Pilot plant for reclaimed wastewater reuse in nurseries

2000 ◽  
Vol 42 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 221-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Gori ◽  
C. Lubello

In this paper, after a brief introduction on irrigation wastewater reuse, we take a closer look at Pistoia, the most important nursery area in Italy, which specializes in production of woody ornamental plants. Groundwater resources are used for irrigation in competition with urban use, causing serious shortage problems in summer. Treated municipal wastewater can be a good alternative source of water and fertilizer nutrients for ornamental plant production. During 1998, we carried out an experiment along with local corporate bodies to evaluate the effects of Pistoia's wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent irrigation of the (Pistoia) area – compared with traditional well water irrigation – on three container-grown species, each of them characterized by different growth habits. Plants irrigated with the effluent, treated with UV irradiation in a disinfection pilot plant, showed better physiological and growth parameters than those irrigated with traditional well water.

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 179-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beenish Saba ◽  
Tariq Mahmood ◽  
Bushra Zaman ◽  
Imran Hashmi

Reclaimed wastewater reuse for irrigation to crop plants is evaluated in a laboratory-scale experiment to assess growth and water saving potential from natural resources. A prototype laboratory-scale treatment plant was established for this purpose with suspended and attached growth configurations. Chakwal wheat variety was selected to examine growth parameters. The removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) were evaluated to check the quality of treated water. It was found that a suspended growth sequencing batch bioreactor (SGSBBR) achieved 97% ± 2 removal efficiency over a 4 h hydraulic retention time (HRT). For an attached growth sequencing batch bioreactor (AGSBBR) results showed 98% ± 2 removal efficiencies with polyurethane. TN and TP removal efficiency was 58.7 ± 3% and 64 ± 4.8% in SGSBBR, 53 ± 0.17% and 67 ± 2.7% in polyurethane. AGSBBR enhanced performance with AGSBBR may be due to enforced anoxic/aerobic conditions in the inner layers of biofilm formed on biocarriers which facilitate the required metabolic conditions for treating high strength wastewater. Plant growth was visibly greater in SGSBBR treated wastewater than AGSBBR because of less nutrient removal.


2005 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 9-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Caffaz ◽  
R. Canziani ◽  
C. Lubello ◽  
D. Santianni

In recent years a completely autotrophic nitrogen removal process based on Anammox biomass has been tested in a few European countries in order to treat anaerobic supernatant and to increase the COD/N ratio in municipal wastewater. This work reports experimental results on a possible technical solution to upgrade the S. Colombano treatment plant which treats wastewater from the Florentine urban area. The idea is to use 50% of the volume of the anaerobic digester in order to treat external sewage sludge (as septic tank sludge) together with waste activated sludge and to treat the resulting effluent on a SHARON-ANAMMOX process in order to remove nitrogen from the anaerobic supernatant. Anaerobic co-digestion, tested in a 200 L pilot plant, enables low cost treatment of septic tank sludge and increases biogas production; however, it also increases the nitrogen load re-circulated to the WWTP, where nitrogen removal efficiency is already low (<50%), due to the low COD/N ratio, which limits predenitrification efficiency. Experimental results from a SHARON process tested in a lab-scale pilot plant show that nitrite oxidising bacteria are washed-out and steady nitrite production can be achieved at retention times in the range 1–1.5 days, at 35 °C. In a lab-scale SBR reactor, coupled with a nitration bioreactor, maximum specific nitrogen removal rate under nitrite-limiting conditions (with doubling time equal to about 26 days at 35 °C) was equal to 0.22 kgN/kgSSV/d, about 44 times the rate measured in inoculum Anammox sludge. Finally, a cost analysis of the proposed upgrade is reported.


2007 ◽  
Vol 55 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 449-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. De Feo ◽  
M. Galasso ◽  
V. Belgiorno

The aim of this paper was to evaluate the groundwater pollution in an endoreic basin in southern Italy. The aquifer circulation was carried out on two different levels: a shallow groundwater, with a water table of about 10 m, and a deep groundwater in a karst aquifer, with a water table of 140–190 m. Reclaimed municipal wastewater and superficial water collected in the catchment area were both drained in a swallow hole linked with the deep groundwater. The agricultural practice conducted in the endoreic basin produced an excess of nitrate in the soil. Nitrate was subsequently washed out and displaced in the groundwater. With regard to the EU Drinking Water Directive (98/83/EC), the research activity conducted during 2003 showed the absence of pollution in the deep groundwater used for drinking water supply. The shallow groundwater, instead, was strongly influenced by agricultural and pasture activities, with detectable levels of nitrates and bacteria. In order to reduce the load of pollution entering the swallow hole and then in the deep groundwater, the realisation of a constructed wetland plant was proposed to improve the quality of reclaimed wastewater, as well as to pursue the wastewater reuse in agriculture.


