Magazine and paper publications
A review paper by colleagues in the ESWS WG focuses on the more technical aspects of a tricky topic that often attracts public debate over ethical and privacy concerns – the use of wastewater surveillance to provide insights into illicit drug use. Analysis of drug biomarkers in wastewater can provide …
A recent report from UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR) examines revisions to the European Union’s Urban Wastewater Treatment directive (UWWTD) and considers their implications for the UK water sector. The report comments that the revised UWWTD “…has the potential to be the largest step-change in wastewater treatment for member states …
Digestates from anaerobic digestion of organic wastes and wastewater treatment residues are a hot topic at present, for several reasons. On the one hand they represent a largely unrealised resource in terms of nutrients and other potential products: on the other, there are growing concerns about the impact of emerging …
Dr Maira Anam of Newcastle University has had a busy few weeks. Early last month she attended the Better Water 4 All Network+ ECR conference, where she won a prize for her poster on Impact of hydrodynamics on pilot scale Microbial Electrolysis Cells. And in mid-September she was at the …
Earlier this year Defra and the devolved UK administrations ran a Public Consultation on reforming the UK Fertilising Product Regulations (FPR). The topic of fertiliser products is going through a period of intensive review across Europe; and, since nutrients are both a problem and a key opportunity for the Environmental …
A recent paper reports the effect of abstraction method on microbial communities and pathogen risks in shallow groundwater supplies, based on work carried out across several locations and seasons in Kenya. The study used qPCR and 16S rRNA sequencing to characterise pathogenic indicator species and bacterial communities in three sand-dam …
Congratulations to Dr Seongbong Heo and co-authors for their recent paper on enhancing PHA enrichment in granular sludges through control of settling strategies. This paper is an excellent example of several key issues and themes within EBNet: the importance of interactions between engineering-scale interventions and complex microbial systems; the need …
We quite often highlight publications by EBNet members that are relevant to our themes. But this is the big one, as far as our remit to look at engineered microbial systems is concerned. A newly-published paper puts forward equations that govern some simple but vitally important processes in microbial ecology. …
The Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA) has published it annual review of activities for 2025 – 6: an impressive tally of policy and advocacy work, industry support, training and other events. The report is available from the ADBA website here. One of the organisation’s current key initiatives is Back …
For a light-hearted item while many EBNet members are on holiday, we bring you a quick update on sightings of Green Stories: Microbes to the Rescue! Copies are known to have made their way to Dublin and Cork in Ireland, and to Malta and Canada. But the undisputed hands-down winner …
Congratulations to Dr Maria Ramos Suarez and co-Authors on the publication of a new paper on the implications of producing bio-based commodity chemicals from waste feedstocks for the selection and testing of bioreactor materials. The paper identifies the top 10 commodity chemicals that can be derived from waste-related feedstocks in …
Two recent papers by EBIC and EBNet’s Prof Frederic Coulon and colleagues look at different aspects of bioremediation of hydrocarbon-contaminated soils. The first carries out an extensive review of the challenges associated with field-scale bioaugmentation and bioremediation techniques, covering key factors that affect microbial survival and the practicalities of application …
As part of its Policy to Practice initiative, the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) is hosting a pair of webinars on PFAS: From Source to Solution. These will take place on 21 and 29 Sept 2026 from 12-13:00 UK. They will explore the topic of poly- and perfluoroalkyl …
There is currently a ferment (deliberate pun) of activity around the safe utilisation of and creation of value added products from organic wastes, in regulations from the UK and across Europe. In one of its many valuable contributions to this area, the European Sustainable Phosphorus platform (ESPP) has put out …
Followers of EBNet’s AD WG, and others interested in anaerobic digestion, can now read a short report containing reflections on the recent World Biogas Summit 2026 hosted by ADBA and the World Biogas Association (WBA). The report was kindly prepared by Dr Angela Bywater, EBNet’s former Network co-Manager, who attended …
