Pollutants removal and simulation model of combined membrane process for wastewater treatment and reuse in submarine cabin for long voyage

A laboratory scale test was conducted in a combined membrane process （CMP） with a capacity of 2.91 m3/d for 240 d to treat the mixed wastewater of humidity condensate, hygiene wastewater and urine in submarine cabin during prolonged voyage. Removal performance of chemical oxygen demand （COD）, ammonia nitrogen （NH4^＋-N）, turbidity and anionic surfactants （LAS） was investigated under different conditions. It was observed that the effluent COD, NH4^＋-N, turbidity and LAS flocculated in ranges of 0.19-0.85 mg/L, 0.03-0.18 mg/L, 0.0-0.15 NTU and 0.0-0.05 mg/L, respectively in spite of considerable fluctuation in corresponding influent of 2120-5350 mg/L, 79.5-129.3 mg/L, 110-181.1NTU and 4.9-5.4 mg/L. The effluent quality of the CMP could meet the requirements of mechanical water and hygiene water according to the class I water quality standards in China （GB3838-2002）. The removal rates of COD, NH4^＋-N, turbidity and LAS removed in the MBR were more than 90%, which indicated that biodegradation is indispensable and plays a major role in the wastewater treatment and reuse. A model, built on the back propagation neural network （BPNN） theory, was developed for the simulation of CMP and produced high reliability. The average error of COD and NH4^＋-N was 5.14% and 6.20%, respectively, and the root mean squared error of turbidity and LAS was 2.76% and 1.41%, respectively. The results indicated that the model well fitted the laboratory data, and was able to simulate the removal of COD, NH4^＋-N, turbidity and LAS. It also suggested that the model proposed could reflect and manage the operation of CMP for the treatment of the mixed wastewaters in submarine.

Pilot study on treatment of low turbidity and low temperature water by coagulation-immersed membrane process

The objective of this paper was to investigate the practicability of coagulation-immersed membrane process during low-temperature period through the study of steady operation,chemical cleaning methods,water quality and agent consumption.Experimental results showed that:membrane performance decreases with the reduction of temperature,but low temperature has little effect on stable operation of immersed membrane when coagulation as pretreatment.EFM with 1200 mg/L sodium hypochlorite after every 48 filtration cycles was made for reducing membrane fouling efficiently,and the method,with 1.5% sodium hydroxide and 3500 mg/L sodium hypochlorite for 10 h and then 2% hydrochloric acid for 4 h,is an appropriate cleaning method under low temperature.Compared with convention treatment process,immersed membrane process not only has same agent consumption,but also permeated water quality is more superior such as fine removal effect on turbidity with average 0.10 NTU.Therefore,coagulation-immersed membrane process is more appropriate for increasing water quality demand and the treatment of low turbidity and low temperature water.

Nanocomposite Membranes based on Perfl uorosulfonic Acid/Ceramic for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

Perfl uorosulfonic acid/ceramic nanocomposite membranes were investigated as electrolytes for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell applications under low relative humidity. Different nanosized ceramics（SiO2, ZrO2, TiO2） with diameters in the range of 2-6 nm were synthesized in situ in Nafion solution through a sol-gel process and the formed nanosized ceramics were well-dispersed in the solution.The nanocomposite membranes were formed through a casting process. The nanocomposite membrane showes enhanced water retention ability and improved proton conductivity compared to those of pure Nafi on membrane. The mechanical strength of the formed nanocomposite membranes is slightly less than that of pure Nafi on membrane. The experimental results demonstrate that the polymer ceramic nanocompsite membranes are potential electrolyte for fuel cells operating at elevated temperature.

The Development of a Renewable-Energy-Driven Reverse Osmosis System for Water Desalination and Aquaculture Production

Water and energy are closely linked natural resources - the transportation, treatment, and distribution of water depends on low-cost energy; while power generation requires large volumes of water. Seawater desalination is a mature technology for increasing freshwater supply, but it is essentially a trade of energy for freshwater and is not a viable solution for regions where both water and energy are in short supply. This paper discusses the development and application of a renewable-energy-driven reverse osmosis （RO） system for water desalination and the treatment and reuse of aquaculture wastewater. The system consists of （1） a wind-driven pumping subsystem, （2） a pressure-driven RO membrane desalination subsystem, and （3） a solar-driven feedback control module. The results of the pilot experiments indicated that the system, operated under wind speeds of 3 m s-~ or higher, can be used for brackish water desalination by reducing the salinity of feedwater with total dissolved solids （TDS） of over 3 000 mg L-1 to product water or permeate with a TDS of 200 mg L-~ or less. Results of the pilot experiments also indicated that the system can remove up to 97% of the nitrogenous wastes from the fish pond effluent and can recover and reuse up to 56% of the freshwater supply for fish pond operation.

