scholarly journals Evaluation of active sludge and aquatic ferns usage for removal of zinc in a biological wastewater treatment system

Author(s):  
Amir Hajiali ◽  
Lacramioara Diana Robescu

In this research capability of biological treatment method via active sludge and aquatic fern evaluated in different operating conditions and they were optimized in order to remove Zn (II). A simple reactor performance for treatment of model and real wastewater on laboratory and semi-industrial scale was investigated. This refining process proceeded with special attention to the effect of solution pH-value, pollutant concentration, absorbent concentration and reaction time. The batch semi-industrial scale reactor represented over 90 % removal efficiency under pH-value of 6 and 5-5.5 for aquatic ferns and active sludge, respectively. Effective reaction times represented various durations for aquatic ferns and active sludge with respect of 120 minutes and 90 minutes. The two biological masses had the best performances with 6 g/l for aquatic ferns and 5 g/l for active sludge. In the presence of 5 ppm of Zn (II) as the objective heavy metal, both absorbents had over 93.2 % removal efficiencies. While obviously laboratory-scale attempts introduced higher acceptable reduction efficiencies via this economic applicable treatment method. Additionally, economic considerations clarified feasibility of this recommended simple method.

2011 ◽  
Vol 396-398 ◽  
pp. 685-693
Author(s):  
Yuan Yuan Han ◽  
Lian Jin Weng ◽  
Di Geng ◽  
Xin Yang

The evaporation rate of histidine-water system was measured and the influence of pressure, temperature, His concentration, pH value of solution and the existence of NH4Cl salt was investigated. The results showed that operating pressure and temperature have significant influence on evaporation rate. Increasing vacuum and temperature could increase the rate. In contrast, the rate value was insensitive to the change of concentration of His, solution pH value and the existence of NH4Cl salt at the operating pressure and temperature. In connection with the operating conditions, properties of the research system and evaporation vessel geometry factors, a new mass transfer coefficient model, based on the dimensional analysis of experimental data, was proposed with relative error of ±10%. Check results showed that agreement between model predictions and experimental data is quite reasonable. The results obtained appear to be used to predict evaporation rate of histidine-water system for industrial reference.


Author(s):  
Bashar Hadi ◽  
Argyrios Margaritis ◽  
Franco Berruti ◽  
Maurice Bergougnou

The biosorption of cadmium metal ions by Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Kluyveromyces fragilis yeast cells was studied under various operating conditions in a batch system using shaker flasks and a 2-L double draft tube fluidized bioreactor system. The effects of key parameters such as solution pH, initial metal concentration, biosorbent concentration, and age of the biosorbent cells were investigated. The experiments were carried out at room temperature and pH values of 3.5, 4.5 and 5.0. Three biosorbent yeast cells concentrations (2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 g dry wt./L) were employed with aqueous solutions having initial cadmium concentrations of 50, 100 and 200 mg/L. The solution pH was found to play a critical role in the biosorption process and the metal uptake increased with an increase in pH value. The optimum pH was found to be 5.0. Also, increasing the metal concentration and decreasing the biosorbent concentration increased the final metal uptake per unit cell mass. At a sufficiently high cadmium concentration of 200 mg/L, the effect of initial metal concentration became the dominant factor, since the metal uptake became constant with respect to the initial metal concentration, regardless of pH value. The results showed that the effect of biosorbent concentration on metal uptake was less significant than those of the cadmium concentration and the pH. It was also found that the younger the yeast biosorbent, the higher the metal uptake capacity. Generally, the cadmium uptake was found to take place rapidly, whereby almost 90% uptake occurred within the first five minutes of exposure. The equilibrium of cadmium biosorption was investigated under the same operating conditions. The Langmuir and the Freundlich adsorption isotherms were used to fit the experimental data. However, both of these conventional adsorption models did not fit the experimental data accurately. The maximum uptake capacity was estimated to be close to 35 and 40 mg Cd/g DW cell for S. cerevisiae and K. fragilis, respectively at a pH value of 5.0.


