Micro-electrolysis technology for industrial wastewater treatment

Experiments were conducted to study the role of micro-electrolysis in removing chromaticity and COD and improving the biodegradability of wastewater from pharmaceutical, dye-printing and papermaking plants. Results showed that the use of micro-electrolysis technology could remove more than 90% of chromaticity and more than 50% of COD and greatly improved the biodegradability of pharmaceutical wastewater. Lower initial pH could be advantageous to the removal of chromaticity. A retention time of 30 minutes was recommended for the process design of micro-electrolysis. For the use of micro-electrolysis in treatment of dye-printing wastewater, the removal rates of both chromaticity and COD were increased from neutral condition to acid condition for disperse blue wastewater; more than 90% of chromaticity and more than 50% of COD could be removed in neutral condition for vital red wastewater.

Enhanced biological nutrient removal by the alliance of a heterotrophic nitrifying strain with a nitrogen removing ecosystem

Nitrogen removal from synthetic wastewater was investigated in an airlift bioreactor （ALB）, augmented with a novel heterotrophic nitrifier Pseudonocardia ammonioxydans H9^T under organic carbon to nitrogen ratios （Corg/N） ranging from 0 to 12. Effect of the inoculated strain was also determined on the settling properties and the removal of chemical oxygen demand （COD）. Two laboratory scale reactors were set up to achieve a stable nitrifying state under the same physicochemical conditions of hydraulic retention time （HRT）, temperature, pH and dissolved oxygen （DO）, and operated under the sequencing batch mode. The level of DO was kept at 0.5- 1.5 mg/L by periodic stirring and aeration. Each specific Corg/N ratio was continued for duration of 3 weeks. One of the reactors （BR2） was inoculated with P ammonioxydans H9^T periodically at the start of each Corg/N ratio. Sludge volumetric index （SVI） improved with the increasing Corg/N ratio, but no significant difference was detected between the two reactors. BR2 showed higher levels of nitrogen removal with the increasing heterotrophic conditions, and the ammonia removal reached to the level of 82%-88%, up to10% higher than that in the control reactor （BR1） at Corg/N ratios higher than 6; however, the ammonia removal level in experimental reactor was up to 8% lower than that in control reactor at Corg/N ratios lower than 2. The COD removal efficiency progressively increased with the increasing Corg/N ratios in both of the reactors. The COD removal percentage up to peak values of 88%-94% in BR2, up to 11% higher than that in BR1 at Corg/N ratio higher than 4. The peak values of ammonia and COD removal almost coincided with the highest number （18%-27% to total bacterial number） of the exogenous bacterium in the BR2, detected as colony forming units （CFU）. Furthermore, the removal of ammonia and COD in BR2 was closely related to the number of the inoculated strain with a coefficient index （R2） up to 0.82 and 0.85 for ammonia and COD, respectively. These results suggest that it was more efficient for both the ammonia and carbon nutrient removals in a reactor inoculated with a heterotrophic nitrifier at high Corg/N ratio, inferring that the heterotrophic nitrifers would be practically more available in the treatment of wastewater with high level of ammonia and COD.

Fenton treatment of olive oil mill wastewater—applicability of the method and parameters effects on the degradation process

The low biodegradability of polyphenolic compounds typically found in olive processing indicated that biological treatment is not always successful in the treatment of olive oil mill wastewater in term of COD removal. In this study the results of investigations on the applicability of Fenton's reagent in the treatment of this effluent were discussed. The efficiency of this method was determined. 86 % of removal COD was obtained using 5 mol H 2O 2 and 0.4 mol Fe 2+ per liter of crude OMW. The main parameters that govern the complex reactive system, i.e., time, pH, [H 2O 2] and [Fe(II)] were studied.

Integrated ozone–photo–Fenton process for the removal of pollutant from industrial wastewater

The use of hybrid advanced oxidation processes(AOPs) for the removal of pollutants from industrial effluents has been extensively studied in recent literature. The aim of this study is to compare the performance of the photo,Fenton, photo-Fenton and ozone–photo–Fenton processes in terms of color removal and chemical oxygen demand(COD) removal of distillery industrial effluent together with the associated electrical energy per order. It was observed from the experimental results that the O_3/UV/Fe^(2 +)/H_2O_2 process yielded a 100% color and95.50% COD removals with electrical energy per order of 0.015 k W·h·m^(-3) compared to all other combinations of the AOPs. The effects of various operating parameters such as H_2O_2 and Fe^(2+) concentration, effluent pH, COD concentration and UV power on the removal of color, COD and electrical energy per order for the ozone–photo–Fenton process was critically studied and reported. The color and COD removals were analyzed using a UV/Vis spectrometer and closed reflux method.

Wet Air Oxidation of Organic Wastewater Catalyzed by Doped Ceria

The catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) of H acid and phenol was investigated in the presence of Cu or Fe doped CeOsolid solutions, which were obtained by sol-gel method. The experiment results showed that the incorporation of Cu or Fe into the fluorite lattice of CeOstrongly enhanced the oxidation activity of the catalyst. At 90 ℃ and 0.1 MPa, H acid conversion was 70% for the Ce0.9Fe0.1O2-δ and 60% for the Ce0.9Cu0.1O2-δ catalyst. For phenol removal, the conversion was 70% for the Ce0.9Cu0.1O2-δ catalyst, while for the Ce0.9Fe0.1O2-δ the conversion was 30%. The results indicated that Ce0.9Cu0.1O2-δ was suitable for the treatment of organic wastewaters while Ce0.9Fe0.1O2-δ was suitable for the removal of H acid. The 70% phenol removal rate with Ce0.9Cu0.1O2-δ catalyst was markedly increased to 90% with Ce0.8Cu0.2O2-δ catalyst. However, the phenol removal reduced from 30% to 15% with Fe content increasing from 10% to 20%. For the H acid, the increase of the content of Cu or Fe tended to obviously increase the original reaction rate while the COD removal changed little.

