Treatment of domestic wastewater in an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor followed by moving bed biofilm reactor

The performance of a laboratory-scale sewage treatment system composed of an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor and a moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) at a temperature of (22-35 A degrees C) was evaluated. The entire treatment system was operated at different hydraulic retention times (HRT's) of 13.3, 10 and 5.0 h. An overall reduction of 80-86% for CODtotal; 51-73% for CODcolloidal and 20-55% for CODsoluble was found at a total HRT of 5-10 h, respectively. By prolonging the HRT to 13.3 h, the removal efficiencies of CODtotal, CODcolloidal and CODsoluble increased up to 92, 89 and 80%, respectively. However, the removal efficiency of CODsuspended in the combined system remained unaffected when increasing the total HRT from 5 to 10 h and from 10 to 13.3 h. This indicates that, the removal of CODsuspended was independent on the imposed HRT. Ammonia-nitrogen removal in MBBR treating UASB reactor effluent was significantly influenced by organic loading rate (OLR). 62% of ammonia was eliminated at OLR of 4.6 g COD m(-2) day(-1). The removal efficiency was decreased by a value of 34 and 43% at a higher OLR's of 7.4 and 17.8 g COD m(-2) day(-1), respectively. The mean overall residual counts of faecal coliform in the final effluent were 8.9 x 10(4) MPN per 100 ml at a HRT of 13.3 h, 4.9 x 10(5) MPN per 100 ml at a HRT of 10 h and 9.4 x 10(5) MPN per 100 ml at a HRT of 5.0 h, corresponding to overall log(10) reduction of 2.3, 1.4 and 0.7, respectively. The discharged sludge from UASB-MBBR exerts an excellent settling property. Moreover, the mean value of the net sludge yield was only 6% in UASB reactor and 7% in the MBBR of the total influent COD at a total HRT of 13.3 h. Accordingly, the use of the combined UASB-MBBR system for sewage treatment is recommended at a total HRT of 13.3 h

New functional biocarriers for enhancing the performance of a hybrid moving bed biofilm reactor-membrane bioreactor system

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. In this study, new sponge modified plastic carriers for moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) was developed. The performance and membrane fouling behavior of a hybrid MBBR-membrane bioreactor (MBBR-MBR) system were also evaluated. Comparing to the MBBR with plastic carriers (MBBR), the MBBR with sponge modified biocarriers (S-MBBR) showed better effluent quality and enhanced nutrient removal at HRTs of 12 h and 6 h. Regarding fouling issue of the hybrid systems, soluble microbial products (SMP) of the MBR unit greatly influenced membrane fouling. The sponge modified biocarriers could lower the levels of SMP in mixed liquor and extracellular polymeric substances in activated sludge, thereby mitigating cake layer and pore blocking resistances of the membrane. The reduced SMP and biopolymer clusters in membrane cake layer were also observed. The results demonstrated that the sponge modified biocarriers were capable of improving overall MBBR performance and substantially alleviated membrane fouling of the subsequent MBR unit

Treatment and removal strategies for estrogens from wastewater

Natural and synthetic steroidal estrogens (estrone, 17β-estradiol and 17α-ethinylestradiol) are endocrine disrupters, that are discharged consistently from the sewage treatment works into surface waters, thereby causing endocrine disrupting effects to aquatic organisms at trace concentrations (nanogram per litre). Several years of research have been focused on their fate, behaviour and removal in the environment but primarily in the sewage treatment works which acts as a sink for these compounds. This review attempts to summarize the factors involved in the removal of these chemicals from the sewage treatment works. Biological processes, and to a limited extent physio-chemical properties, play a vital role in the endocrinal deactivation of which these compounds. The efficiency of these processes is highly dependent on operating parameters (such as sludge retention time, redox potential, etc) that govern the secondary treatment process of a functional sewage treatment works. Although advanced treatment technologies are available, cost and operational considerations do not make them a sustainable solution

Benthic diatom monitoring and assessment of freshwater environments: standard methods and future challenges

Fil: Soizic, Morin. National Research Institute of Science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture; FranceFil: Gómez, Nora. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Instituto de Limnología Dr. Raúl A. Ringuelet; ArgentinaFil: Tornés, Elisabet. University of Girona. Institute of Aquatic Ecology; SpainFil: Licursi, Magdalena. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Instituto de Limnología Dr. Raúl A. Ringuelet; ArgentinaFil: Rosebery, Juliette. Aquatic Ecosystems and Global Changes Research Unit; Franc

