Investigates of substrate mingling ratio and organic loading rate of KOH pretreated corn stover and pig manure in batch and semi-continuous system:Anaerobic digestion performance and microbial characteristics

The effects of substrate mingling ratio(SMR)(1:1,1:2,1:3,3:1,and 2:1)and organic loading rate(OLR)(50-90 g total solids per liter per day)on anaerobic co-digestion performance and microbial characteristics were investigated for pig manure(PM)and pretreated/untreated corn stover in batch and semicontinuous anaerobic digestion(AD)system.The results showed that SMR and pretreatment affected co-digestion performance.The maximum cumulative methane yield of 428.5 ml·g^(-1)(based on volatile solids(VS))was obtained for PCP13,which was 35.7%and 40.0%higher than that of CSU and PM.In the first 5 days,the maximum methane yield improvement rate was 378.1%for PCP13.The daily methane yield per gram VS of PCP13 was 11.4%-18.5%higher than that of PC_(U)13.Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1,DMER64,and Bacteroides and Methanosaeta,Methanobacterium,and Methanospirillum had higher relative abundance at the genus level.Therefore,SMR and OLR are important factor affecting the AD process,and OLR can affect methane production through volatile fatty acids.

Performance of rotating drum biofilter for volatile organic compound removal at high organic loading rates

Uneven distribution of volatile organic compounds （VOCs） and biomass, and excess biomass accumulation in some biofilters hinder the application of biofiltration technology. An innovative multilayer rotating drum biofilter （RDB） was developed to correct these problems. The RDB was operated at an empty bed contact time （EBCT） of 30 s and a rotational rate of 1.0 r/min. Diethyl ether was chosen as the model VOC. Performance of the RDB was evaluated at organic loading rates of 32,1, 64.2, 128, and 256 g ether/（m^3·h） （16.06 g ether/（m^3·h） ≈ 1.0 kg chemical oxygen demand （COD）/（m^3·d））. The EBCT and organic loading rates were recorded on the basis of the medium volume. Results show that the ether removal efficiency decreased with an increased VOC loading rate. Ether removal efficiencies exceeding 99% were achieved without biomass control even at a high VOC loading rate of 128 g ether/（m^3·h）. However, when the VOC loading rate was increased to 256 g ether/（m^3·h）, the average removal efficiency dropped to 43%. Nutrient limitation possibly contributed to the drop in ether removal efficiency. High biomass accumulation rate was also observed in the medium at the two higher ether loading rates, and removal of the excess biomass in the media was necessary to maintain stable performance. This work showed that the RDB is effective in the removal of diethyl ether from waste gas streams even at high organic loading rates. The results might help establish criteria for designing and operating RDBs.

Microbial community dynamics at high organic loading rates revealed by pyrosequencing during sugar refinery wastewater treatment in a UASB reactor

The performance and rnicrobial community structure in an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor （UASB） treating sugar refinery wastewater were investigated. The chemical oxygen demand （COD） removal reached above 92.0% at organic loading rates （OLRs） of 12.0-54.0 kgCOD/（m^3· d）. The volatile lhtty acids （VFAs） in effluent were increased to 451.1 mg/L from 147.9 mg/L and the specific methane production rate improved by 1.2 2.2-1bid as the OLR increased. The evolution of microbial comnmnities in anaerobic sludge at three different OLRs was investigated using pyrosequencing. Operational taxonomic units （OTUs） at a 3% distance were 353,337 and 233 for OLRI2, OLR36 and OLR54, respectively. When the OLR was increased to 54.0 kgCOD/（m^3· d） from 12.0 kgCOD/ （m^3· d） by stepwise, the microbial community structure were changed significantly. Five genera （Bacteroides, Trichococcus, Cho,seobacterium, Longilinea and Aerococcus） were the dominant fermentative bacteria at the OLR 12-0 kgCOD/（m^3· d）. However, the sample of OLR36 was dominated by Lacmcoccus, Trichococcus, Anaer-arcus and Veillonella. At the last stage （OLR = 54.0 kgCOD/ （m^3· d）, the diversity and percentage of femlentative bacteria were markedly increased. Apart from fermentative bacteria, an obvious shift was observed in hydrogen-producing acetogens and non- acetotrophic methanogens as OLR increased. Svntrophohacter, Geobacter and Methanomethylovor- ans were the dominant hydrogen-producing acetogens and methylotrophic methanogens in the samples of OLRI2 and OLR36. When the OLR was increased to 54.0 kgCOD/（m^3· d）, the mare hydrogen-producing acetogens and hydrogenotrophic methanogens were substituted with Destd/bvi- brio and Methanospillum. However, the composition of acetotrophic methanogens （Methanosaeta） was relatively stable during the whole operation period of the UASB reactor.

