Performance of a seawater-driven forward osmosis process for pre-concentrating digested sludge centrate: Organic enrichment and membrane fouling

© 2018 The Royal Society of Chemistry. This study demonstrated the potential of seawater-driven forward osmosis for enriching organic matter in digested sludge centrate. The results indicated that the cellulose triacetate membrane offered better performance than the polyamide membrane in terms of organic materials enrichment, fouling resistance and membrane cleaning efficiency. Membrane fouling decreased the enrichment efficiency of organic matter since the deposition of suspended particulate matter on the membrane surface caused fouling and loss of organic matter from the concentrated sludge centrate. The results showed that increasing the draw solution concentration increased flux but did not aggravate membrane fouling, however, it could reduce the efficiency of physical flushing to recover the flux. Seawater showed comparable forward osmosis performance to that of analytical grade NaCl as draw solutes in terms of flux and organic enrichment. The results also showed that seawater as the draw solution resulted in more membrane fouling and lower flux recovery compared to NaCl

Physical cleaning techniques to control fouling during the pre-concentration of high suspended-solid content solutions for resource recovery by forward osmosis

© 2017 The fouling propensity of digested sludge centrate, and the effectiveness of membrane flushing, air-scouring, and ultrasonication for physical cleaning were systematically evaluated. Accelerated fouling conditions were applied to simulate the long-term and intensive pre-concentration scenario that is required for phosphorus recovery from digested sludge centrate. The results suggest that membrane fouling during forward osmosis operation to pre-concentrate digested sludge centrate is mostly due to the deposition of small mineral crystals and particulate matter on the membrane surface. Both high cross-flow velocity flushing and ultrasonication were effective at preventing membrane fouling under accelerated fouling conditions. Our results also highlight the potential of intermittent membrane cleaning for achieving a higher cumulative permeate volume and lower energy consumption in comparison to continuous application to prevent membrane fouling. Among several physical cleaning regimes investigated in this study, the combination of ultrasonication and high cross-flow velocity flushing was the most effective and could maintain stable FO operation over several consecutive cleaning cycles

Factors governing the pre-concentration of wastewater using forward osmosis for subsequent resource recovery

© 2016 This study demonstrated a technique using forward osmosis (FO) to pre-concentrate the organic matter in raw wastewater, thereby transforming low strength wastewater into an anaerobically digestible solution. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) of raw wastewater was concentrated up to approximately eightfold at a water recovery of 90%. Thus, even low strength wastewater could be pre-concentrated by FO to the range suitable for biogas production via anaerobic treatment. Excessive salinity accumulation in pre-concentrated wastewater was successfully mitigated by adopting ionic organic draw solutes, namely, sodium acetate, and EDTA-2Na. These two draw solutes are also expected to benefit the digestibility of the pre-concentrated wastewater compared to the commonly used draw solute sodium chloride. Significant membrane fouling was observed when operating at 90% water recovery using raw wastewater. Nevertheless, membrane fouling was reversible and was effectively controlled by optimising the hydrodynamic conditions of the cross-flow FO system

Understanding the mechanisms of trace organic contaminant removal by high retention membrane bioreactors: a critical review

© 2018, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature. High retention membrane bioreactors (HR-MBR) combine a high retention membrane separation process such as membrane distillation, forward osmosis, or nanofiltration with a conventional activated sludge (CAS) process. Depending on the physicochemical properties of the trace organic contaminants (TrOCs) as well as the selected high retention membrane process, HR-MBR can achieve effective removal (80–99%) of a broad spectrum of TrOCs. An in-depth assessment of the available literature on HR-MBR performance suggests that compared to CAS and conventional MBRs (using micro- or ultra-filtration membrane), aqueous phase removal of TrOCs in HR-MBR is significantly better. Conceptually, longer retention time may significantly improve TrOC biodegradation, but there are insufficient data in the literature to evaluate the extent of TrOC biodegradation improvement by HR-MBR. The accumulation of hardly biodegradable TrOCs within the bioreactor of an HR-MBR system may complicate further treatment and beneficial reuse of sludge. In addition to TrOCs, accumulation of salts gradually increases the salinity in bioreactor and can adversely affect microbial activities. Strategies to mitigate these limitations are discussed. A qualitative framework is proposed to predict the contribution of the different key mechanisms of TrOC removal (i.e., membrane retention, biodegradation, and sorption) in HR-MBR