1998 ◽  
Vol 38 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 443-452
Author(s):  
Katsuki Kimura ◽  
Yoshimasa Watanabe ◽  
Naoki Ohkuma

Membrane filtration and oxidation of ammonia were simultaneously performed by using a rotating membrane disk module. Nitrification performance, composition of the accumulated cakes on the membrane and the filtration resistances were investigated under five different operating conditions. The filtration resistance due to the accumulated cake on the membrane was found to be dominant in this treatment method, compared to the resistance due to the micropore plugging or irreversible adherence. The cake consisted mainly of iron, humic substances and bacteria. The possibility that extracellular polymeric substances were related to the cake resistance was also shown. The composition of the cake depended on the length and the condition of operation. Accumulation of ammonia oxidizers caused by oxidation of low concentrations of ammonia (less than 1 mg/l) did not increase transmembrane pressure significantly. Therefore, the application of this treatment method for drinking water treatment is feasible. Filtration resistance due to the micropore plugging or irreversible adherence to the membrane was caused by organic substances.


Minerals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Deniz Talan ◽  
Qingqing Huang

The increasing industrial demand for rare earths requires new or alternative sources to be found. Within this context, there have been studies validating the technical feasibility of coal and coal byproducts as alternative sources for rare earth elements. Nonetheless, radioactive materials, such as thorium and uranium, are frequently seen in the rare earths’ mineralization, and causes environmental and health concerns. Consequently, there exists an urgent need to remove these radionuclides in order to produce high purity rare earths to diversify the supply chain, as well as maintain an environmentally-favorable extraction process for the surroundings. In this study, an experimental design was generated to examine the effect of zeolite particle size, feed solution pH, zeolite amount, and contact time of solid and aqueous phases on the removal of thorium and uranium from the solution. The best separation performance was achieved using 2.50 g of 12-µm zeolite sample at a pH value of 3 with a contact time of 2 h. Under these conditions, the adsorption recovery of rare earths, thorium, and uranium into the solid phase was found to be 20.43 wt%, 99.20 wt%, and 89.60 wt%, respectively. The Freundlich adsorption isotherm was determined to be the best-fit model, and the adsorption mechanism of rare earths and thorium was identified as multilayer physisorption. Further, the separation efficiency was assessed using the response surface methodology based on the development of a statistically significant model.


Author(s):  
Men Wirz ◽  
Matthew Roesle ◽  
Aldo Steinfeld

Thermal efficiencies of the solar field of two different parabolic trough concentrator (PTC) systems are evaluated for a variety of operating conditions and geographical locations, using a detailed 3D heat transfer model. Results calculated at specific design points are compared to yearly average efficiencies determined using measured direct normal solar irradiance (DNI) data as well as an empirical correlation for DNI. It is shown that the most common choices of operating conditions at which solar field performance is evaluated, such as the equinox or the summer solstice, are inadequate for predicting the yearly average efficiency of the solar field. For a specific system and location, the different design point efficiencies vary significantly and differ by as much as 11.5% from the actual yearly average values. An alternative simple method is presented of determining a representative operating condition for solar fields through weighted averages of the incident solar radiation. For all tested PTC systems and locations, the efficiency of the solar field at the representative operating condition lies within 0.3% of the yearly average efficiency. Thus, with this procedure, it is possible to accurately predict year-round performance of PTC systems using a single design point, while saving computational effort. The importance of the design point is illustrated by an optimization study of the absorber tube diameter, where different choices of operating conditions result in different predicted optimum absorber diameters.


Author(s):  
W. F. Carey ◽  
G. J. Williamson

On plants in which gases are processed, the gases are often brought into direct contact with water—usually in packed towers. The purpose may be to cool a hot gas, to increase the humidity of a gas, or, in the well-known special case of water-cooling towers, to cool water by contact with atmospheric air. These processes involve simultaneous transfers of sensible heat and water vapour, and existing methods of analysis are complex and laborious, except for the cooling of water, for which Merkel's total-heat method has long been available. Merkel's approximate solution offers the engineer a simple method of working out, for any operating conditions, the amount of heat transferred and the “driving force” available for transferring it. The present paper generalizes the total-heat method and, with a permissible sacrifice in accuracy, preserves the essential simplicity of the water-cooling treatment for gas-cooling and humidification processes. To complete the design of a packed tower, a knowledge is required of the characteristics of the packing. Information obtained in small towers is given for a number of packings, and a worked example shows how to apply the method of treatment, and the packing data presented, to the design of a large plant tower.


