Study on the Removal of Ammonia Nitrogen from Wastewater Using Microwave Coupled with Active Carbon

[ Objective] The study aimed to discuss the feasibility and optimal conditions of removing ammonia nitrogen by using microwave coupled with active carbon. [ Method ] In the study, a novel process, microwave radiation coupled with active carbon, was applied to remove ammonia nitro- gen from wastewater, and the influences of solution pH, air conditions, active carbon usage, microwave power and time on the removal effect of ammonia nitrogen were studied. [ Result] Microwave coupled with active carbon can remove ammonia nitrogen efficiently, and pumping air into the wastewater can also increase the removal rate of ammonia nitrogen to a certain extent. Higher pH, intensive microwave power and longer treating time could also increase the removal rate of ammonia nitrogen using microwave radiation coupled with active carbon, whereas the usage of active carbon contributed a small impact. It was proved that microwave coupled with active carbon was an effective method for the removal of ammonia ni- trogen from wastewater. Meanwhile, the orthogonal experiment results showed that the removal rate of ammonia nitrogen reached 92.5% under the optimal conditions, that is, the usage of active carbon was 0.5 g, pH = 11, microwave radiation power was 850 W, and microwave action time was 4 minutes. [ Conclusion] The research provided a new method to remove ammonia nitrogen from wastewater, namely microwave coupled with ac- tive carbon.

Water environment protection and sustainable development in townlet of China: A case study in Taicang

The Environmental Kuznets Curve(EKC) model was applied to investigate the relationship between economic growth and water environment quality based on panel data of Taicang during 2010–2017. The typical inversed-U shaped relationship has been obtained between GDP(gross domestic product) and indicators of ammonia, total nitrogen(TN) and total phosphorus(TP), respectively. The EKC turning point appeared when the GDP per capita was around US$2270, which was much lower than those in some developed countries(US$11,200). However, the decoupling between chemical oxygen demand(COD) and GDP per capita occurred even before this period, which should be attributed to the strict COD emission regulation being implemented since 2010. Further, analysis based on the Tapio decoupling coefficient elasticity model analyzed the ammonia nitrogen and economic development of each industry. We found that the agriculture no-point was strong decoupling in 2011–2014, then came to Recessive decoupling. The domestic wastewater had been in a strong decoupling state;Both urban non-point and industry experienced expansive negative decoupling, due to strict policy that prioritizes the environment over development and the investment in improvement of environment and techniques, both of them gradually came to strong decoupling. The result demonstrated that the EKC turning point could be appear in earlier economic stage and the decoupling coefficient elasticity could be improved through taking strong regulation measures.

Optimized pre-treatment of high strength food waste digestate by high content aluminum-nanocluster based magnetic coagulation

Coagulation-based pre-treatment efficiency of high strength digestate of food waste(HSDFW) anaerobic digestion is negated by organic ligand-catalyzed decomposition of coagulants. In this study, an efficient HSDFW pre-treatment method, magnetic seeds(MS) coagulation, was employed by using highly stable Keggin Al_(30) nanocluster(PAC_(30)), MS and polyacrylamide(PAM), and its operation was optimized by evaluating the performance of removing turbidity, total suspended solids(TSS), chemical oxygen demand(COD), and total phosphorous(TP) phosphate. Results showed that at the optimum dosage of 4.82 g/L, PAC_(30) demonstrated excellent removals as high as 98.93% ± 0.1% of turbidity, 98.04% ± 0.1% of TSS, 58.28% ± 0.3% of total COD, 99.98% ± 0.01% of TP and 99.50% ± 0.01% of dissolved phosphate, respectively. Apparent molecular weight(AMW) and three-dimensional excitation-emission matrix(3 D-EEM) fluorescence spectroscopy analyses demonstrated more efficient removal of dissolved organic matter(DOM), particularly non-biodegradable and hydrophobic components by PAC_(30) than commercial coagulant. The sedimentation was much improved from 40 min by coagulation/flocculation to about 5 min settling by MS coagulation. The PAC_(30) based magnetic coagulation(MC) presents theoretical guidance on a cost-effective and much less footprint pre-treatment alternative for high strength wastewater.