Characteristics of greenhouse gas emission in three full-scale wastewater treatment processes

Three full-scale wastewater treatment processes, Orbal oxidation ditch, anoxic/anaerobic/aerobic （reversed A^2O） and anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic （A^2O）, were selected to investigate the emission characteristics of greenhouse gases （GHG）, including carbon dioxide （CO2）, methane （CH4） and nitrous oxide （N2O）. Results showed that although the processes were different, the units presenting high GHG emission fluxes were remarkably similar, namely the highest CO2 and N2O emission fluxes occurred in the aerobic areas, and the highest CH4 emission fluxes occurred in the grit tanks. The GHG emission amount of each unit can be calculated from its area and GHG emission flux. The calculation results revealed that the maximum emission amounts of CO2, CH4 and N2O in the three wastewater treatment processes appeared in the aerobic areas in all cases. Theoretically, CH4 should be produced in anaerobic conditions, rather than aerobic conditions. However, results in this study showed that the CH4 emission fluxes in the forepart of the aerobic area were distinctly higher than in the anaerobic area. The situation for N2O was similar to that of CH4： the N2O emission flux in the aerobic area was also higher than that in the anoxic area. Through analysis of the GHG mass balance, it was found that the flow of dissolved GHG in the wastewater treatment processes and aerators may be the main reason for this phenomenon. Based on the monitoring and calculation results, GHG emission factors for the three wastewater treatment processes were determined. The A^2O process had the highest CO2 emission factor of 319.3 g CO2/kg CODremoved, and the highest CH4 and N2O emission factors of 3.3 g CH4/kg CODremoved and 3.6 g N2O/kg TNremoved were observed in the Orbal oxidation ditch process.

Non-thermal plasma treatment of Radix aconiti wastewater generated by traditional Chinese medicine processing

The wastewater effluent from Radix aconiti processing, an important step in the production processes of traditional Chinese medicine（TCM）, is a type of toxic wastewater and difficult to treat. Plasma oxidation methods have emerged as feasible techniques for effective decomposition of toxic organic pollutants. This study examined the performance of a plasma reactor operated in a dielectric barrier discharge（DBD） to degrade the effluent from R. aconiti processing. The effects of treatment time, discharge voltage, initial pH value and the feeding gas for the reactor on the degradation of this TCM wastewater were investigated. A bacterium bioluminescence assay was adopted in this study to test the toxicity of the TCM wastewater after non-thermal plasma treatment. The degradation ratio of the main toxic component was 87.77% after 60 min treatment with oxygen used as feed gas and it was 99.59% when the initial p H value was 8.0. High discharge voltage and alkaline solution environment were beneficial for improving the degradation ratio. The treatment process was found to be capable of reducing the toxicity of the wastewater to a low level or even render it non-toxic. These experimental results suggested that the DBD plasma method may be a competitive technology for primary decomposition of biologically undegradable toxic organic pollutants in TCM wastewater.

Removal of C.I.Reactive Red 2 by low pressure UV/chlorine advanced oxidation

Azo dyes are commonly found as pollutants in wastewater from the textile industry,and can cause environmental problems because of their color and toxicity.The removal of a typical azo dye named C.I.Reactive Red 2（RR2） during low pressure ultraviolet（UV）/chlorine oxidation was investigated in this study.UV irradiation at 254 nm and addition of free chlorine provided much higher removal rates of RR2 and color than UV irradiation or chlorination alone.Increasing the free chlorine dose enhanced the removal efficiency of RR2 and color by UV/chlorine oxidation.Experiments performed with nitrobenzene（NB）or benzoic acid（BA） as scavengers showed that radicals（especially OH） formed during UV/chlorine oxidation are important in the RR2 removal.Addition of HCO_3^- and Cl^- to the RR2 solution did not inhibit the removal of RR2 during UV/chlorine oxidation.

