Advances in automated reed bed installations

Constructed wetlands are a popular form of waste-water treatment that have proliferated across Europe and the rest of the world in recent years as an environmentally conscious alternative to chemical treatments. The ability to monitor the conditions in the bed and control input factors such as heating and aeration may extend the lifetime of the reed bed substantially beyond the ten year lifetime normally reached. The Autonomous Reed Bed Installation (ARBI) project is an EU FP7 initiative to develop such a bed. One critical parameter to observe is the clog state of the reed bed, as this can severely impact on the efficiency of water treatment. Magnetic resonance (MR) sensors can be a powerful tool in determining clogging levels (Analyst 2011, 136, 2283-2286) and allow automated remedial action to be taken against the bed improving treatment efficiency, prolonging the life of the bed and avoiding the need to refurbish the bed, which is both time consuming and costly. This work details magnetic sensors suitable for long-term embedding into a constructed wetland

Advances in clog state monitoring for use in automated reed bed installations

Constructed wetlands are a popular form of waste-water treatment that have proliferated across Europe and the rest of the world in recent years as an environmentally conscious form of waste water treatment. The ability to monitor the conditions in the bed and control input factors such as heating and aeration may extend the lifetime of the reed bed substantially beyond the ten year lifetime normally reached. The Autonomous Reed Bed Installation (ARBI) project is an EU FP7 initiative to develop a reed bed with automated control over input parameters based on readings taken from embedded sensors. Automated remedial action may improve bed treatment efficiency, and prolong the life of the bed and avoiding the need to refurbish the bed, which is both time consuming and costly. One critical parameter to observe is the clog state of the reed bed, as this can severely impact on the efficiency of water treatment to the point of the bed becoming non-operable. Magnetic resonance (MR) sensors can be a powerful tool in determining clogging levels, and has previously been explored in the literature. This work is based on a conference paper (2nd International Conference "Water resources and wetlands", 2014) and details magnetic sensors suitable for long-term embedding into a constructed wetland. Unlike previous studies this work examines a probe embedded into a wetland

Intermittent aeration to improve wastewater treatment efficiency in pilot-scale constructed wetland

Forced aeration of horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetlands (HSSF CWs) is nowadays a recognized method to improve treatment efficiency, mainly in terms of ammonium removal. While numerous investigations have been reported testing constant aeration, scarce information can be found about the efficiency of intermittent aeration. This study aims at comparing continuous and intermittent aeration, establishing if there is an optimal regime that will increase treatment efficiency of HSSF CWs whilst minimizing the energy requirement. Full and intermittent aeration were tested in a pilot plant of three HSSF CWs (2.64 m2 each) fed with primary treated wastewater. One unit was fully aerated; one intermittently aerated (i.e. by setting a limit of 0.5 mg/L dissolved oxygen within the bed) with the remaining unit not aerated as a control. Results indicated that intermittent aeration was the most successful operating method. Indeed, the coexistence of aerobic and anoxic conditions promoted by the intermittent aeration resulted in the highest COD (66%), ammonium (99%) and total nitrogen (79%) removals. On the other hand, continuous aeration promotes ammonium removal (99%), but resulted in nitrate concentrations in the effluent of up to 27 mg/L. This study demonstrates the high potential of the intermittent aeration to increase wastewater treatment efficiency of CWs providing an extreme benefit in terms of the energy consumption

Assessing the economic suitability of aeration and the influence of bed heating on constructed wetlands treatment efficiency and life-span

Intensive constructed wetlands including forced aeration and heating were studied to improve treatment efficiency and prevent clogging. The experiments were carried out in a pilot plant (0.4 m2) treating urban wastewater with an organic loading rate of 40-60 gCOD/m2∙d. Continuous and intermittent aeration was performed on 8% of the wetland surface, leading to different dissolved oxygen concentrations within the wetlands (from 0.2 to 5 mgO2/L). Continuous forced aeration increased organic matter (COD) and ammonium nitrogen removal by 56% and 69%, respectively. Improvements in 33 wastewater treatment caused by forced aeration can result into reduction of the surface area. This work demonstrated that for the studied configuration the cost of the power consumption of the continuous aeration was largely covered by the reduction of the wetlands surface. Even if the heating of 8% of the wetland surface at 21°C had no effects on treatment performances, positive results showed that solids accumulation rate within the granular medium, which is closely related to the development of clogging. It has been demonstrated that heating for 10 days per year during 20 year period would delay the equivalent of 1 year of solids accumulation

