Development of an Integrated System for Ozone Treated Harvested Rainwater in Perspective of Green Building Scenario of Malaysia

In this study an integrated system for rainwater harvesting and ozone treatment has been developed for continuous supply of drinkable water. In the perspective of Malaysian scenario ozone treatment of rainwater is still considered a new approach. This pilot project is launched to justify the reliability, the effectiveness and the economic aspect of ozone treated rainwater. The samples of rainwater were analyzed for both physiochemical and microbiological parameters before and after the ozone treatment. The injection of ozone has shown prominent improvement in both parameters and also the quality up gradation of the original rainwater. The results are encouraging and suggest that the technique is promising to fulfil both requirements continuous supply of rainwater as well as accomplish successful ozone treatment. The system can readily be installed at any location and measurements assure that it could certainly provide an alternative water source when conventional piped supply is unavailable. In the perspective of Green Building scenario this integrated approach of ozone treated harvested rainwater might be able to reduce the impact of environmental factors. Keywords: Ozone treatment, Rainwater quality improvement, Water quality, Disinfection with ozone, Green building concept

Urban Heat Island mitigation using green roof approach

In urban environments, vegetation has largely been replaced by impervious and often dark surfaces. These conditions contribute to an Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. This phenomenon is demonstrated in many cities and produced effects such as higher atmospheric temperatures, intensive precipitation, excessive solar radiation and increasing air pollution. Therefore, reducing the surface temperature of roofs in a building may play an important role in improving the conventional roof surfaces with green roofs that offer much lower temperatures throughout a day to reach their thermal performance and reduce the absorption of solar radiation. Thus, this study is focused on determining the effectiveness of the existing green roof in reducing the ambient temperature and humidity of the air above it by comparison with conventional open roof top without vegetation. This study also aims to evaluate the potential of green roof to reduce the air pollutants in improving air quality in urban cities. As a result, by adopting green roof system, it has reduced temperature during the hottest hour in a day at 1230 hour (hr) by 4.3°C when compared to open roof. Green roof has also recorded higher percentage of humidity compared to open roof. Most importantly, it was proven through this study that green roof has the potential of absorbing pollutants in the air by reducing the concentrations of Sulphur dioxide (SO2), Ammonia (NH3), Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), Ozone (O3) and Carbon monoxide (CO) compared to open roof. Thus, green roofs can be considered to be one of the effective methods to mitigate UHI effects in urban cities

Electrocoagulation technque in enhancing COD and suspended solids removal to improve wastewater quality

This paper presents a preliminary study for the removal of COD and suspended solids in wastewater treatment by combining magnetic field and electrocoagulation (EC) technology. The experiments were carried out using batch apparatus and setup in the static method. Batch experiments with two monopolar iron (Fe) plate anodes and cathodes were employed as electrodes. Wastewater samples were prepared from milk powder with an initial COD of 1,140 mgL-1 and suspended solids of 1,400 mgL-1 and acidic conditions were employed (pH ~ 3). DC current was varied from 0.5–0.8 A and operating times were between 30 and 50 min. The results show that the effluent wastewater was very clear (turbidity ~9 NTU) and its quality exceeded the direct discharge standard. The suspended solids and COD removal efficiencies were as high as 30.6 and 75.5%, respectively. In addition, the experimental results also show that the electrocoagulation could neutralise the pH of wastewater

A review: methodologies review of magnetic water treatment as green approach of water pipeline system

This review is aimed to present an in-depth review of several methodologies on magnetic water treatment (MWT) that are employed as scale treatment in water pipeline and to critically discuss each method in order to determine the best outcome of MWT. The magnetically assisted water in pipeline in various applications are presented, argued and best variables are listed according to the performance of each MWT. The advantages and limitations of MWT are discussed and the main outcome from the review summarize the best method in MWT, especially in effectiveness of treating scale in terms of sustained environment benefits. Magnetic field application in water treatment has the potential to improve the water pipeline performance and lifetime. The application is also significant in controlling the growth of scale in upcoming system. Both of these benefits lead to healthier water treatment, increasing and maintaining the lifetime and performance of water system

Optimisation of static magnetic field (SMF) on physical properties of biomass using central composite design experiment

