Search results for "Fouling"

Natural acidification changes the timing and rate of succession, alters community structure, and increases homogeneity in marine biofouling communiti…

2017

Ocean acidification may have far-reaching consequences for marine community and ecosystem dynamics, but its full impacts remain poorly understood due to the difficulty of manipulating pCO2 at the ecosystem level to mimic realistic fluctuations that occur on a number of different timescales. It is especially unclear how quickly communities at various stages of development respond to intermediate-scale pCO2 change and, if high pCO2 is relieved mid-succession, whether past acidification effects persist, are reversed by alleviation of pCO2 stress, or are worsened by departures from prior high pCO2 conditions to which organisms had acclimatized. Here, we used reciprocal transplant experiments al…

Antifouling Systems Based on a Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane-Based Hexyl Imidazolium Salt Adsorbed on Copper Nanoparticles Supported on Titania

2023

The reaction of octakis(3-chloropropyl)octasilsesquioxane with four equivalents of 1-hexylimidazole or 1-decylimidazole gave two products labelled as HQ-POSS (hexyl-imidazolium quaternized POSS) and DQ-POSS (decyl-imidazolium quaternized POSS) as regioisomer mixtures. An investigation of the biological activity of these two compounds revealed the higher antimicrobial performances of HQ-POSS against Gram-positive and Gram-negative microorganisms, proving its broad-spectrum activity. Due to its very viscous nature, HQ-POSS was adsorbed in variable amounts on the surface of biologically active oxides to gain advantages regarding the expendability of such formulations from an applicative perspe…

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…

New insights about the consolidation of archaeological mortars located in underwater environment: The case study of the apsidal fishpond of Castrum N…

2019

This work is part of a research project titled MaTaCoS (Advanced materials and technologies applied to the conservation of underwater cultural heritage) funded by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development (MISE), concerning development of innovative tools and methods for the protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage, with particular regard to cleaning and consolidating procedures to be carry out directly in situ. The fishpond of the archaeological site of Castrum Novum (Santa Marinella, Rome, Italy) was chosen as a pilot site for experimentation. Castrum Novum was a Roman colony whose ruins are located between Torre Chiaruccia and Casale Alibrandi. The archaeological site lies on a wide…

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…

Mathematical modelling of Membrane Bioreactors

2015

Mathematical modelling of membrane bioreactors (MBRs) for wastewater treatment has targeted either the biological processes (treatment quality target) as well as various aspects of system management. However, the high number of interactions among the involved physical – chemical processes, hampers a straightforward mathematical modelling. This circumstance is much more emphasized for submerged MBR systems where the membrane is immersed in an aeration tank. One of the main crucial point that prevents a comprehensive understanding is the interpretation of the fouling phenomenon and its connections with the biological processes. An overall mathematical model for MBR has not been completely est…

Antifouling Mortars for Underwater Restoration

2022

This research has focused on the assessment of the compositional features and mechanical and antifouling performances of two different mortars formulated for an underwater setting, and which contain Mg(OH)2 as an antifouling agent. Regarding the mechanical characterization, the uniaxial compressive strength and flexural strength were measured. The composition of the materials was explored by differential thermal/thermogravimetric analysis (DTA-TG), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRPD), and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) coupled with EDS microanalysis. The assessment of the biological colonization was evaluated with colorimetric analysis and image analysis. The results suggest that both m…

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

2006

Comparison of a MBR system start-up with and without inoculum: experimental and mathematical model application

2010

The performance of a membrane bioreactor (MBR) system and the extension and mechanisms that lead to the formation of the fouling may differ in relation to the start-up. As a consequence, the MBR start-up may constitute a crucial point that drastically influence the MBR performance in its lifespan. Indeed, the start-up influences the mechanisms of membrane fouling whose effects, in the case of irreversible cake deposition, can be modified only by a chemical membrane washing. In order to gain insights about the effect of the start-up on a MBR system, a MBR pilot plant was build-up and a mathematical model developed. The MBR system was constituted by a hollow fibre membrane module installed in…

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…