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Updated: May 30, 2026

A Novel Bioreactor for High Density Cultivation of Diverse Microbial Communities
Published on: December 25, 2015
Operation of an aquatic worm reactor suitable for sludge reduction at large scale
Tim L G Hendrickx1, Hellen H J Elissen, Hardy Temmink
1Wetsus, Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology, P.O. Box 1113, 8900 CC Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. tim.hendrickx@wur.nl
Abstract:
Treatment of domestic waste water results in the production of waste sludge, which requires costly further processing. A biological method to reduce the amount of waste sludge and its volume is treatment in an aquatic worm reactor. The potential of such a worm reactor with the oligochaete Lumbriculus variegatus has been shown at small scale. For scaling up purposes, a new configuration of the reactor was designed, in which the worms were positioned horizontally in the carrier material. This was tested in a continuous experiment of 8 weeks where it treated all the waste sludge from a lab-scale activated sludge process. The results showed a higher worm growth rate compared to previous experiments with the old configuration, whilst nutrient release was similar. The new configuration has a low footprint and allows for easy aeration and faeces collection, thereby making it suitable for full scale application.
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