One of the principle issues for the biomass is the poor settleability that therefore influences the effluent quality. Batch tests were led to appraise the optimal conditions for improving the settleability of the biomass under static magnetic field (SMF). A four-factor central composite design (CCD) was executed to investigate the main and interaction effects of the factors while response surface methodology (RSM) was used for process optimization. Four independent factors, viz. SMF (15.0 – 88.0 mT), exposure time (0.5 – 48.0 h), biomass concentration (2000 – 4000 mg/L) and agitation speed (200 – 400 rpm) were applied and quadratic model was worked to anticipate the reactions. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was utilized to assess the significance of the autonomous factors. At the optimum conditions of 88.0 mT SMF, 16.5 h exposure time, 2800 mg/L biomass concentration and 300 rpm agitation speed, the turbidity removal, aggregation and settling velocity achieved its highest predictions of 92%, 99% and 0.011 cm/s, respectively. The analysis demonstrated that the applied SMF could enhance the settling property of the biomass through the enhancement of its aggregation ability. These suggesting that the SMF is dependable in accelerating the biomass settleability, subsequently potential to improve the performance efficiency in treating wastewater

Removal of scale deposition on pipe walls by using magnetic field treatment and the effects of magnetic strength

Scale deposition on pipe walls is prevalent in water distribution systems and is difficult to remove. Commonly, chemical treatment is applied to remove the hard scale. However, it is detrimental to users' health and causes adverse environmental impacts. The need for clean water production for potable and other applications is essential. This study shows the application of magnetic water treatment as a safe and effective method for scale removal in water purification. Permanent magnets were installed in the designed treatment devices that consisted of pipes with scale deposition and the effect of magnetic field on scale reduction was monitored. The scale removal efficiency was evaluated based on calcium concentration in the outlet, after passing through the magnetic field. Magnetic strength was varied between 0.1 T to 0.4 T to investigate its effect on scale reduction. The morphology were analyzed by field emission scanning electron microscope. It was found that magnetic field enhanced scale removal from pipe walls by 46.7%. With respect to the increasing the magnetic field strength to 0.4 T, the efficiency of removal also increased to 30%. Possible mechanisms involved in the magnetic treatment that affects scale reduction such as the effect of magneto-hydrodynamics and magnetically modified hydration are discussed. Magnetic technology is a simple, cost-effective and environmentally friendly treatment approach for clean water production with significant scale removal efficiency. Magnetic treatment can be used either as a stand-alone technology or in water purification systems

Review on fermentative biohydrogen production from water hyacinth, wheat straw and rice straw with focus on recent perspectives

Hydrogen (H2) is often considered as the best option to store energy coming from renewable sources. Hydrogen production from lignocellulosic biomass via fermentation offers low cost and environmental friendly method in terms of energy balance and provides a sustainable pathway for utilization of huge amount of unused biomass. In this regard, special attention on potential of different lignocellulosic biomass is required. In this paper, the fermentative hydrogen production from three carbohydrates-rich biomass: water hyacinth, wheat straw and rice straw is comprehensively reviewed. In other point of view, usage of H2 has a 10% growth annually that will reach to 8–10% of total energy in 2025. Furthermore, research on recent trends of fermentative hydrogen production is crucial and vital. However, the majority of the published researches in the last decade confirmed that some challenges exists which are the process optimization, effecting parameters and commercialization aspects

Performance of integrated anaerobic/aerobic sequencing batch reactor treating poultry slaughterhouse wastewater

The present study investigates the performance of a new configuration laboratory-scale bioreactor comprising of two regimes (anaerobic & aerobic) in one reactor with physical separation and it is known as integrated anaerobic/aerobic sequencing batch reactor (IAASBR). The IAASBR is designed for treating high-strength wastewater such as poultry slaughterhouse wastewater (PSW) along with the simultaneous removal of organic carbon and ammoniacal nitrogen (NH3-N). The IAASBR exhibits that the average removal efficiency of total COD (TCOD), soluble COD (SCOD), NH3-N, fat, oil & grease (FOG), and total suspended solids (TSS) were (97%���2%), (95%���3%), (98%���1.3%), (90%���11%), and (96%���3%) respectively. The laboratory comparison test revealed that IAASBR configuration has enhanced the sludge settle-ability for aerobic SBR more than the conventional SBR or settling tank. Furthermore, IAASBR could tolerate the shock loading occurrence, handle organic loading rate (OLR) up to 4.5�kg�(TCOD)�m−3�d−1and produce a high-quality effluent complying with Malaysian standards of industrial's effluents. � 2016 Elsevier B.V