a premier institute of science and technology established in 2008. IITH has been consistently ranked in the&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/reports/" rel="noopener noreferrer">top 10 institutes</a>&nbsp;in India for Engineering&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nirfindia.org/2021/EngineeringRanking.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to NIRF</a>&nbsp;making it one of the most coveted schools for science and technology in the country.

IITH offers&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/under-graduate/">undergraduate programs</a>&nbsp;in all the classical engineering disciplines, applied sciences, design, as well as several modern interdisciplinary areas. Students are given a flexibility to explore a broad set of areas, and potentially pursue a minor or double major in a discipline that is not their own. Students who wish to seek a deeper understanding of their own discipline are strongly encouraged to get involved in cutting-edge research with the help of a faculty to mentor them, and earn an Honors in their own field.

The very foundation of IIT Hyderabad is based on&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/research/">research and innovation</a>. The vibrant research culture is evident from the number of patents and publications that IITH produces consistently every year. IITH offers&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/programmes-offered/">graduate programs</a>&nbsp;at both a masters, and a doctoral level, in several diverse areas. There are separate programs for technology, design, science, and liberal arts. The&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/post-graduate/">MTech program</a>&nbsp;is offered in various modes and durations to cater to the ever-growing need of postgraduate level professionals in the country.

IITH encourages and supports&nbsp;<a href="https://iic-iith.netlify.app/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">innovation and entrepreneurship</a>&nbsp;at every stage. The minor program in entrepreneurship is open to all students of IITH, and many of the courses are offered by industrialists who are entrepreneurs themselves. There are various&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/research/centres-incubators/">innovation centers and incubators</a>&nbsp;that promote entrepreneurship and help mentor young innovators. IITH has been very successful in building tie-ups with leading academic institutions around the globe.

IITH enjoys a very special relationship with Japanese universities and industries that goes beyond academic and research collaborations. In fact, some of the iconic buildings in IITH campus will carry the signature of Japanese architecture.

IITH creates a unique holistic ecosystem for education that offers interactive learning, a very flexible academic structure, cutting-edge research, strong industry collaboration, and entrepreneurship. This is an environment which enables students and faculty to translate their dreams into realities.

IIT Hyderabad

Microwave digestion of liquid dairy manure was tested for the release of nutrients, such as orthophosphates, ammonia-nitrogen, magnesium, calcium and potassium, both with and without the aid of an oxidizing agent (hydrogen peroxide). The orthophosphate to total phosphorus ratio of the manure increased from 21% to greater than 80% with 5 minutes of microwave treatment. More than 36% of total chemical oxygen demand (t-COD) of the manure was reduced when microwave digestion was assisted with peroxide addition. In addition, the volatile fatty acids (VFAs) distribution shifted to simpler chain acids (acetic acid in particular) with an increase in operating temperature. In the second part of the study, digested manure with increased soluble phosphate was tested for the recovery of struvite (magnesium ammonium phosphate) at different pH. It was found that up to 90% of orthophosphate can be removed from the solution. Overall, it was concluded that the oxidizing agent-assisted microwave digestion process can be used upstream of anaerobic digestion, following which the anaerobically digested manure can be used for struvite recovery. Thus, this microwave digestion process presents the potential for enhanced efficiencies in both manure digestion and struvite recovery. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Department of Civil Engineering

World University root node

Journal of Environmental Science and Health - Part B Pesticides, Food Contaminants, and Agricultural Wastes

Microwave treatment and struvite recovery potential of dairy manure

A pilot-scale sequencing batch reactor (SBR) was operated at a dairy farm to test real-time based control in winter operation conditions. A combination of high loading and low oxidation reduction potential (ORP) conditions in the aerobic stage of SBR treatment (an end value of -50 to -150 mV) inhibited nitrification while maintaining carbon removal. After a period of over-aeration over several cycles, the ORP at the end of the aerobic stage increased to values of 50-75 mV. Subsequently, nitrification was observed, accompanied by higher total cycle times. Significant increase in removal efficiencies of ammonical nitrogen (α &lt; 0.0001) and chemical oxygen demand (α &lt; 0.001) were observed for the high ORP phase. It is postulated that higher ORP regimes are needed for nitrification. In low ORP regimes, nitrification is absent or occurs at an extremely low rate. It is also noted that nitrifying systems treating high strength animal manure can possibly lead to unacceptably high levels of effluent nitrate + nitrite nitrogen (NOx-N). Two manure management schemes are proposed that give the farmer an option to either retain the nutrients, or remove them from the wastewater. Some advantages and disadvantages of the schemes are also discussed. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bioresource Technology

Real-time treatment of dairy manure: Implications of oxidation reduction potential regimes to nutrient management strategies

A combined approach of biological treatment, solids digestion and nutrient recovery was tested on dairy manure. A sequencing batch reactor (SBR) was operated in three modes, in order to optimize nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) removals. The highest average removal efficiencies of 91% for NH4-N, 59% for PO4-P and 80% for total chemical oxygen demand (COD) were achieved. Staining experiments suggested the coexistence of glycogen and phosphorus accumulating organisms. Anaerobic digestion of wasted bio-solids was able to produce a PO4-P concentration of 70 mgL-1 in the supernatant. A pilot-scale experiment, designed to recover phosphorus in the supernatant as struvite (magnesium ammonium phosphate), was able to remove 82% of soluble PO4-P. Copyright © Taylor &amp; Francis Group, LLC.

Fulltext

Dairy manure treatment, digestion and nutrient recovery as a phosphate fertilizer

Two laboratory-scale sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) were operated to treat fresh-screened manure and manure from an anaerobic lagoon. Three distinct modes of operation were studies on the SBR treating fresh manure (SBR A). s-COD, t-COD, TOC, ammonical-N, ortho-P, TP and TKN removal efficiencies of 80%, 68%, 58%, 91%, 59%, 58% and 71% were achieved for soluble portions (except for t-COD) in the SBR for one of the modes. TSS removals of 95% were achieved for two of the modes. There was an indication that enhanced phosphorus uptake might have been happening in the reactor, though not in a very dominant form during one of the modes. The second SBR (SBR B) employed only gas-mixing to suspend the solids in the reactor. This reactor had only one outlet for gas and this outlet can be used to treat/ trap the reactor off-gas if odor emission is an issue. s-COD, t-COD, TOC, ammonical-N, ortho-P, TP and TKN removal efficiencies of 46%, 60%, 43%, 33%, 61%, 53% and 40% were achieved. The reason for low COD and nitrogen removals was the loss of solids in the effluent due to the rigid gas seal used initially. Anaerobic digestion of wasted solids from SBR A yielded orthophosphates around 70 mg-P/L. This concentration lies in the range already tested for phosphorus recovery as struvite in the crystallizer developed at University of British Columbia. Preliminary pilot scale experiment on a batch of supernatant containing phosphorus released from wasted solids of a pilot scale SBR treating dairy manure diluted with sewage gave phosphorus removal efficiencies of 75-80%. However, the removed phosphorus was in the form of fines only. Future experiments address recovery in form of crystals, and performance of SBR B for the extent of improvement made by introduction of a collapsible gas seal.