López Viso, CarlosHodaifa, GassanMuñoz Ruiz, Manuel Jesús2024-02-212024-02-212022Journal of Cleaner Production Volume 330, 1 January 2022, 12970610.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129706https://hdl.handle.net/10433/20183BEFESA S.L. (ABENGOA) by financing the project entitled "Viability study for obtaining nematodes fat matter from sludge of urban wastewater treatment plants" and the Junta de Andalucia and Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Spain), through Project Ref.: AGR-7092 "Application of advanced oxidation technologies for treating of washing wastewaters of olive oil and olives",Sludge generated in urban wastewater treatment plants is a huge environmental and economic challenge of sustainability. Sludge recovery is an environmental necessity and is a requirement for wastewater treatment plants. Predators have been proposed as a biological solution and simultaneously obtaining by-product of interest. Nematodes are predators that are found naturally in sludge but have never been proposed for sludge reduction. In this work, Caenorhabditis elegans, a nematode broadly used for biomedical studies, was used to grow on urban sludge, reaching a remarkable average population up to 92,668 nematodes/mL, 50.6% of sludge was converted into nematode biomass and up to 21.0% of organic matter removed. To demonstrate the viability of this nematode to grow and reduce urban sludges, different experiments in solid and liquid culture media were performed. The physio-chemical composition of the different types of sludges generated in the urban wastewater treatment plants was determined. The total lipids (4.52%, w/w) and fatty acid profiles obtained in the nematode biomass were determined. This work presents a new method to valorise urban sludge and opens the possibility to obtain by-products with high added value.application/pdfenElsevierCaenorhabditis elegansUrban sludge reductionUrban wastewaterPredationFat matterjournal articlerestricted access