Search results for "Bioreactors"
showing 10 items of 230 documents
Biological nutrient removal in membrane bioreactors: denitrification and phosphorus removal kinetics.
2007
The impact of including membranes for solid liquid separation on the kinetics of nitrogen and phosphorus removal was investigated. To achieve this, a membrane bioreactor (MBR) biological nutrient removal (BNR) activated sludge system was operated. From batch tests on mixed liquor drawn from the MBR BNR system, denitrification and phosphorus removal rates were delineated. Additionally the influence of the high total suspended solids concentrations present in the MBR BNR system and of the limitation of substrate concentrations on the kinetics was investigated. Moreover the ability of activated sludge in this kind of system to denitrify under anoxic conditions with simultaneous phosphate uptak…
Co-treatment of landfill leachate in laboratory-scale sequencing batch reactors: analysis of system performance and biomass activity by means of resp…
2014
Aged or mature leachate, produced by old landfills, can be very refractory; for this reason mature leachate is difficult to treat alone, but it can be co-treated with sewage or domestic wastewater. The aim of the study was to investigate the feasibility of leachate co-treatment with synthetic wastewater, in terms of process performance and biomass activity, by means of respirometric techniques. Two sequencing batch reactors (SBRs), named SBR1 and SBR2, were fed with synthetic wastewater and two different percentages of landfill leachate (respectively 10% and 50% v v−1 in SBR1 and SBR2). The results showed good chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency for both reactors, with average C…
Removal of bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate from reject water in a nitrogen-removing sequencing batch reactor.
2003
Reject water from sewage sludge processing may contain high concentrations of nutrients and organic pollutants and cause internal pollution load at a sewage treatment plant (STP) if circulated to the headworks of an STP. In the present study removal of nitrogen and bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) from reject water was studied in two sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) with different aerobic/anoxic periods during a 6-h total cycle period. Ammonia-nitrogen (NH(4)-N) was almost totally removed in both reactors, apparently by nitrification throughout the run, while denitrification declined with decreasing SCOD in the influent resulting in an increase in the effluent nitrate-nitrogen (NO(3)-N) …
Real-time optimization of the key filtration parameters in an AnMBR: Urban wastewater mono-digestion vs. co-digestion with domestic food waste
2018
[EN] This study describes a model-based method for real-time optimization of the key filtration parameters in a submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) treating urban wastewater (UWW) and UWW mixed with domestic food waste (FW). The method consists of an initial screening to find out adequate filtration conditions and a real-time optimizer applied to a periodically calibrated filtration model for minimizing the operating costs. The initial screening consists of two statistical analyses: (1) Morris screening method to identify the key filtration parameters; (2) Monte Carlo method to establish suitable initial control inputs values. The operating filtration cost after implementing the…
Nitrous oxide emissions in a membrane bioreactor treating saline wastewater contaminated by hydrocarbons
2016
The joint effect of wastewater salinity and hydrocarbons on nitrous oxide emission was investigated. The membrane bioreactor pilot plant was operated with two phases: i. biomass acclimation by increasing salinity from 10 gNaCl L−1 to 20 gNaCl L−1 (Phase I); ii. hydrocarbons dosing at 20 mg L−1 with a constant salt concentration of 20 gNaCl L−1 (Phase II). The Phase I revealed a relationship between nitrous oxide emissions and salinity. During the end of the Phase I, the activity of nitrifiers started to recover, indicating a partial acclimatization. During the Phase II, the hydrocarbon shock induced a temporary inhibition of the biomass with the suppression of nitrous oxide emissions. The r…
Nitrate removal microbiology in woodchip bioreactors : a case-study with full-scale bioreactors treating aquaculture effluents
2020
Woodchip bioreactors are viable low-cost nitrate (NO3−) removal applications for treating agricultural and aquaculture discharges. The active microbial biofilms growing on woodchips are conducting nitrogen (N) removal, reducing NO3− while oxidizing the carbon (C) from woodchips. However, bioreactor age, and changes in the operating conditions or in the microbial community might affect the NO3− removal as well as potentially promote nitrous oxide (N2O) production through either incomplete denitrification or dissimilatory NO3− reduction to ammonium (DNRA). Here, we combined stable isotope approach, amplicon sequencing, and captured metagenomics for studying the potential NO3− removal rates, a…
Vortex shape in unbaffled stirred vessels: experimental study via digital image analysis
2011
There is a growing interest in using unbaffled stirred tanks for addressing certain processing needs. In this work, digital image analysis coupled with a suitable shadowgraphy-based technique is used to investigate the shape of the free-surface vortex that forms in uncovered unbaffled stirred tanks. The technique is based on back-lighting the vessel and suitably averaging vortex shape over time. Impeller clearance from vessel bottom and tank filling level are varied to investigate their influence on vortex shape. A correlation is finally proposed to fully describe vortex shape also when the vortex encompasses the impeller.
Occurrence of Microplastics in Waste Sludge of Wastewater Treatment Plants: Comparison between Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) and Conventional Activated S…
2022
In this study, the presence of microplastics in the sludge of three wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) was examined. The investigated WWTPs operated based on a conventional activated sludge (CAS) process, with (W1) or without (W2) primary clarification, and a membrane bioreactor process (MBR) (W3). The microplastics (MPs) concentration in the samples of W3 was approximately 81.1 ± 4.2 × 103 particles/kg dry sludge, whereas MPs concentrations in W1 and W2 were 46.0 ± 14.8 × 103 particles/kg dry sludge and 36.0 ± 5.2 × 103 particles/kg dry sludge, respectively. Moreover, MPs mainly consisted of fragments (66–68%) in the CAS plants, whereas the fra…
Influence of Viscosity on Mass Transfer Performance of Unbaffled Stirred Vessels
2013
Unbaffled stirred tanks are seldom employed in the process industry as they are considered poorer mixers than baffled vessels. However they may be expected to provide significant advantages in a wide range of applications (e.g. crystallization, food and pharmaceutical processes, etc) where the presence of baffles is often undesirable. Moreover, in plants or animal cell cultivation bioreactors, where cell damage is often caused by bursting bubbles at the air –medium interface (Barret et al., 2010), they can provide sufficient mass transfer through the free surface vortex, so bubble formation and subsequent bursting inside the reactor can be conveniently avoided (Scargiali et al., 2012). In t…
Effect of temperature on anaerobic treatment of black water in UASB-septic tank systems
2007
The effect of northern European seasonal temperature changes and low temperature on the performance of upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB)-septic tanks treating black water was studied. Three UASB-septic tanks were monitored with different operational parameters and at different temperatures. The results indicated the feasibility of the UASB-septic tank for (pre)treatment of black water at low temperatures with respect to removal of suspended solids and dissolved organic material. Inoculum sludge had little effect on COD(ss) removal, though in the start-up phase some poorly adapted inoculum disintegrated and washed out, thus requiring consideration when designing the process. Removal of …