Variations in organic carbon loading of surface sediments from the shelf to the slope of the Chukchi Sea,Arctic Ocean

The content of organic carbon （OC） normalized to the specific surface area （SSA） of sediment is widely used to trace variations in OC loading （OC/SSA）. This study presents observations of OC/SSA of surface sediments collected in the Chukchi Sea, a typical Arctic marginal sea. Shelf sediments exhibit much higher OC/SSA values than slope sediments in the study area. Compared with OC/SSA values reported from the East Siberian Shelf and Mackenzie River, the slope sediments possess lower OC loading. This abrupt decrease in OC/SSA is mostly related to the lower primary production on slope as well as possible oxidization processes. The results of linear regression analysis between OC and SSA indicate a sedimentary source rock for the OC in the Chukchi Sea sediments. Moreover, shelf sediments with low SSA possess a larger rock OC fraction than slope sediments do. The dataset of the present study enables a more thorough understanding of regional OC cycling in the Chukchi Sea.

Using a biological aerated filter to treat mixed water-borne volatile organic compounds and assessing its emissions

A biological aerated filter （BAF） was evaluated as a fixed-biofilm process to remove water-borne volatile organic compounds （VOCs） from a multiple layer ceramic capacitor （MLCC） manufacturing plant in southern Taiwan. The components of VOC were identified to be toluene, 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene, 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene, bromodichloromethane and isopropanol （IPA）. The full-scale BAF was constructed of two separate reactors in series, respectively, using 10- and 15-cm diameter polypropylene balls as the packing materials and a successful preliminary bench-scale experiment was performed to feasibility. Experimental results show that the BAF removed over 90% chemical oxygen demand （COD） from the influent with （1188 ± 605） mg/L of COD. A total organic loading of 2.76 kg biochemical oxygen demand （BOD）/（m3 packing·d） was determined for the packed bed, in which the flow pattern approached that of a mixed flow. A limited VOC concentration of （0.97 ± 0.29） ppmv （as methane） was emitted from the BAF system. Moreover, the emission rate of VOC was calculated using the proposed formula, based on an air-water mass equilibrium relationship, and compared to the simulated results obtained using the Water 9 model. Both estimation approaches of calculation and model simulation revealed that 0.1% IPA （0.0031-0.0037 kg/d） were aerated into a gaseous phase, and 30% to 40% （0.006-0.008 kg/d） of the toluene were aerated.

Application of Heterogenous Catalysis with TiO2 Photo Irradiated by Sunlight and Latter Activated Sludge System for the Reduction of Vinasse Organic Load

Vinasse is the main residue generated during alcohol, sugar and blue rum production by fermentation process. This residue is effluent that could cause serious environmental pollution due to high organic load when is not treated adequately. The aim of this work consists of evaluating the efficiency and application of heterogeneous photocatalysis with TiO2, followed by a biological treatment (activated sludge system) to reduce organic load in the referred effluent. Complete factorial designs indicated the best experimental conditions subsequent to photacatalytic and biological treatments providing a reduction of non-purgeable organic carbon (NPOC) as a variable response. After the photocatalytic process, the sample from the best experiment condition was treated by a biological process in order to verify the degradation efficiency of the effluent organic matter studied according to the hybrid system (Advanced Oxidation Process—Acti- vated Sludge System). This system, which presented more efficiency, had a photochemical treatment of 180 minutes carried out in aerated solutions, pH 9 and effluent in natura, while the biological treatment was performed at pH 8 and sludge concentration of 5 gL–1. The reduction of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) was >80%.

