Lipids productivity of cyanobacterium Anabaena vaginicola in an internally illuminated photobioreactor using LED bar lights.

Concerns over environmental issues exists and desire to decrease of their extent, have directed efforts toward green energy production. Growth behavior of Anabaena vaginicola was determined in a photobioreator which illuminated internally (IIPBR) using LED bar light. Excessive heat generated in the IIPBR was taken care of by applying a novel air-cooled system. Further note in experimentation was to find favorable cultivation conditions in the IIPBR for A. vaginicola growth and its lipids production capacity. The following results are expressed: 80 µmol photons m-2 s-1 as light intensity, 0.5 g/l as NaNO3, and 120 ml/min as CO2 amount being expressed in terms of aeration rate. The findings were interpreted in terms of a two-component system where the genes encoded to the relevant proteins are present in cyanobacteria and their expressiveness depends on environmental stress. By determining growth rate constant as 0.11 d-1, the productivity in terms of biomass formation was calculated as 202.6 mg L-1 d-1. While rate of lipids production by the test cyanobacterium is 15.65 mg L-1 d-1. Based on total energy used for IIPBR performance, biomass productivity per unit power input equals to 0.74 g W-1 d-1 and this is in favorable position compared with other photobioreactors.

Electrochemical-based processes for produced water and oily wastewater treatment: A review.

The greatest volume of by-products produced in oil and gas recovery operations is referred to as produced water and increasing environmental concerns and strict legislations on discharging it into the environment cause to more attention for focusing on degradation methods for treatment of produced water especially electrochemical technologies. This article provides an overview of electrochemical technologies for treating oily wastewater and produced water, including: electro-coagulation, electro-Fenton, electrochemical oxidation and electrochemical membrane reactor as a single stage and combination of these technologies as multi-stage treatment process. Many researchers have carried out experiments to examine the impact of various factors such as material (i.e, electrode material) and operational conditions (i.e., potential, current density, pH, electrode distance, and other factors) for organic elimination to obtain the high efficiency. Results of each method are reviewed and discussed according to these studies, comprehensively. Furthermore, several challenges need to be overcome and perspectives for future study are proposed for each method.

Comparison of high-concentration azo dye removal by long HRT in MSBRs' bioaugmented with GAC and sponge media.

The present study assessed the performance and fouling of adding granular activated carbon (GAC) and sponge (BioCube), as two different media, to a membrane sequencing batch reactor (MSBR) system in wastewater treatment containing Acid Red 18 (AR 18). Anaerobic phase, aerobic phase, and hydraulic retention times (HRTs) of 24 h, 12 h, and 72 h were considered for 500 mg/L AR 18 removal at a sludge retention time (SRT) of 20 days by separately adding up to 35% BioCube volume and 8 g/L GAC to the reactors. Based on the kinetic study, 63 mg/L (87% removal) and 115 mg/L (77% removal) remaining dye were reported in the GAC and BioCube membrane sequencing batch reactors (GAC-MSBR and BioCube-MSBR), respectively. A gradual oxidation-reduction potential decline toward -416 mV confirmed better dye removal in GAC-MSBR than BioCube-MSBR, observing a sudden drop to -354 mV. The morphology can explain better biological treatment in GAC-MSBR in addition to the adsorption process. Soluble microbial products (SMPs) of 126.92 mg/L and 395.18 mg/L were obtained for GAC-MSBR and BioCube-MSBR, respectively. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) and SMP indicated that the GAC-MSBR water quality is better than that of the other reactor.

Photocatalytic degradation of 2,4-DNT in simulated wastewater by magnetic CoFe2O4/SiO2/TiO2 nanoparticles.

