Kinetic evaluation and performance of a mesophilic anaerobic contact reactor treating medium-strength food-processing wastewater.

High rate mesophilic anaerobic contact reactors (MACR) represent a proven sustainable technology for a wide range of different industrial effluents. These reactors demonstrate quite similar features to their aerobic counterparts, activated sludge systems. A lab-scale high rate mesophilic anaerobic contact reactor was operated with wastewater originated from a potato-processing plant, at six different loading rates of 1.1-5g COD/L per day. The operational performance of MACR was monitored from start-up by assessing COD removal efficiency, total volatile fatty acid production and biogas composition. Furthermore, various kinetic models have been successfully applied to the experimental data to determine substrate balance, maximum utilization rate and volumetric methane production. The COD removal efficiencies were found to be 78-92% and the methane percentage of the biogas produced was 80-89%. Additionally, the methane yield coefficient was found to be 0.394 L CH(4)/gTCOD(rem).

Nanoplankton population dynamics and dissolved oxygen change across the Bay of Izmir by neural networks.

The bay of Izmir, which is the biggest harbor on the Aegean Sea, is of upmost economical importance for Izmir, the third largest city in Turkey. Most of the studies carried out focused on the effects of intensive industrial activity and agricultural production on the bay pollution within the region. These studies, most of the time, are limited to monitoring the level of pollution. However, it is believed that these studies should be supported with models and statistical analysis techniques, as the models, especially the prediction ones, provide an important approach to assessing risk and assessment. In this study, neural network analysis was used to construct prediction models for nanoplankton population change with nutrients and other environmentally important parameters. The results indicated that, using data over a 52 week period, it is possible to predict nanoplankton population dynamics and dissolved oxygen change for the future.