Search results for " Fouling"

Experimental analysis of a continuously operated reverse electrodialysis unit fed with wastewaters

2017

Reverse Electrodialysis (RED) is one of the most promising technologies to convert salinity gradient chemical energy into electricity. RED units are traditionally operated with natural streams as river water and seawater thereby limiting the spread of the technology in sites far from coastal areas. Aim of the present work is that of exploring and expanding feed possibilities for RED systems by employing waste streams. Thus, an experimental study was performed by testing, for the first time, a Reverse Electrodialysis (RED) unit fed with a high salinity wastewater originated in a fish canning factory, and a low salinity wastewater from a sewage treatment plant. Uninterrupted, long duration ex…

Position paper - progress towards standards in integrated (aerobic) MBR modelling.

2020

Membrane bioreactor (MBR) models are useful tools for both design and management. The system complexity is high due to the involved number of processes which can be clustered in biological and physical ones. Literature studies are present and need to be harmonized in order to gain insights from the different studies and allow system optimization by applying a control. This position paper aims at defining the current state of the art of the main integrated MBR models reported in the literature. On the basis of a modelling review, a standardized terminology is proposed to facilitate the further development and comparison of integrated membrane fouling models for aerobic MBRs. ispartof: WATER …

Thermoeconomic diagnosis of air conditioning systems: experimental assessment of performance for improved reliability

2018

Thermoeconomic diagnosis is an exergy-based fault detection and diagnosis technique which has been recently extended to air conditioning systems. So far, developments of this technique have relied only on simulation data without being evaluated using real data. For the first time, this work aims at assessing the performance of thermoeconomic diagnosis using experimental data obtained from a five-ton packaged rooftop air conditioning unit (RTU) installed at Herrick Laboratories, Purdue University. The RTU was tested in psychrometric chambers under a wide range of operating conditions and fault levels. The following faults were investigated: (i) evaporator fouling, (ii) condenser fouling and …

Impact of membrane addition for effluent extraction on the performance and sludge characteristics of upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactors treatin…

2015

Abstract In this study, the impact of membrane incorporation for effluent extraction on the performance of an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor treating municipal wastewater was investigated in terms of system performance and sludge characteristics. A laboratory-scale system was operated in two different operational stages: (i) as a sole UASB reactor and (ii) as an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR). Membrane incorporation induced an accumulation of fine particles and a decrease in extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), resulting in a decrease in particle size distribution (PSD) and, thus, a drop in sludge settleability. Deterioration of sludge settleability led to an inc…

Power Production from Produced Waters via Reverse Electrodialysis: A Preliminary Assessment

2022

Wastewaters generated by crude oil extraction processes, called “produced waters” (PWs), are complex solutions that contain organic compounds, mainly hydrocarbons, and often exhibit high salinity. The large amounts of PWs represent a global issue because of their environmental impact. An approach widely used in the oil industry is the reinjection of this wastewater into the extraction wells after a suitable treatment. The high salt concentration of such solutions may be used in salinity gradient technologies to produce green electricity. Among these technologies, reverse electrodialysis (RED) is one of the most promising. In this work, the application of RED for energy generatio…

Modelling biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal with soluble microbial products (SMP) production-degradation processes

2011

Over the last two decades, Membrane Bioreactors (MBR) are increasingly used for wastewater treatment. Mathematical modelling of MBR systems has played a key role in order to better explain the effect of their peculiarities. Indeed, several MBR models have been presented in literature in order to improve the knowledge on MBR systems: biological models, hybrid models which include soluble microbial product (SMP) modelling, physical models able to describe the membrane fouling and integrated models which couple the hybrid models with the physical ones. However, among the existing MBR models only few integrated models have been developed which take into account the existing relationship between…

Protein recovery as a resource from waste specifically via membrane technology : from waste to wonder

2021

Economic growth and the rapid increase in the world population has led to a greater need for natural resources, which in turn, has put pressure on said resources along with the environment. Water, food, and energy, among other resources, pose a huge challenge. Numerous essential resources, including organic substances and valuable nutrients, can be found in wastewater, and these could be recovered with efficient technologies. Protein recovery from waste streams can provide an alternative resource that could be utilized as animal feed. Membrane separation, adsorption, and microbe-assisted protein recovery have been proposed as technologies that could be used for the aforementioned protein re…

The role of fouling mechanisms in a submerged membrane bioreactor during the start-up

2006

A model for wastewater organic removal and fouling development in a SMBR pilot plant

2007

The paper presents the setting up of a mathematical model for membrane bioreactor able to simulate physical-biological wastewater organic removal. The model is basically divided into two sub-models: the first sub-model is basically devoted for the simulation of the biological features and the second one for the physical processes. In particular regarding the biological aspects, the ASM concept has been employed. On the other hand, the physical processes have been modelled considering the deep-bed theory taking into account not only the effect of the physical membrane filtration but also the cake layer effect. This latter operates as a biological membrane leading to a further reduction of th…