Discharge of 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4-DNT) into the environment leads to a serious soil and water sources pollution problem, due to toxicity and possible carcinogenicity of this toxic substance. In this work, the photocatalytic degradation of 2,4-DNT was investigated using CoFe2O4/SiO2/TiO2 nanoparticles. The catalyst features were characterized by using XRD, TEM, EDX, UV-vis DRS, FTIR, and VSM techniques. The influence of different experimental factors on degradation efficiency including pH value, catalyst dosages, and initiate concentration of 2,4-DNT were investigated. Mineralization of the model pollutant was determined using TOC analysis under optimum conditions. A possible mechanism, process kinetic and reusability of magnetic photocatalyst were also performed. In optimum experimental conditions (pH=3, photocatalyst dosage=0.75 g/L, 2,4-DNT=0.025 g/L), degradation efficiency achieved 88.5% within 180-min reaction time with TOC removal of 55.6%. Dominate oxidizing radicals during the degradation of 2,4-DNT by CoFe2O4/SiO2/TiO2 were hydroxyl radicals. The photocatalytic degradation of 2,4-DNT followed first-order rate kinetics. After three successive use cycles, the degradation efficiency was reduced by 64%. Our results revealed that the synthesized CoFe2O4/SiO2/TiO2 photocatalyst was a good choice for degradation of 2,4-DNT, due to proper potential reusability and catalytic activity.

Influence of salinity on heavy metal and oil removal from hypersaline oilfield-produced water by electrocoagulation: mechanistic insights.

The focus of the present study was to explore how and to what extent ultrahigh salinity affects the adsorption of cadmium and hydrocarbon pollutants onto aluminum hydroxide adsorbents formed in an electrocoagulation process. The changes in the nature and structure of the electro-generated aluminum particles and the possible removal mechanisms due to high salt content were investigated by using FE-SEM/EDS, FTIR, BET, and XRD analyses. The pseudo-second order and Freundlich models proved to fit the data for cadmium adsorption onto the aluminum hydroxides best. It was demonstrated that the adsorption capacities were significantly affected by the high salinity. With the rise of the salinity from 2 to 170 g/L, the cadmium and COD removal yields dropped from 81 to 60% and from 90 to 72%. The increase of the oil content led to the enhanced cadmium adsorption capacity due to surface complexation and ion exchange mechanisms. It was proved that Lagergren pseudo-first-order kinetic model could justify COD abatement trends. FTIR spectra depicted that the negative impact of high salinities on the adsorption was due to causing the formation of less stable adsorbents. According to BET analysis, the occurrence of much wider pore size distribution and smaller specific surface area in high salinity case was the main reason for the decreased adsorption capacity. Based on XRD analysis, the higher crystallinity of the produced aluminum hydroxide particles and their consequential smaller surface areas resulted in the lower adsorption capacity in the hypersaline environment. It was concluded that adsorption via inner-sphere and outer-sphere complexation and sweep flocculation were the possible removal mechanisms. Total treatment cost of 8.75 and 3.49 €/m3 were estimated for low and ultrahigh salinity conditions.

The effect of temperature and styrene concentration on biogas production and degradation characteristics during anaerobic removal of styrene from wastewater.

In the current study, styrene was removed anaerobically from wastewaters at temperatures of 35 ℃, 25 ℃, and 15 ℃ and concentration range of 20-150 ppm in the presence of ethanol as a co-substrate and co-solvent. Maximum styrene removal of 93% was achieved at 35 ℃. The volatilization of styrene was negligible at about 2% at all experimented temperatures. The average special methane yield (SMY) at 35 ℃ was 4.14- and 225-times higher than that of at T = 25 ℃ and T = 15 ℃, respectively, but no methane was produced in the absence of ethanol. The proteins content of the soluble microbial product (SMP) and extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) was much higher than the carbohydrate content. At styrene concentration > 80 ppm, SMY, SMP, and EPS dropped sharply. The results confirmed the well performance of anaerobic microorganisms in removing styrene from wastewater and biogas production at mesophilic condition.

Date fruit processing waste and approaches to its valorization: A review.

In the Middle East and North Africa, dates are a traditional and economically valuable crop, playing an essential role in people's daily diets. Date fruit production and related processing industry generate a large quantity of waste; for illustration, the date juicing industry produces roughly 17-28% Date press cake (DPC), which is mainly discarded in open lands and drains. Considering the generation volume and the nutrient content of DPC, this organic by-product stream can be valorized through the production of a wide range of products with a great market appeal, such as volatile fatty acids, activated carbon, organic acids, etc. To provide an insight into the feasibility of the application DPC as a green precursor for various chemical and biological processes, the chemical and nutritional composition of dates and DPC, an overview of the date processing industries, and common practices conducted for DPC valorization addressed and thoroughly discussed, in this review.