Fe203-CeO2-Bi203/y-AI203 catalyst in the catalytic wet air oxidation （CWAO） of cationic red GTL under mild reaction conditions

The Fe203-CeO2-Bi203/-A1203 catalyst, a novel environmental-friendly material, was used to investigate the catalytic wet air oxidation （CWAO） of cationic red GTL under mild operating conditions in a batch reactor. The catalyst was prepared by wet impregnation, and characterized by special surface area （BET measurement）, X-ray diffraction （XRD） and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy （XPS）. The Fe203-CeO2-]]i203/qt-A1203 catalyst exhibited good catalytic activity and stability in the CWAO under atmosphere pressure. The effect of the reaction conditions （catalyst loading, degradation temperature, solution concentration and initial solution pH value） was studied. The result showed that the decolorization efficiency of cationic red GTL was improved with increasing the initial solution pH value and the degradation temperature. The apparent activation energy for the reaction was 79 kJ. mo1-1. Hydroperoxy radicals （HO2.） and superoxide radicals （O2-） appeared as the main reactive species upon the CWAO of cationic red GTL.

Low-temperature conversion of ammonia to nitrogen in water with ozone over composite metal oxide catalyst

As one of the most important water pollutants, ammonia nitrogen emissions have increased year by year, which has attracted people＇s attention. Catalytic ozonation technology, which involves production of ·OH radical with strong oxidation ability, is widely used in the treatment of organic-containing wastewater. In this work, MgO-Co3O4 composite metal oxide catalysts prepared with different fabrication conditions have been systematically evaluated and compared in the catalytic ozonation of ammonia（50 mg/L） in water. In terms of high catalytic activity in ammonia decomposition and high selectivity for gaseous nitrogen, the catalyst with MgO-Co3O4 molar ratio 8：2, calcined at 500°C for 3 hr, was the best one among the catalysts we tested, with an ammonia nitrogen removal rate of 85.2% and gaseous nitrogen selectivity of44.8%. In addition, the reaction mechanism of ozonation oxidative decomposition of ammonia nitrogen in water with the metal oxide catalysts was discussed. Moreover, the effect of coexisting anions on the degradation of ammonia was studied, finding that SO2-4 and HCO-3 could inhibit the catalytic activity while CO2-3 and Br-could promote it. The presence of coexisting cations had very little effect on the catalytic ozonation of ammonia nitrogen. After five successive reuses, the catalyst remained stable in the catalytic ozonation of ammonia.

Synthesis,characterization and application of ZnO-Ag as a nanophotocatalyst for organic compounds degradation,mechanism and economic study

The current work deals with ZnO-Ag nanocomposites（in the wide range of x in the Zn1-x O-Ag x chemical composition） synthesized using microwave assisted solution combustion method.The structural, morphological and optical properties of the samples were characterized by XRD（X-ray diffraction）, FTIR（Fourier transform infrared spectrometry）, SEM（scanning electron microscopy technique）, EDX（energy dispersive X-ray spectrum）, ICP（inductively coupled plasma technique）, TEM（transmission electron microscopy）, BET（Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method）, UV–Vis（ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometer） and photoluminescence spectrophotometer. The photocatalytic activity of the ZnO-Ag was investigated by photo-degradation of Acid Blue 113（AB 113） under UV illumination in a semi-batch reactor. This experiment showed that ZnO-Ag has much more excellent photocatalytic properties than ZnO synthesized by the same method. The enhanced photocatalytic activity was due to the decrease in recombination of photogenerated electron-holes. The results showed the improvement of ZnO photocatalytic activity and there is an optimum amount of Ag（3.5 mol%） that needs to be doped with ZnO.The effect of operating parameters such as p H, catalyst dose and dye concentration were investigated. The reaction byproducts were identified by LC/MS（liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry） analysis and a pathway was proposed as well. Kinetic studies indicated that the decolorization process follows the first order kinetics. Also, the degradation percentage of AB113 was determined using a total organic carbon（TOC） analyzer. Additionally, cost analysis of the process, the mechanism and the role of Ag were discussed.