Anaerobic tapered fluidized bed reactor for starch wastewater treatment and modeling using multilayer perceptron neural network

treatability of synthetic sago wastewater was investigated in a laboratory anaerobic tapered fluidized bed reactor （ATFBR） with a mesoporous granular activated carbon （GAC） as a support material. The experimental protocol was defined to examine the effect of the maximum organic loading rate （OLR）, hydraulic retention time （HRT）, the efficiency of the reactor and to report on its steady- state performance. The reactor was subjected to a steady-state operation over a range of OLR up to 85.44 kg COD/（m^3·d）. The COD removal efficiency was found to be 92% in the reactor while the biogas produced in the digester reached 25.38 m^3/（m^3·d） of the reactor. With the increase of OLR from 83.7 kg COD/（m^3·d）, the COD removal efficiency decreased. Also an artificial neural network （ANN） model using multilayer perceptron （MLP） has been developed for a system of two input variable and five output dependent variables. For the training of the input-output data, the experimental values obtained have been used. The output parameters predicted have been found to be much closer to the corresponding experimental ones and the model was validated for 30% of the untrained data. The mean square error （MSE） was found to be only 0.0146.

Performance evaluation of up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket(UASB) reactor for treatment of paper mill wastewater

The present study deals with the performance evaluation of the UASB reactor under varied organic loading rate(OLR) for the treatment of paper mill wastewater. The sludge granulation process started after 120 days from the start-up period. Sludge granules size was found to be 0 8 mm at OLR of 1 72 kgCOD/(m 3·d), which reached maximum size of about 1 0 to 1 2 mm at OLR of 2 1 kgCOD/(m 3·d). At the end of initial OLR of 1 0 kgCOD/(m 3·d) the VSS concentration was 12 86 gVSS/L, which got increased to 38 05 gVSS/L at the end of an OLR 2 1 kgCOD/(m 3·d). Most of the times VFA recorded were well within the limit of VFA reported in anaerobic fermentation process. Many times the pH observed was between 6 5 and 7 8, which is more favorable for any anaerobic process. It is also found that pH within the reactor increases along with the height of reactor. The total maximum biogas production was found to be 0 40 L/gCOD removals at OLR of 2 1 kgCOD/(m 3·d) and the maximum BOD removal at this stage was observed to be 90%.

Pre-treatment of mscanthus sinensis with Bacta-sile to aid anaerobic digestion

The investigation of the biodegradability and methane potential of bacterial pre-treated miscanthus sinensis has been carried out.One percent solution of Bacta-sile:A silage promoter was used to pre-treat miscanthus sinensis at 25℃.The anaerobic digestion experiments were carried out at 25℃ and 35℃ in batch experiments.The organic loading rates(OLR)varied between 1.25 g and 7 g in different batch reactors.The results showed that the highest methane concentration was 57% from digester 1 while the lowest methane produced was 38% from digester 3.The low methane production from digester 3 was attributed to temperature changes and poor organic loading rate.Bacterial pretreatment aided biodegradation of miscanthus at 25℃.Operating temperature of 25℃ had a great effect on digestion experiments resulting to longer required Hydraulic Retention Time(HRT).

Bioremediation and detoxification of real refinery oily sludge using mixed bacterial cells

Anaerobic biotreatment of real field petroleum refinery oily sludge(PROS)was investigated under using four different organic loads(OLs)in the order ofOL4>OL3>OL2>OL1,in bench-scale bioreactors.The bioremediation of raw PROS was carried out using mixed culture biocatalyst without chemicals addition or any type of pretreatment.The results revealed a potential performance of the used biocatalyst dominated by Pseudomonas aeruginosa(class:Gammaproteo)and Staphylococcus spp.(class:Bacilli)achieving significant removal of chemical oxygen demand(COD)and total petroleum hydrocarbons(TPH).The highest organic removal rate was recorded in OL4 followed by OL3,0L2,OL1,respectively indicating a positive relationship between the percentage removal of organics and their content.Maximum removal efficiencies of 96.7%and 90%were observed for COD and TPH,respectively in OL4 within 14 days only.Analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs)demonstrated that acenaph-thylene and phenanthrene exhibited the maximum removal efficiency(almost complete)among the 8-priority PAHs tested in this study.However,the overall degradation of PAHs in the oily sludge was 83.3%.

Comparative investigations on pilot-scale anaerobic digestion of food waste at 30℃and 35℃

Parallel pilot-scale anaerobic digestion systems were conducted to evaluate the influence of system temperatures(30℃and 35℃)on digestion performance,greenhouse gas control and economic efficiency.Biogas productions(6.64-12.96 m3/d)and methane yields(0.46-0.61 m3/kg VS)of 35℃digestion system were significantly higher than those of 30℃digestion system with the organic loading rate(OLR)of 2.0-4.5 kg VS/m3·d.Two regression equations of methane yields with increasing OLRs were fitted at 30℃and 35℃to predict the methane production of practical food waste(FW)digestion plants.By analyzing process stability,the optimal operating OLRs of 35℃digestion system(4.0 kg VS/m3·d)was found to be higher than that of 30℃digestion system(3.0 kg VS/m3·d),indicating that the 35℃digestion system had better processing capacity.The greenhouse gas emission under corresponding optimal operating OLR of 35℃digestion system was also calculated to be better than that of 30℃digestion system.Even the system temperature of 30℃was found to be more suitable for the digestion where OLR was less than 3.0 kg VS/m3·d,a higher operational temperature of 35℃was still a better choice for conventional high-solid digestion.

