Search results for "pilot plant"
showing 10 items of 101 documents
Influence of the Storage of Cistus ladanifer L. Bales from Mechanised Harvesting on the Essential Oil Yield and Qualitative Composition
2021
Cistus ladanifer is a Mediterranean native plant from which valuable products, such as essential oil, are obtained. Manual harvesting of the plants in wild shrublands is usual during short periods of time. Their mechanised harvesting could increase the volume of harvested plants and prevent fires, further storage of the plants collected being necessary. The objective of this work is to study the influence of the storage period of mechanically harvested bales on the essential oil yield and qualitative composition. The harvesting trials were carried out with an adapted commercial harvester baler and the storage of the bales was performed indoors during 1–7 days, 15–30 days and 100–120 days. A…
Bacterial community structure and removal performances in IFAS-MBRs: A pilot plant case study
2017
Abstract The paper reports the results of an experimental campaign carried out on a University of Cape Town (UCT) integrated fixed-film activated sludge (IFAS) membrane bioreactor (MBR) pilot plant. The pilot plant was analysed in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and nutrients removal, kinetic/stoichiometric parameters, membrane fouling and sludge dewaterability. Moreover, the cultivable bacterial community structure was also analysed. The pilot plant showed excellent COD removal efficiency throughout experiments, with average value higher than 98%, despite the slight variations of the influent wastewater. The achieved nitrification efficiency was close to 98% for most of the experimen…
Understanding the performance of an AnMBR treating urban wastewater and food waste via model simulation and characterization of the microbial populat…
2018
[EN] An anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) pilot plant treating kitchen food waste (FW) jointly with urban wastewater was run for 536 days. Different operational conditions were tested varying the sludge retention time (SRT), the hydraulic retention time (HRT) and the penetration factor (PF) of food waste disposers. COD removal efficiency exceeded 90% in all tested conditions. The joint treatment resulted in an almost 3-fold increase in methane production (at 70 days of SRT, 24 h HRT and 80% PF) in comparison with the treatment of urban wastewater only. Mathematical model simulations and Illumina technology were used to obtain in-depth information of this outstanding process performance.…
Effect of a co-substrate supply in a MBR treating shipboard slop: Analysis of hydrocarbon removal, biomass activity and membrane fouling tendency
2018
The paper reports the main results of an experiment carried out on a membrane bioreactor (MBR) plant designed for the treatment of shipboard slops. With a view of a co-treatment process of the slop with other wastewaters, sodium acetate, as external co-substrate, was supplied (high dosage – Period 1, low dosage – Period 2) to evaluate its effects on hydrocarbons removal. The MBR pilot plant enabled approximately 99% of total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) removal during the entire experiment, confirming the robustness of the MBR technology for the treatment of slops. The chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis showed that the removal efficiency for each alkane was close to the value observed…
Modeling the anaerobic treatment of sulfate rich urban wastewater. Application to AnMBR technology
2020
[EN] Although anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBR) are a core technology in the transition of urban wastewater (UWW) treatment towards a circular economy, the transition is being held back by a number of bottlenecks. The dissolved methane released from the effluent, the need to remove nutrients (ideally by recovery), or the energy lost by the competition between methanogenic and sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) for the biodegradable COD have been identified as the main issues to be addressed before AnMBR becomes widespread. Mathematical modeling of this technology can be used to obtain further insights into these bottlenecks plus other valuable information for design, simulation and contro…
Calibration and validation of activated sludge model No.2d for Spanish municipal wastewater.
2002
Activated Sludge Model No. 2d (ASM2d) was validated with data obtained from pilot scale plant treating municipal wastewater from the city of Valencia (Spain). First of all, ASM2d was calibrated using experimental data from anaerobic, anoxic and aerobic batches. A set of kinetic and stoichiometric parameters resulted from these assays. Differences between the values obtained and default values proposed in ASM2d can be explained by the presence of glycogen accumulating organisms (GAOs). The calibrated model was then used to simulate results from a pilot plant. Simulation using the set of parameters obtained accurately reproduces experimental results. This paper also presents a detailed proced…
A Validation Methodology for a Combined Heating Cooling and Power (CHCP) Pilot Plant
2004
A great number of variables significantly influence the energetic, environmental and economic results of CHP (Combined Heating and Power) and CHCP (Combined Heating Cooling and Power) plants operation, and as a consequence their project activity is rather complex. In order to select the best layout and properly size the machines, detailed data on hourly electric, thermal, and cooling demand are necessary, so that a series of plant life cycle simulations may have to be carried out. Unfortunately, such detailed data are rarely available, because energy consumptions data for existing buildings are usually derived from aggregated monthly or bimonthly gas and electricity bills. Even more difficu…
Start-up with or without inoculum? Analysis of an SMBR pilot plant.
2010
This study analysed a submerged membrane bioreactor (SMBR) start-up with the purpose of determining the best conditions to carry it out. In order to do this, a hollow fibre membrane module was installed in a submerged configuration in a pilot aerobic reactor. The experiment was then divided in two phases, lasting 65 days each. During phase 1, the pilot plant was started-up without inoculum of activated sludge and no sludge, withdrawal was performed. Conversely, in phase 2, the MBR pilot plant was started-up with sludge inoculum and the sludge concentration was kept constant. In both phases, the volumetric loading rate applied to the pilot plant was kept constant. The authors analysed the di…
An advanced control strategy for biological nutrient removal in continuous systems based on pH and ORP sensors
2012
[EN] A fuzzy logic-based control system that uses low-cost sensors for controlling and optimizing the biological nitrogen removal in continuous systems has been developed. The novelty of this control system is the use of several pH, ORP, and dissolved oxygen (DO) sensors instead of on-line nitrogen sensors/analyzers. The nitrogen control system was developed and implemented in a UCT pilot plant fed with wastewater from a full-scale plant. The developed nitrification controller allows the effluent ammonium concentration to be maintained below the effluent criteria discharge with the minimum energy consumption. The denitrification process controller allows the energy consumption derived from …
An integrated model for biological and physical process simulation in membrane bioreactors (MBR).
2011
Abstract 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 points 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 comple…