Removal of Nitrogen and Phosphorus from Saline Wastewater Using Up-Flow Sludge Blanket Filtration Process

There is recent trend of providing additional treatment of wastewater beyond tertiary level. The purpose is to refine water to a quality that is safe for reuse for unrestricted irrigation and other non potable uses. For this purpose, Kuwait has built and operated an advanced wastewater treatment plant with capacity of 500,000 m3·dl. This plant providing treatment beyond tertiary utilizes the process of Ultra Filtration （UF） and Reverse Osmosis （RO）. The reject water of this unit contains high concentration of total nitrogen and total phosphate. Safe disposal of this water into the environment or possible reuse needs substantial reduction of these chemicals. In this study, a bench scale up-flow sludge blanket filtration system was investigated. The system operated with an average Hydraulic-Retention Time （HRT） of 19 h, whereas, sludge age varied within the range of 14 days to 16.5 days. The results show that the average removal efficiencies of the system for Biological Oxygen Demand （BOD）, Chemical Oxygen Demand （COD） were over 86% and 82% respectively. The phosphate and nitrogen＇s average removal were found to be 50% and 45% respectively.

Fuzzy System for Prognosis of Tank Failure Based on Neural Network

A system for prognosis of tank failures was set up based on the results of analysis on fault phenomena. An algorithm incorporating fuzzy mathematics with the BP neural network was used to solve this prognosis model, and the availability of this model was also analyzed. This neural network-based fuzzy system for prognosis of tank failures has been put into operation at Huangdao oil terminal. The application results have shown that this system is effective for real-time prognosis of various potential tank failures and timely adoption of mitigative measures to avoid major tank accidents, which would have great significance for safeguarding the safe operation of the oil terminal.

Safe Disposal of Medicines in Palestine

The disposal of unwanted and expired medications has been a concern to public health practitioners, and patients alike. The objective of the current investigation was to look closely at the practice of patients and carers in Nablus-Palestine with regard to disposal of unused or expired medicines. The study was a cross-sectional survey administered via face-to-face structured interviews with randomly selected patients, community pharmacists and physicians from Nablus-Palestine. Two hundred and fifty patients/carers completed a questionnaire regarding medicines disposal current practice, effects on environment, and their views to overcome this problem. Most of the people completing the questionnaire （67%） stated that they throw unwanted medicines in the normal household bins, and about 75% think that this can impose illegal and environmental hazards. Nearly half of the questionnaire showed that main reason for need to dispose medicines was possessing expired ones with almost believe there should be more appropriate way to dispose medicines. About 95% said they have not been directed for safe disposal of medicines with 46% thinking that a national campaign can be very educative in this issue mainly through Ministry of Health （54%） followed by .73% of the sampled patients were in favor of national campaign to direct people to safe disposal of medicines. This pilot study in Nablus clearly highlights the need for appropriate method for safe disposal of medicines in Palestine through guidelines in pharmacies and hospitals. A well organized method for collecting unwanted medicines from people should be encouraged through appropriate teaching of patients and caters about effects of waste medicines on environment as well as being domestic hazard. The data and information is valuable for furthering discussions regarding patients behaviour and also provides a basis for future research into determining what quantities of active pharmaceutical ingredients （APIs） are disposed, enter the environment and what effects it can impose.

Study of Impact in Soil for Sewage Sludge Application

Land utilization is considered as a positive and effective method for sewage sludge disposal. This method takes use of a large number of rich nutrients for soil and crop. The application of sewage sludge in soil increases the concentration of heavy metals. Compared with 15-30 cm layer of soil, 0-15 cm layer increased significantly, especially for Cu, Zn and Ni. The concentration of Cd in soil is considered as the main limiting factor, which determines the years of land utilization. If the largest continuous application is 30 t/（hm2.a） to the soil, the largest application period will be 11.53 years. In this paper, set pair analysis model are used in safety evaluation of the soil. After one year application of sewage, the soil can be still safe. Finally, according to the process of the subject put forward some suggestions.

Technical analysis on the emergency handling of Tangjiashan barrier lake

This paper gives a brief introduction to the emergency handling of Tangjiashan barrier lake.Some technologies for the application of geological and topographical data are summarized and the mechanism of formation of a barrier lake is analyzed.Based on the safety status evaluation,the dam breach flood point is calculated.The paper concludes with discussion of the practical effects of emergency handling scenarios and different drainage channel designs.