Effect of ozone on the performance of a hybrid ceramic membrane-biological activated carbon process

Two hybrid processes including ozonation-ceramic membrane-biological activated carbon （BAC） （Process A） and ceramic membrane-BAC （Process B） were compared to treat polluted raw water. The performance of hybrid processes was evaluated with the removal efficiencies of turbidity, ammonia and organic matter. The results indicated that more than 99% of particle count was removed by both hybrid processes and ozonation had no significant effect on its removal. BAC filtration greatly improved the removal of ammonia. Increasing the dissolved oxygen to 30.0 mg/L could lead to a removal of ammonia with concentrations as high as 7.80 mg/L and 8.69 mg/L for Processes A and B, respectively. The average removal efficiencies of total organic carbon and ultraviolet absorbance at 254 nm （UV254, a parameter indicating organic matter with aromatic structure） were 49% and 52% for Process A, 51% and 48% for Process B, respectively. Some organic matter was oxidized by ozone and this resulted in reduced membrane fouling and increased membrane flux by 25%-30%. However, pre-ozonation altered the components of the raw water and affected the microorganisms in the BAC, which may impact the removals of organic matter and nitrite negatively.

Integration of molecular dynamic simulation and free volume theory for modeling membrane VOC/gas separation

Gas membrane separation process is highly unpredictable due to interacting non-ideal factors, such as composition/pressure-dependent permeabilities and real gas behavior. Although molecular dynamic （MD） simulation can mimic those complex effects, it cannot precisely predict bulk properties due to scale limitations of calculation algorithm. This work proposes a method for modeling a membrane separation process for volatile organic compounds by combining the MD simulation with the free volume theory. This method can avoid the scale-up problems of the MD method and accurately simulate the performance of membranes. Small scale MD simulation and pure gas permeation data are employed to correlate pressure-irrelevant parameters for the free volume theory; by this approach, the microscopic effects can be directly linked to bulk properties （non-ideal permeability）, instead of being fitted by a statistical approach. A lab-scale hollow fiber membrane module was prepared for the model validation and evaluation. The comparison of model predictions with experimental results shows that the deviations of product purity are reduced from 10% to less than 1%, and the deviations of the permeate and residue flow rates are significantly reduced from 40% to 4%, indicating the reliability of the model. The proposed method provides an efficient tool for process engineering to simulate the membrane recovery process.

Nenofiltration for separation and purification of saccharides from biomass

Saccharide production is critical to the development of biotechnology in the field of food and biofuel.The extraction of saccharide from biomass-based hydrolysate mixtures has become a trend due to low cost and abundant biomass reserves.Compared to conventional methods of fractionation and recovery of saccharides,nanofiltration(NF)has received considerable attention in recent decades because of its high selectivity and low energy consumption and environmental impact.In this review the advantages and challenges of NF based technology in the separation of saccharides are critically evaluated.Hybrid membrane processes,i.e.,combining NF with ultrafiltration,can complement each other to provide an efficient approach for removal of unwanted solutes to obtain higher purity saccharides.However,use of NF membrane separation technology is limited due to irreversible membrane fouling that results in high capital and operating costs.Future development of NF membrane technology should therefore focus on improving material stability,antifouling ability and saccharide targeting selectivity,as well as on engineering aspects such as process optimisation and membrane module design.

Research progress in removal of trace carbon dioxide from closed spaces

In this paper,the removal of trace carbon dioxide from closed spaces through membrane process and biotrans-formation are introduced in detail.These methods include the microalgae photobioreactor,membrane microalgae photobio-reactor,supported liquid membrane,membrane gas-liquid contactor,hydrogel membrane,and enzyme membrane biore-actor.The advantages and disadvantages of these methods are compared.It is found that higher CO_(2) removal efficiency can be obtained in biotransformation and membrane process.However,a large volume and high energy consumption are needed in biotransformation,while the low permeability and stability must be solved in the membrane process.