Treatment of Wastewater with Modified Sequencing Batch Biofilm Reactor Technology

This paper describes the removal of COD and nitrogen from wastewater with modified sequencing batch biofilm reactor. The strategy of simultaneous feeding and draining was explored.The results show that introduction of a new batch of wastewater and withdrawal of the purified water can be conducted simultaneously with the maximum volumetric exchange rate of about 70%.Application of this feeding and draining mode leads to the reduction of the cycle time, the increase of the utilization of the reactor volume and the simplification of the reactor structure. The treatment of a synthetic wastewater containing COD and nitrogen was investigated. The operation mode of F(D) O ( i.e ., simultaneous feeding and draining followed by the aerobic condition) was adopted. It was found that COD was degraded very fast in the initial reaction period of time, then reduced slowly and the ammonia nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen concentrations decreased and increased with time respectively, while the nitrite nitrogen level increased first and then reduced. The relationship between the COD or ammonia nitrogen loading and its removal rate was examined, and the removal of COD, ammonia nitrogen and total nitrogen could exceed 95%, 90% and 80% respectively. The fact that nitrogen could be removed more completely under constant aeration (aerobic condition) of the SBBR operation mode is very interesting and could be explained in several respects.

Photoelectrocatalytic degradation of high COD dipterex pesticide by using TiO_2 /Ni photo electrode

A TiO2 thin film electrode deposited on porous nickel net （TiO2/Ni） was prepared by the sol-gel method, and the surface morphology, crystal structure features and the grain size were characterized by Field emission scan electron microscopy （FESEM） and X-ray diffraction （XRD）. The photoelectrocatalytic system was set up using a UV high-pressure mercury lamp as the light source, TiO2 coated on foamed nickel as photo anode, Pt sheet as counter electrode and the pesticide dipterex in synthetic wastewater. Various factors that influence the photoelectrocatalytic decomposition of dipterex pesticide have been studied, such as degradation time, the type of electrolyte, current density, original pH value and different degradation methods. The prepared catalysts were employed to photoelectrocatalytically degrade the pesticide dipterex under UV irradiation, comparing the results with photocatalytic degradation and electrochemical oxidation. The results indicated that under the optimal conditions of 0.02 mol/L NaC1 as the supporting electrolyte, current density = 2.5 mA/cm^2, pH 6.0 and dipterex pesticide 40 mg/L, and reaction time 2 hr, dipterex chemical oxygen demand （COD） removal rate and organophosphorous conversion of up to 82.6% and 83.5% were achieved, respectively. The method of photoelectrocatalytic degradation is more efficient than photocatalysis and electrochemical oxidation. The possible roles of the electrolytes on the reactions and probable mechanisms were also discussed.

Treatment of coking wastewater by a novel electric assisted micro-electrolysis filter

A newly designed electric assisted micro-electrolysis filter（E-ME） was developed to investigate its degradation efficiency for coking wastewater and correlated characteristics. The performance of the E-ME system was compared with separate electrolysis（SE） and micro-electrolysis（ME） systems. The results showed a prominent synergistic effect on COD removal in E-ME systems. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry（GC–MS） analysis confirmed that the applied electric field enhanced the degradation of phenolic compounds.Meanwhile, more biodegradable oxygen-bearing compounds were detected. SEM images of granular activated carbon（GAC） showed that inactivation and blocking were inhibited during the E-ME process. The effects of applied voltage and initial p H in E-ME systems were also studied. The best voltage value was 1 V, but synergistic effects existed even with lower applied voltage. E-ME systems exhibited some p H buffering capacity and attained the best efficiency in neutral media, which means that there is no need to adjust p H prior to or during the treatment process. Therefore, E-ME systems were confirmed as a promising technology for treatment of coking wastewater and other refractory wastewater.

Enhancing nitrogen removal from low carbon to nitrogen ratio wastewater by using a novel sequencing batch biofilm reactor

Removing nitrogen from wastewater with low chemical oxygen demand/total nitrogen （COD/TN） ratio is a difficult task due to the insufficient carbon source available for denitrification. Therefore, in the present work, a novel sequencing batch biofilm reactor （NSBBR） was developed to enhance the nitrogen removal from wastewater with low COD/ TN ratio. The NSBBR was divided into two units separated by a vertical clapboard. Alternate feeding and aeration was performed in the two units, which created an anoxie unit with rich substrate content and an aeration unit deficient in substrate simultaneously. Therefore, the utilization of the influent carbon source for denitrification was increased, leading to higher TN removal compared to conventional SBBR （CSBBR） operation. The results show that the CSBBR removed up to 76.8%, 44.5% and 10.4% of TN, respectively, at three tested COD/TN ratios （9.0, 4.8 and 2.5）. In contrast, the TN removal of the NSBBR could reach 81.9%, 60.5% and 26.6%, respectively, at the corresponding COD/TN ratios. Therefore, better TN removal performance could be achieved in the NSBBR, especially at low CODfrN ratios （4.8 and 2.5）. Furthermore, it is easy to upgrade a CSBBR into an NSBBR in practice.