1992 ◽  
Vol 25 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 383-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Melcer ◽  
J. Bell ◽  
D. Thompson

Pilot plant and full scale investigations were carried out to determine the fate of selected volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in activated sludge aeration basins. Treatability parameters for each VOC were estimated from these investigations and used to calibrate TOXCHEM, computer-based steady state and dynamic models developed to predict the fate of VOCs in municipal activated sludge systems. The pilot plant was fed with wastewater from two different municipal sources. It was operated in parallel with a municipal treatment plant and was found to adequately simulate the performance of the full scale plant. Data suggest that the current models, calibrated with pilot plant data, may produce useful predictions of the fate of VOCs in full scale plants.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 511-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ali Baghapour ◽  
Mohammad Reza Shooshtarian ◽  
Babak Djahed

People's attitudes are a key issue in the use of reclaimed wastewater. Unfortunately, there is not enough research on the use of reclaimed wastewater in developing countries such as Iran. The present study aimed to investigate public acceptance and citizens' attitudes toward reclaimed wastewater in Shiraz, Iran. A two-part questionnaire, designed to collect demographic data and information about people's willingness to reuse wastewater, was distributed among 562 citizens of Shiraz. The results showed that most respondents knew nothing about the chemical quality (67.4%) or microbiological quality (81.5%) of the wastewater treatment plant effluent. The maximum acceptance of treated wastewater use was related to public consumption (87%), car washing (85%) and flush tank (80%), respectively. The minimum acceptance was related to cooking and drinking (8%). Also, a significant correlation was observed between citizens' willingness to use reclaimed wastewater and variables such as level of education, gender, awareness of wastewater treatment process and awareness of quality of reclaimed wastewater. Shiraz citizens, like other people in the world, were less willing to use reclaimed wastewater for cooking, drinking, laundry and bathing, but their willingness was obviously greater in applications with less skin contact.


1996 ◽  
Vol 33 (10-11) ◽  
pp. 443-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fulvio Croce ◽  
David Hendricks ◽  
Joe Pollara ◽  
Susan Poulsom ◽  
Rosalaura Oliveri ◽  
...  

Reuse of wastewaters for non-potable uses needs a higher than normal reliability in treatment plant operation and management, in order to ensure higher safety margins for public health and environmental protection. After a two-years research project on a pilot plant designed for agricoltural reuse, all control parameters used for the plant operation have been examined, in order to obtain useful observations on efficiency of each of the treatment units, for best overall performance. It was concluded that this type of package plant was able to produce a high quality effluent under various conditions, providing a good confidence on the reliability of the system.


1996 ◽  
Vol 33 (12) ◽  
pp. 255-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Burica ◽  
Marjeta Strazar ◽  
Ivan Mahne

The recirculation activated sludge process with preanoxic treatment was applied for biological reduction of the nitrogen content in municipal wastewater at pilot plant level. The pilot plant of total volume 3 300 1 with an initial anoxic to aerobic volume ratio of 40 : 60 was fed with wastewater from the first heavily loaded aerobic stage of a local wastewater treatment plant. Experiments were run over the summer and winter periods, the influent wastewater temperature being approx 24°C and approx 10°C, respectively. Special attention was paid to the hydraulic retention time, the total as well as mineral nitrogen loading, the aerobic to anaerobic volume ratio, and to the energy demand for denitrification of oxidised mineral nitrogen forms. Under optimal operating conditions the effluent quality that could be achieved was about 10 mg/l of total nitrogen (74% removal) and less than 2 mg N/l mineral nitrogen (87% removal), while simultaneously 205 mg BOD5/l in the influent was reduced to less than 7mg O2/l in the effluent. It was found feasible from the pilot plant experiments to upgrade an existing two stage aerobic-anaerobic wastewater treatment plant to reduce nitrogen from the liquid fraction of municipal wastewater so as to meet effluent quality standards without much additional volume and without amending the energy source for bioconversion of oxidised mineral nitrogen to gaseous forms.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pilar Mañas Ramírez ◽  
Jorge De las Heras Ibañez ◽  
Esther Peña Molina

<p>Having drinking water is one of the sustainable development goals (SDG no. 6) that is not always easy to ensure, especially in countries like Spain or arid regions marked by water deficit. The reuse of treated water should be considered when planning water resources, but it is necessary to conduct experiments to verify that this effectiveness is applicable to real situations. Our field trial was carried out in several study areas distributed in agricultural parcels of SE Spain. Three olive grove and vineyard plantations were monitored for 3 years. Two irrigation water types were considered: freshwater from conventional wells (controls) and treated wastewater (TW). The treated wastewater came from three different wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) that employ a biological secondary treatment without disinfection and different numbers of Inhabitants Equivalent (IE) as a measure of pollutant load. They were located in Valdeganga (3,000 IE), Fuenteálamo (5,600 IE) and Ontur (1,500 IE). All the study plots were watered by drip irrigation using 16 mm-diameter polyethylene pipelines.</p><p>Several soil and water parameters were analysed to determine the main differences among them. Increasing of soil salinity is a real risk after irrigating with wastewater as is reflected in higher electrical conductivity values. However, this fact was compensated by the greater contribution of organic matter and nutrients, which allowed crops to adequately develop. Moreover, no microbiological, metal content, toxicity or organic compounds in the studied water samples were detected and reclaimed municipal wastewater was comparable in quality to the conventional sources at all the demonstration sites. Hence adopting this water type for irrigation for grapes and olives could help save primary water resources. The future of water resources management policies involves sustainable wastewater reuse within a circular economy frame because this is the only way to guarantee everyone solidarity access to water.</p><p>Fundings provided by the ERA-NET WaterWorks2014 Cofunded Call. This ERA-NET is an integral part of the 2015 Joint Activities developed by the Water Challenges for a Changing World Joint Programme Initiative (Water JPI).</p>


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