Anaerobic treatment of fresh leachate from a municipal solid waste incinerator by upflow blanket filter reactor

This paper describes the feasibility of fresh leachate treatment by an upflow blanket filter(UBF).Through dilution and partial effluent recycling,the organic loading rates increased from 0.51 to 14.56 kg COD/(m^(3)·d),meanwhile the corresponding hydraulic retention time decreased from 9.0 to 3.6 d.The reactor was able to achieve steady-state within 80 d.Based on the distribution of COD fluxes in the process,it was concluded that anabolism was the main pathway of COD removal in the initial phase(1–33 d),accounting for 57%–85%of total COD removed.As the anaerobic consortium of bacteria reached steady-state(after 70–86 d),the majority of COD removed was transformed into methane,because the specific methane yield was close to the theoretical value(0.36 L CH4/(g CODdeg)).

Application of high OLR-fed aerobic granules for the treatment of low-strength wastewater: Performance, granule morphology and microbial community

Aerobic granules, pre-cultivated at the organic loading rate （OLR） of 3.0 kg COD/（m3 ·day）, were used to treat low-strength wastewater in two sequencing batch reactors at low OLRs of 1.2 and 0.6 kg COD/（m3 ·day）, respectively. Reactor performance, evolution of granule morphology, structure and microbial community at low OLRs under long-term operation （130 days） were investigated. Results showed that low OLRs did not cause significant damage to granule structure as a dominant granule morphology with size over 540 μm was maintained throughout the operation. Aerobic granules at sizes of about 750 μm were finally obtained at the low OLRs. The granule reactors operated at low OLRs demonstrated effective COD and ammonia removals （above 90%）, smaller granule sizes and less biomass. The contents of extracellular polymeric substances in the granules were decreased while the ratios of exopolysaccharide/exoprotein were increased （above 1.0）. The granules cultivated at the low OLRs showed a smoother surface and more compact structure than the seeded granules. A significant shift in microbial community was observed but the microbial diversity remained relatively stable. Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy observation showed that the live cells were spread throughout the whole granule, while the dead cells were mainly concentrated in the outer layer of the granule, and the proteins, polysaccharides and lipids were mainly located in the central regime of the granule. In conclusion, granules cultivated at high OLRs show potential for treating low-strength organic wastewater steadily under long-term operation.

Pollutant removal from municipal wastewater employing baffled subsurface flow and integrated surface flow-floating treatment wetlands

This article reports pollutant removal performances of baffled subsurface flow, and integrated surface flow-floating treatment wetland units, when arranged in series for the treatment of municipal wastewater in Bangladesh. The wetland units （of the hybrid system） included organic, inorganic media, and were planted with nineteen types of macrophytes. The wetland train was operated under hydraulic loading fluctuation and seasonal variation. The performance analyses （across the wetland units） illustrated simultaneous denitrification and organics removal rates in the first stage vertical flow wetland, due to organic carbon leaching from the employed organic media. Higher mean organics removal rates （656.0 g COD]（m2.day）） did not completely inhibit nitrification in the first stage vertical flow system; such pattern could be linked to effective utilization of the trapped oxygen, as the flow was directed throughout the media by the baffle walls. Second stage horizontal flow wetland showed enhanced biodegradable organics removal, which depleted organic carbon availability for denitrification. The final stage integrated wetland system allowed further nitrogen removal from wastewater, via nutrient uptake by plant roots （along with nitrification）, and generation of organic carbon （by the dead macrophytes） to support denitrification. The system achieved higher E. coli mortality through protozoa predation, E. coli oxidation, and destruction by UV radiation. In general, enhanced pollutant removal efflciencies as demonstrated by the structurally modified hybrid wetland system signify the necessity of such modification, when operated under adverse conditions such as： substantial input organics loading, hydraulic loading fluctuation, and seasonal variation.