Assessing the integration of forward osmosis and anaerobic digestion for simultaneous wastewater treatment and resource recovery

© 2018 This study assessed the performance and key challenges associated with the integration of forward osmosis (FO) and anaerobic digestion for wastewater treatment and resource recovery. Using a thin film composite polyamide FO membrane, maximising the pre-concentration factor (i.e. system water recovery) resulted in the enrichment of organics and salinity in wastewater. Biomethane potential evaluation indicated that methane production increased correspondingly with the FO pre-concentration factor due to the organic retention in the feed solution. At 90% water recovery, about 10% more methane was produced when using NaOAc compared with NaCl because of the contribution of biodegradable reverse NaOAc flux. No negative impact on anaerobic digestion was observed when wastewater was pre-concentrated ten-fold (90% water recovery) for both draw solutes. Interestingly, the unit cost of methane production using NaOAc was slightly lower than NaCl due to the lower reverse solute flux of NaOAc, although NaCl is a much cheaper chemical

Occurrence and bioconcentration of micropollutants in Silver Perch (Bidyanus bidyanus) in a reclaimed water reservoir

© 2018 This study examined the occurrence of 49 micropollutants in reclaimed water and Silver Perch (Bidyanus bidyanus) living in a reclaimed water reservoir. The numbers of micropollutants detected in reclaimed water, Silver Perch liver, and Silver Perch flesh were 20, 23, and 19, respectively. Concentrations of all micropollutants in reclaimed water, except benzotriazole, were well below the Australian Guideline for Recycled Water (AGRW) values for potable purposes. The concentration of benzotriazole in reclaimed water was 675 ± 130 ng/L while the AGRW value for this compound was 7 ng/L. Not all micropollutants detected in the water phase were identified in the Silver Perch flesh and liver tissues. Likewise, not all micropollutants detected in the Silver Perch flesh and liver were identified in the reclaimed water. In general, micropollutant concentrations in the liver were higher than in the flesh. Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) was detected at a trace level in reclaimed water well below the AGRW guideline value for potable purposes, but showed a high and medium bioconcentration factor in Silver Perch liver and flesh, respectively. In addition, the risk quotient for PFOS was medium and high when considering its concentration in Silver Perch liver and flesh, respectively. Results reported here highlight the need to evaluate multiple parameters for a comprehensive risk assessment. The results also single out PFOS as a notable contaminant of concern for further investigation

Early Trends in Cystatin C and Outcomes in Patients with Cirrhosis and Acute Kidney Injury

Background. Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common and severe complication in patients with cirrhosis. Progression of AKI to a higher stage associates with increased mortality. Intervening early in AKI when renal dysfunction is worsening may improve outcomes. However, serum creatinine correlates poorly with glomerular filtration in patients with cirrhosis and fluctuations may mask progression early in the course of AKI. Cystatin C, a low-molecular-weight cysteine proteinase inhibitor, is a potentially more accurate marker of glomerular filtration. Methods. We conducted a prospective multicenter study in patients with cirrhosis comparing changes in cystatin and creatinine immediately following onset of AKI as predictors of a composite endpoint of dialysis or mortality. Results. Of 106 patients, 37 (35%) met the endpoint. Cystatin demonstrated less variability between samples than creatinine. Patients were stratified into four groups reflecting changes in creatinine and cystatin: both unchanged or decreased 38 (36%) (Scr−/CysC−); only cystatin increased 25 (24%) (Scr−/CysC+); only creatinine increased 15 (14%) (Scr+/CysC−); and both increased 28 (26%) (Scr+/CysC+). With Scr−/CysC− as the reference, in both instances where cystatin rose, Scr−/CysC+ and Scr+/CysC+, the primary outcome was significantly more frequent in multivariate analysis, and , respectively. However, when only creatinine rose, outcomes were similar to the reference group. Conclusions. Changes in cystatin levels early in AKI are more closely associated with eventual dialysis or mortality than creatinine and may allow more rapid identification of patients at risk for adverse outcomes

