Search results for "sewage"
showing 10 items of 480 documents
Application of Selected Methods of Black Box for Modelling the Settleability Process in Wastewater Treatment Plant
2017
Abstract The paper described how the results of measurements of inflow wastewater temperature in the chamber, a degree of external and internal recirculation in the biological-mechanical wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Cedzyna near Kielce, Poland, were used to make predictions of settleability of activated sludge. Three methods, namely: multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS), random forests (RF) and modified random forests (RF + SOM) were employed to compute activated sludge settleability. The results of analysis indicate that modified random forests demonstrate the best predictive abilities.
The influence of oversizing on maintenance cost in wastewater treatment plants
2021
Abstract Management of Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) is a complex process, not only from a technical point of view but also from an economic point of view. There are several factors that influence the wastewater treatment process and can cause an increase in management costs. One of these factors is the treatment capacity, in particular the WWTPs’ oversizing problem. The difference between the design population equivalent (p.e.) and the actual p.e. treated generates imbalances in the wastewater treatment process costs. This paper analyses the influence that oversizing has on the maintenance costs for WWTPs in the Valencia region (Spain). Through an econometric approach, the behaviour …
Preventive maintenance versus cost of repairs in asset management: An efficiency analysis in wastewater treatment plants
2020
Abstract The operation and management of Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) is of paramount importance to guarantee the sustainability of water resources. Just like any other production process, wastewater treatment process involves different costs, such as: energy, personnel, maintenance and reagents. Regarding maintenance costs, they have become an issue of great concern to many operators in the last years. Maintaining the facilities in good condition ensures the proper performance of these infrastructures and reduces the risk of failures. It should be known that equipment breakdowns imply an increase in operating costs, with a high risk of generating an environmental damage due to the m…
A method for reclaiming nutrients from aquacultural waste for use in soilless growth systems
2020
Abstract The aim of this work was to develop a method that allows the recovery of nutrients from aquaculture sludge, not only to alleviate the disposal problem, but also to address the future scarcity of non-renewable fertilizers. This method includes two steps: Nutrient mobilization using aerobic digestion followed by solids precipitation using chitosan as the flocculant. The aerobic digestion experiments were conducted in aerated batch reactors, while a jar test apparatus was used to assess the capacity of chitosan to remove total suspended solids (TSS) and turbidity. During aerobic digestion, the concentration of soluble N (sum of NH4-N, NO2-N, NO3-N) increased from 181 mg/L at the start…
Analysis of propionate‐degrading consortia from agricultural biogas plants
2016
Abstract In order to investigate the propionate‐degrading community of agricultural biogas plants, four propionate‐degrading consortia (Ap1a, N12, G12, and Wp2a) were established from different biogas plants which were fed with renewable resources. The consortia were cultivated in a batch for a period of 2–4 years and then analyzed in an 8‐week batch experiment for microbial succession during propionate degradation. Community shifts showed considerable propagation of Syntrophobacter sulfatireducens, Cryptanaerobacter sp./Pelotomaculum sp., and “Candidatus Cloacamonas sp.” in the course of decreasing propionate concentration. Methanogenic species belonged mainly to the genera Methanosarcina,…
Control of VOCs from printing press air emissions by anaerobic bioscrubber: Performance and microbial community of an on-site pilot unit
2017
Abstract A novel process consisted of an anaerobic bioscrubber was studied at the field scale for the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from a printing press facility. The pilot unit worked under high fluctuating waste gas emissions containing ethanol, ethyl acetate, and 1-ethoxy-2-propanol as main pollutants, with airflows ranging between 184 and 1253 m 3 h −1 and an average concentration of 1126 ± 470 mg-C Nm −3 . Three scrubber configurations (cross-flow and vertical-flow packings and spray tower) were tested, and cross-flow packing was found to be the best one. For this packing, daily average values of VOC removal efficiency ranged between 83% and 93% for liquid to a…
Anaerobic degradation of glycol ether-ethanol mixtures using EGSB and hybrid reactors: Performance comparison and ether cleavage pathway.
2017
Abstract The anaerobic biodegradation of ethanol-glycol ether mixtures as 1-ethoxy-2-propanol (E2P) and 1-methoxy-2-propanol (M2P), widely used in printing facilities, was investigated by means of two laboratory-scale anaerobic bioreactors at 25oC: an expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) reactor and an anaerobic hybrid reactor (AHR), which incorporated a packed bed to improve biomass retention. Despite AHR showed almost half of solid leakages compared to EGSB, both reactors obtained practically the same performance for the operating conditions studied with global removal efficiencies (REs) higher than 92% for organic loading rates (OLRs) as high as 54 kg of chemical oxygen demand (COD) m−3 d…
Effect of long residence time and high temperature over anaerobic biodegradation of Scenedesmus microalgae grown in wastewater
2018
[EN] Anaerobic digestion of indigenous Scenedesmus spp. microalgae was studied in continuous lab-scale anaerobic reactors at different temperatures (35 degrees C and 55 degrees C), and sludge retention time - SRT (50 and 70 days). Mesophilic digestion was performed in a continuous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR) and in an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR). Mesophilic CSTR operated at 50 days SRT only achieved 11.9% of anaerobic biodegradability whereas in the AnMBR at 70 days SRT and 50 days HRT reached 39.5%, which is even higher than the biodegradability achieved in the thermophilic CSTR at 50 days SRT (30.4%). Microbial analysis revealed a high abundance of cellulose-degraders in both re…
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…
What happens in hospitals does not stay in hospitals: antibiotic-resistant bacteria in hospital wastewater systems.
2016
Hospitals are hotspots for antimicrobial-resistant bacteria (ARB) and play a major role in both their emergence and spread. Large numbers of these ARB will be ejected from hospitals via wastewater systems. In this review, we present quantitative and qualitative data of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli, vancomycin-resistant enterococci and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in hospital wastewaters compared to community wastewaters. We also discuss the fate of these ARB in wastewater treatment plants and in the downstream environment. Published studies have shown that hospital effluents contain ARB, the burden of these bacteria being dependent on their local prevalence. The…