2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 393-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fawzi Banat ◽  
Sameer Al-Asheh ◽  
Dheaya‘ Al-Rousan

This study examined and compared the ability of chicken feathers, human hair and animal horns, as keratin-composed biosorbents, for the removal of Zn2+ and Cu2+ ions from single metal ion aqueous solutions under different operating conditions. The three biosorbents investigated in this study were all capable of adsorbing Zn2+ and Cu2+ ions from aqueous solutions. The biosorbent showing the highest uptake of Zn2+ and Cu2+ ions was animal horns. Chicken feathers showed a higher Cu2+ ion uptake and a lower Zn2+ ion compared to human hair. Increasing the initial concentration of Zn2+ or Cu2+ ions, or increasing the initial pH value, increased the metal ion uptake. Such uptake decreased when the temperature was raised from 25°C to 50°C for all adsorbent/metal ion combinations except for Zn2+ ion/human hair where the uptake increased with temperature. It was demonstrated that the addition of NaCl salt to the metal ion solution depressed the metal ion uptake. The Freundlich isotherm model was found to be applicable to the adsorption data for Cu2+ and Zn2+ ions.


2017 ◽  
Vol 896 ◽  
pp. 167-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhi Yuan Yang ◽  
Zhuo Yue Meng ◽  
Zhi Hua Li ◽  
Si Tong Wang

Polyethylene glycol (PEG-200) and itaconic acid (IA) were used as raw materials to compound macromer through esterification reaction. A new type of specialized water-coke slurry dispersant was synthesized by copolymerization of microware, sodium methallyl sulfonate (SMAS) and maleic anhydride (MA). The experiment showed that the concentration of slurry could be reached to 63% with the dosage of 0.2%, and the apparent viscosity was 1140.3 mPa∙s. Through the analysis of the infrared, the dispersant was confirmed to have polyethylene glycol branched chain and hydrophilic functional groups such as carboxyl or sulfonic group. When the concentration of dispersant was 30 g/L, the surface tension of water could be decreased from 72.70 mN/m to 45.50 mN/m. Furthermore, when the solution pH value was 9, the Zeta potential of semi-coke powder surface could also be decreased from-13.38 mV to-25 mV with the addition of dispersant. Thus, this dispersant could increase electronegativity of semi-coke powder surface, enhance steric-hindrance effect and prevent the phenomenon of powder flocculation and gather. Meantime, it also could reinforce the semi-coke hydrophilic by reducing the surface tension of water effectively. And then, the high performance water-coke slurry could be obtained.


2014 ◽  
Vol 78 (6) ◽  
pp. 1473-1477
Author(s):  
Jan Přikryl ◽  
Andri Stefánsson

The interaction of CO2-rich water with olivine was studied using geochemical reaction modelling in order to gain insight into the effects of temperature, acid supply (CO2) and extent of reaction on the secondary mineralogy, water chemistry and mass transfer. Olivine (Fo93) was dissolved at 150 and 250ºC and pCO2 of 2 and 20 bar in a closed system and an open system with secondary minerals allowed to precipitate. The progressive water–rock interaction resulted in increased solution pH, with gradual carbonate formation starting at pH 5 and various Mg-OH and Mg-Si minerals becoming dominant at pH>8. The major factor determining olivine alteration is the pH of the water. In turn, the pH value is determined by acid supply, reaction progress and temperature.


Author(s):  
Vincent G Gomes

Product separation and regeneration of sorbent was accomplished in a novel pressure swing reactor through pressurisation, adsorption, blowdown and purge steps. The switching from sorption to reaction to regeneration was tested in a two bed sorption/reaction apparatus. Models developed for the mass and momentum transfer in the catalyst bed and sorber, were solved using orthogonal collocation within the method of lines. The effects of operating conditions and cycle configurations on performance were assessed. The results from dynamic experiments with propene metathesis to produce ethene and 2-butene in a fixed-bed catalytic reactor were in agreement with model predictions. Both pressure and vacuum swing demonstrated that conversion and product quality can be enhanced by periodic cycling with greater separation obtained with vacuum swing. The separation of products help reduce the downstream processing costs of exit mixtures, enable reactant utilisation by recycling and improve product handling at subsequent stages. The efficacy of the periodic separating reactor in terms of conversion, product purity and recovery were investigated.


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