PARTIAL NITRITATION OF SYNTHETIC LANDFILL LEACHATE IN AN ATTACHED IMMOBILIZED REACTOR WITH ACRYL FIBER BIOMASS CARRIER

Joint Research on Environmental Science and Technology for the Eart

Denitrification of a landfill leachate with high nitrate concentration in an anoxic rotating biological contactor

The denitrification performance of a lab-scale anoxic rotating biological contactor (RBC) using landfill leachate with high nitrate concentration was evaluated. Under a carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N) of 2, the reactor achieved N-NO3 − removal efficiencies above 95% for concentrations up to 100 mg N-NO3 − l−1. The highest observed denitrification rate was 55 mg N-NO3 − l−1 h−1 (15 g N-NO3 − m−2 d−1) at a nitrate concentration of 560 mg N-NO3 − l−1. Although the reactor has revealed a very good performance in terms of denitrification, effluent chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentrations were still high for direct discharge. The results obtained in a subsequent experiment at constant nitrate concentration (220 mg N-NO3 − l−1) and lower C/N ratios (1.2 and 1.5) evidenced that the organic matter present in the leachate was non-biodegradable. A phosphorus concentration of 10 mg P-PO4 3− l−1 promoted autotrophic denitrification, revealing the importance of phosphorus concentration on biological denitrification processes.Susana Cortez and Pilar Teixeira are grateful to Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT) for financial support through the grants SFRH/BD/24715/2005 and SFRH/BPD/26803/2006, respectively

Nitrogen removal in a Sequencing Batch Biofilm Reactor : effect of carbon availability and intermittent aeration

This study aimed to investigate the effects of carbon availability and intermittent aeration on nitrogen removal in a Sequencing Batch Biofilm Reactor (SBBR). The percentage of nitrogen removal in the SBBRs operating with dump fill and slow fill with optimum intermittent aeration was quite similar, 75.7% and 69.2%, respectively, indicating that intermittent aeration allowed a considerable energy saving without compromising significantly nitrogen removal. Accumulation of storage polymers by heterotrophic bacteria was only observed in the dump fill mode of operation. FISH analyses of the biofilm indicated that ammonia-oxidisers belonged to the beta-subclass Proteobacteria and nitrite-oxidisers were affiliated with the genus Nitrospira.Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER)Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Three-dimensional stratification of bacterial biofilm populations in a moving bed biofilm reactor for nitritation-anammox.

Moving bed biofilm reactors (MBBRs) are increasingly used for nitrogen removal with nitritation-anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) processes in wastewater treatment. Carriers provide protected surfaces where ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and anammox bacteria form complex biofilms. However, the knowledge about the organization of microbial communities in MBBR biofilms is sparse. We used new cryosectioning and imaging methods for fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to study the structure of biofilms retrieved from carriers in a nitritation-anammox MBBR. The dimensions of the carrier compartments and the biofilm cryosections after FISH showed good correlation, indicating little disturbance of biofilm samples by the treatment. FISH showed that Nitrosomonas europaea/eutropha-related cells dominated the AOB and Candidatus Brocadia fulgida-related cells dominated the anammox guild. New carriers were initially colonized by AOB, followed by anammox bacteria proliferating in the deeper biofilm layers, probably in anaerobic microhabitats created by AOB activity. Mature biofilms showed a pronounced three-dimensional stratification where AOB dominated closer to the biofilm-water interface, whereas anammox were dominant deeper into the carrier space and towards the walls. Our results suggest that current mathematical models may be oversimplifying these three-dimensional systems and unless the multidimensionality of these systems is considered, models may result in suboptimal design of MBBR carriers

A novel osmosis membrane bioreactor-membrane distillation hybrid system for wastewater treatment and reuse

© 2016 . A novel approach was designed to simultaneously enhance nutrient removal and reduce membrane fouling for wastewater treatment using an attached growth biofilm (AGB) integrated with an osmosis membrane bioreactor (OsMBR) system for the first time. In this study, a highly charged organic compound (HEDTA3-) was employed as a novel draw solution in the AGB-OsMBR system to obtain a low reverse salt flux, maintain a healthy environment for the microorganisms. The AGB-OsMBR system achieved a stable water flux of 3.62 L/m2 h, high nutrient removal of 99% and less fouling during a 60-day operation. Furthermore, the high salinity of diluted draw solution could be effectively recovered by membrane distillation (MD) process with salt rejection of 99.7%. The diluted draw solution was re-concentrated to its initial status (56.1 mS/cm) at recovery of 9.8% after 6 h. The work demonstrated that novel multi-barrier systems could produce high quality potable water from impaired streams