Search results for "residuals"
showing 10 items of 57 documents
Optimisation of sludge line management to enhance phosphorus recovery in WWTP
2008
The management of the sludge treatment line can be optimized to reduce uncontrolled phosphorus precipitation in the anaerobic digester and to enhance phosphorus recovery in WWTP. In this paper, four operational strategies, which are based on the handling of the prefermented primary sludge and the secondary sludge from an EBPR process, have been tested in a pilot plant. The separated or mixed sludge thickening, the use of a stirred contact tank and the elutriation of the thickened sludge are the main strategies studied. Both the reduction of phosphorus precipitation in the digester and the supernatant suitability for a struvite crystallization process were assessed in each configuration. The…
Start-Up of Chitosan-Assisted Anaerobic Sludge Bed Reactors Treating Light Oxygenated Solvents under Intermittent Operation
2021
Quality of the granular sludge developed during the start-up of anaerobic up-flow sludge bed reactors is of crucial importance to ensure the process feasibility of treating industrial wastewater such as those containing solvents. In this study, the microbial granule formation from suspended-growth biomass was investigated in two chitosan-assisted reactors. These reactors operated mimicking industrial sites working with night closures treating a mixture of ethanol, ethyl acetate, and 1-ethoxy-2-propanol. Each reactor operated under different hydrodynamic regimes typical from UASB (R1: <
Assessment of the Microbiological Quality of Groundwater in Three Regions of the Valencian Community (Spain)
2014
Urban groundwater development was traditionally constrained by concerns about its quality. This study was conducted in the regions of La Ribera Alta and Ribera Baja and La Plana de Requena-Utiel of the Valencian Community (Valencia, Spain) where population density, demand for drinking water and agricultural activities are high. Groundwater bodies (GWBs) are regarded as management areas within each territory, and were used to establish protection policies. This study analyzed eleven GWBs. We used two databases with microbiological measurements from 154 wells over a 7-year period (2004–2011), risk factors and groundwater information. Wells were grouped according to frequency of microbiologica…
A Semi-Industrial Anmbr Plant for Urban Wastewater Treatment at Ambient Temperature: Analysis of the Filtration Process, Energy Balance and Quantific…
2022
A semi-industrial scale AnMBR urban wastewater treatment plant was operated for 580 days at ambient temperature (ranging from 10-30 ○C) to assess its long-term filtration performance, energy balance and GHG emissions. The applied 20ºC-standardized transmembrane flux (J20) was varied between 15 and 25 LMH and the specific gas demand per m2 of membrane (SGDm) was modified between 0.10 to 0.40 Nm3·m-2·h-1 (corresponding to a specific gas demand per permeate volume (SGDP) between 10 to 20 Nm3·m-3). The filtration strategy allowed successful long-term operations without any chemical cleaning requirements and little fouling for 233 days. The plant operated as a net energy producer for more than 5…
Optimising an outdoor membrane photobioreactor for tertiary sewage treatment
2019
[EN] The operation of an outdoor membrane photobioreactor plant which treated the effluent of an anaerobic membrane bioreactor was optimised. Biomass retention times of 4.5, 6, and 9 days were tested. At a biomass retention time of 4.5 days, maximum nitrogen recovery rate:light irradiance ratios, photosynthetic efficiencies and carbon biofixations of 51.7¿±¿14.3¿mg¿N·mol¿1, 4.4¿±¿1.6% and 0.50¿±¿0.05¿kg CO2·m3influent, respectively, were attained. Minimum membrane fouling rates were achieved when operating at the shortest biomass retention time because of the lower solid concentration and the negligible amount of cyanobacteria and protozoa. Hydraulic retention times of 3.5, 2, and 1.5 days …
Improving membrane photobioreactor performance by reducing light path: operating conditions and key performance indicators
2020
[EN] Microalgae cultivation has been receiving increasing interest in wastewater remediation due to their ability to assimilate nutrients present in wastewater streams. In this respect, cultivating microalgae in membrane photobioreactors (MPBRs) allows decoupling the solid retention time (SRT) from the hydraulic retention time (HRT), which enables to increase the nutrient load to the photobioreactors (PBRs) while avoiding the wash out of the microalgae biomass. The reduction of the PBR light path from 25 to 10 cm increased the nitrogen and phosphorus recovery rates, microalgae biomass productivity and photosynthetic efficiency by 150, 103, 194 and 67%, respectively.The areal biomass product…
Nitrite inhibition of microalgae induced by the competition between microalgae and nitrifying bacteria
2020
[EN] Outdoor microalgae cultivation systems treating anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) effluents usually present ammonium oxidising bacteria (AOB) competition with microalgae for ammonium uptake, which can cause nitrite accumulation. In literature, nitrite effects over microalgae have shown controversial results. The present study evaluates the nitrite inhibition role in a microalgae-nitrifying bacteria culture. For this purpose, pilot- and lab-scale assays were carried out. During the continuous outdoor operation of the membrane photobioreactor (MPBR) plant, biomass retention time (BRT) of 2 d favoured AOB activity, which caused nitrite accumulation. This nitrite was confirmed to inhib…
Production of microalgal external organic matter in a Chlorella-dominated culture: influence of temperature and stress factors
2020
[EN] Although microalgae are recognised to release external organic matter (EOM), little is known about this phenomenon in microalgae cultivation systems, especially on a large scale. A study on the effect of microalgae-stressing factors such as temperature, nutrient limitation and ammonium oxidising bacteria (AOB) competition in EOM production by microalgae was carried out. The results showed non-statistically significant differences in EOM production at constant temperatures of 25, 30 and 35 degrees C. However, when the temperature was raised from 25 to 35 degrees C for 4 h a day, polysaccharide production increased significantly, indicating microalgae stress. Nutrient limitation also see…
How agriculture, connectivity and water management can affect water quality of a mediterranean coastal wetland
2022
The Natural Park of Albufera (Valencia, Spain) is an important Mediterranean coastal wetland that suffers continuous environmental effects from human activities and water uses, mainly related to agriculture and urban/industrial sewage discharges. The aim of this research was to assess the water quality of the different aquatic environments of this wetland, taking into account the connection between them, the agricultural impact and the management of irrigation water. The UE Water Framework Directive was followed in order to evaluate the ecological and trophic status of water systems. Spatial approaches were used to integrate physicochemical data into GIS vector layers to map the more proble…
Approximate solution of the Fokker-Planck-Kolmogorov equation
2002
The aim of this paper is to present a thorough investigation of approximate techniques for estimating the stationary and non-stationary probability density function (PDF) of the response of nonlinear systems subjected to (additive and/or multiplicative) Gaussian white noise excitations. Attention is focused on the general scheme of weighted residuals for the approximate solution of the Fokker-Planck-Kolmogorov (FPK) equation. It is shown that the main drawbacks of closure schemes, such as negative values of the PDF in some regions, may be overcome by rewriting the FPK equation in terms of log-probability density function (log-PDF). The criteria for selecting the set of weighting functions i…