Co-treatment and utilisation of liquid pharmaceutical wastes

The pharmaceutical industry produces carbon-rich liquid wastes which have been generally qualified as hazardous. A significant proportion of these carbon-rich wastes are currently sent for incineration, although they could be utilised. It was found that the majority of the liquid wastes investigated in this study could be used in biological N-removal as carbon sources for denitrification in domestic wastewater treatment, or for anaerobic biogas production. The volatile content could be separated and the solvents re-utilised, the residual toxic organic compounds could be decomposed by wet oxidation and subsequently sent for biological treatment

Gazdasági szervezetek az átalakulás időszakában - szereplők és stratégiák: A tulajdonosi és szervezeti átalakulás vállalati példái

A szocialista tervgazdaságból a piacgazdaságba történő átmenet rendkívül összetett politikai-gazdasági és társadalmi-kulturális kérdéseinek vizsgálata egyes társadalomkutatók szerint egy különleges diszciplínát, az ún. tranzitológiát hívta életre. A jelen dolgozat az első magyar nyelvű beszámoló arról a több mint két éve folyó kutatómunkáról, amely privatizált és termékpiaci struktúraváltás szakaszában levő egykori állami, illetve szövetkezeti vállalatoknál a szervezeti és döntési rendszer "átalakuló", illetve „stabil“ elemeit igyekezett azonosítani és értékelni a vállalati szervezeti folyamatok hosszabb (1989-1993) időszakának elemzése alapján. A tanulmány ezt követően a projektum fontosabb elméleti-módszertani jellemzőivel, valamint a kutatás céljára kiválasztott változók tartalmának ismertetésével foglalkozik

The improvement of the biodegradability of diclofenac and sulfamethoxazole by combined cometabolism and gamma irradiation treatment

The two forms of most common biological purification used (activated sludge and biofilm) cannot effectively remove pharmaceuticals, such as diclofenac and sulfamethoxazole. However, a biological phenomenon called cometabolism can improve the removal efficiency. In the case of cometabolism, an easily degradable substrate (growth substrate) is added to the wastewater to be treated, which supplies the microorganisms with sufficient energy for biodegradation. Such easily degradable molecules (e.g. methanol, acetic acid, ethylene glycol) are also formed in the anaerobic steps of wastewater treatment systems and are utilized as growth substrates. The rate of oxidative degradation of pharmaceuticals (measured by using oxygen uptake rate) was shown to greatly increase in the presence of easily degradable growth substrates in the case of activated sludge. In the biofilm system which is another form of biological wastewater treatment, the rate of cometabolism remained low, most possibly because it has much narrower bacterial diversity than activated sludge. However, the efficiency of oxidative degradation can be significantly improved by using an advanced oxidation process, ionizing radiation treatment, before cometabolism. This combined treatment, irradiation and cometabolism is recommended for the degradation of recalcitrant organic compounds

MAB2.0 project: Integrating algae production into wastewater treatment

Different species of microalgae are highly efficient in removing nutrients from wastewater streams and are able to grow using flue gas as a CO2 source. These features indicate that application of microalgae has a promising outlook in wastewater treatment. However, practical aspects and process of integration of algae cultivation into an existing wastewater treatment line have not been investigated. The Climate-KIC co-funded Microalgae Biorefinery 2.0 project developed and demonstrated this integration process through a case study. The purpose of this paper is to introduce this process by phases and protocols, as well as report on the challenges and bottlenecks identified in the case study. These standardized technical protocols detailed in the paper help to assess different aspects of integration including biological aspects such as strain selection, as well as economic and environmental impacts. This process is necessary to guide wastewater treatment plants through the integration of algae cultivation, as unfavourable parameters of the different wastewater related feedstock streams need specific attention and management. In order to obtain compelling designs, more emphasis needs to be put on the engineering aspects of integration. Well-designed integration can lead to operational cost saving and proper feedstock treatment enabling algae growth