Testing the Waste Based Biorefinery Concept: Pilot Scale Cultivation of Microalgal Species on Spent Anaerobic Digestate Fluids

PurposeA waste based biorefinery approach has been tested.MethodsThis has been investigated by culturing in a 800 L photobioreactor two autotrophic microalgae namely Nannochloropsis oceanica and Scenedesmus quadricauda utilising filtered spent anaerobic digestate fluids of N:P ratio 14.22 as substrate.ResultsSignificant rates of bioremediation simultaneously with biomass and associated end product formation were achieved. Nitrogen and phosphorus of waste based media was decreased up to 90%. The biomass biochemical analysis of the microalgae when grown on the waste based formulated media demonstrated the comparable content of lipids and proteins with the species grown on f/2 media.ConclusionsTheoretical biomethane potential generation, should the algal cultures be placed in an anaerobic digester, was calculated at 0.58 L CH4 g−1 VS for N. oceanica and 0.48 L CH4 g−1 VS for S. quadricauda showing comparable results with other studies of different source of biomass

MKS3/TMEM67 mutations are a major cause of COACH syndrome, a joubert syndrome related disorder with liver involvement

The acronym COACH defines an autosomal recessive condition of Cerebellar vermis hypo/ aplasia, Oligophrenia, congenital Ataxia, Coloboma and Hepatic fibrosis. Patients present the “molar tooth sign”, a midbrain-hindbrain malformation pathognomonic for Joubert Syndrome (JS) and Related Disorders (JSRDs). The main feature of COACH is congenital hepatic fibrosis (CHF), resulting from malformation of the embryonic ductal plate. CHF is invariably found also in Meckel syndrome (MS), a lethal ciliopathy already found to be allelic with JSRDs at the CEP290 and RPGRIP1L genes. Recently, mutations in the MKS3 gene (approved symbol TMEM67), causative of about 7% MS cases, have been detected in few Meckel-like and pure JS patients. Analysis of MKS3 in 14 COACH families identified mutations in 8 (57%). Features such as colobomas and nephronophthisis were found only in a subset of mutated cases. These data confirm COACH as a distinct JSRD subgroup with core features of JS plus CHF, which major gene is MKS3, and further strengthen gene-phenotype correlates in JSRDs

Oral self-mutilation in a patient with rhombencephalosynapsys.

Rhombencephalosynapsis (RS) is a rare cerebellar malformation. Its essential features are the absence of the incisura cerebelli posterior, fusion of the cerebellar hemispheres, the absence of the velum medullare anterius and nuclei fastigii, and fusion of the dentate nuclei, which are shifted towards the mid-line. Clinically, affected patients present with signs of cerebellar and motor disturbances. The present report describes a new patient affected by RS. The subject first presented at the age of 22 years because of a psychiatric symptomatology which was characterized by obsessive oral self-mutilation associated with an intellectual disability. Objective evaluation documented dysmorphic features, while neurological examination showed only a slight truncal ataxia. The subject's IQ was 74 on the Wechsler Scale (verbal IQ = 79, performance IQ = 74). Psychiatric evaluation with DSM-IV criteria documented an obsessive-compulsive personality disorder associated with emotional instability and oral self-mutilation. The typical picture of rhombencephalosynapsis was evident on magnetic resonance imaging. Both chromosomal analysis and routine biochemical investigations were normal. The relationship between oral self-injurious behaviour and cerebellar malformations is discussed with particular regard to the behavioural aspects of cerebellar congenital pathology in affective disorders and in autism

Aicardi-Goutieres syndrome neuroradiological description of eleven new cases

We describe the clinical and neuro radiological features of eleven patients with Aicardi-Goutieres syndrome, a rare and severe progressive encephalopathy with onset in the first year of life. The syndrome is autosomal recessive with varying clinical presentation and course. Our patients were studied by CT and MR imaging and findings were in agreement with literature reports. Calcification of the basal nuclei was found in 100\% of cases and six patients presented a progressive increase in the number and size of the calcifications which were bilateral and largely symmetrical. White matter changes were seen in 76\% of cases without a specific pattern of distribution. Early neuroradiological diagnosis of suspect Aicardi-Goutieres syndrome is established by ruling out other pathological processes and the site and features of the calcifications rather than the white matter changes is important to then search for typical CSF changes