Characterizing and correcting phase biases in short-term, multilooked interferograms

Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) is widely used to measure deformation of the Earth's surface over large areas and long time periods. A common strategy to overcome coherence loss in long-term interferograms is to use multiple multilooked shorter interferograms, which can cover the same time period but maintain coherence. However, it has recently been shown that using this strategy can introduce a bias (also referred to as a “fading signal”) in the interferometric phase. We isolate the signature of the phase bias by constructing “daisy chain” sums of short-term interferograms of different length covering identical 1-year time intervals. This shows that the shorter interferograms are more affected by this phenomenon and the degree of the effect depends on ground cover types; cropland and forested pixels have significantly larger bias than urban pixels and the bias for cropland mimics subsidence throughout the year, whereas forests mimics subsidence in the spring and heave in the autumn. We, propose a method for correcting the phase bias, based on the assumption, borne out by our observations, that the bias in an interferogram is linearly related to the sum of the bias in shorter interferograms spanning the same time. We tested the algorithm over a study area in western Turkey by comparing average velocities against results from a phase linking approach, which estimates the single primary phases from all the interferometric pairs, and has been shown to be almost insensitive to the phase bias. Our corrected velocities agree well with those from a phase linking approach. Our approach can be applied to global compilations of short-term interferograms and provides accurate long-term velocity estimation without a requirement for coherence in long-term interferograms

Order Effects of Ballot Position without Information-Induced Confirmatory Bias

Candidate list positions have been shown to influence decision making when voters have limited candidate information (e.g. Miller and Krosnick, 1998; Brockington, 2003). Here, a primacy advantage is observed due to a greater number of positive arguments generated for early list candidates (Krosnick, 1991). The present study examined list position effects when an absence of information precludes such a confirmatory bias heuristic. We report the first large scale low-information experimental election where candidate position is fully counterbalanced. Seven hundred and twenty participants voted in a mock election where the position of 6 fictitious and meaningless parties was counterbalanced across the electorate. Analysis by position revealed that significantly fewer votes were allocated to the terminal parties (Experiment 1). In addition, Experiment 1 reported preliminary evidence of an alphabetical bias (consistent with Bagley, 1966). However, this positional bias was not present in a methodological replication using six genuine UK political parties (Experiment 2). This suggests that in situations of pure guessing, the heuristic shifts from the primacy benefiting confirmatory bias to an alternative heuristic that prejudices the first and last parties. These findings suggest that whilst the UK general electoral process may be largely immune to positional prejudice, English local elections (in which there can be multiple candidates from the same party) and multiple preference ranking systems (Scottish Local Government and London Mayoral Elections) could be susceptible to both positional and alphabetical biases

Visual parameter optimisation for biomedical image processing

Background: Biomedical image processing methods require users to optimise input parameters to ensure high quality output. This presents two challenges. First, it is difficult to optimise multiple input parameters for multiple input images. Second, it is difficult to achieve an understanding of underlying algorithms, in particular, relationships between input and output. Results: We present a visualisation method that transforms users’ ability to understand algorithm behaviour by integrating input and output, and by supporting exploration of their relationships. We discuss its application to a colour deconvolution technique for stained histology images and show how it enabled a domain expert to identify suitable parameter values for the deconvolution of two types of images, and metrics to quantify deconvolution performance. It also enabled a breakthrough in understanding by invalidating an underlying assumption about the algorithm. Conclusions: The visualisation method presented here provides analysis capability for multiple inputs and outputs in biomedical image processing that is not supported by previous analysis software. The analysis supported by our method is not feasible with conventional trial-and-error approaches