Quantifying the organic content of saline wastewaters: Is chemical oxygen demand always an achievable parameter?

The study presented in this paper takes a comprehensive approach to the measurement of the COD of saline industrial wastewaters taking into account both their widely varying salinity levels and the substantial interference of chloride with the conventional method of COD measurement. To this end, three approaches for combating the chloride interference associated with the measurement of COD using the conventional method were considered. The dilution of saline samples prior to analysis yielded reasonably accurate COD results as long as the COD after dilution was 40 mg L-1 or above. In the second approach, the previously reported modifications of the standard method were stretched to their practical limits (increasing HgSO4 to 130 g L-1 and decreasing K2Cr2O7 to 1.022 g L-1) accompanied by prior addition of HgSO4:Cl- at a ratio of 20:1 combined with chloride interference error estimation. This brought about an increase in chloride interference threshold of the standard method to 42.5 g L-1, which is considerably higher than previous reports. Since some raw or treated saline industrial wastewaters have a combination of chloride and COD concentration which makes the first two approaches inapplicable, the approach of chloride removal from the sample via a modification of DIN 38409-H41-2 and subsequent measurement of COD using a slight variation of the closed reflux standard method was also considered. Fairly accurate COD determinations for samples with chloride concentrations up to 148.6 and 182 g L-1 for COD contents of 50 and 900 mg L-1, respectively were achieved. However, excessive precipitation of the desalination reaction products made the method inapplicable to samples with chloride concentrations above 182 g L-1.

An ultrasonic method for the synthesis, control and optimization of CdS/TiO2 core-shell nanocomposites.

In this study, an ultrasonic method was utilized in combination with microemulsion to synthesize CdS/TiO2 core-shell nanoparticles and control their particle size and ultimately optimize the influential parameters. Moreover, response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize the thickness of the shell. Herein, four parameters, i.e. temperature (67-79 °C), synthesis retention time (45-105 min), TiO2 : CdS ratio (1.5-7.5) and the power of ultrasound waves (37-53 watt), were optimized to synthesize nanoparticles with an average size of up to 10 nm. A correlation equation was introduced for the size range of 10-90 nm, which was then proven to have excellent predictions. To verify the proposed model, two different sets of combinations were selected to synthesize 10 nm composites, and consequently, nanocomposites with the sizes of 10.4 and 10.9 nm were successfully synthesized. The power of ultrasound waves and retention time had the most influence on the size of the particles. Further experiments proved that the optical absorption spectrum of the composite particles was extended to the visible region. Furthermore, the formation of CdS/TiO2 core-shell nanocomposites was confirmed by different characterization techniques including XRD, TEM, EDAX, UV-vis, FTIR and DLS.

Combination of novel coalescing oil water separator and electrocoagulation technique for treatment of petroleum compound contaminated groundwater.

In the present study a combination of a novel coalescing oil water separator (COWS) and electrocoagulation (EC) technique was used for treatment of petroleum product contaminated groundwater. In the first phase, COWS was used as the primary treatment. Two different types of coalescing media and two levels of flow rates were examined in order to find the optimum conditions. The effluent of COWS was collected in optimum conditions and was treated using an EC process in the second phase of the research. In this phase, preliminary experiments were conducted in order to investigate the effect of EC reaction time and sedimentation time on chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency. Best conditions for EC reaction time and sedimentation time were obtained to be 5 min and 30 min, respectively. Response surface methodology was applied to evaluate the effect of initial pH, current density and aeration rate on settling velocity (Vs) and effluent COD. The optimum conditions, for achieving maximum values of Vs as well as the values of effluent COD, in the range of results were obtained at conditions of 7, 34 mA·cm-2 and 1.5 L·min-1 for initial pH, current density and aeration rate, respectively.

Sequential anaerobic-aerobic biological treatment of colored wastewaters: case study of a textile dyeing factory wastewater.

In the present study the feasibility of the use of a bacterial batch sequential anaerobic-aerobic process, in which activated sludge was used in both parts of the process, for pretreatment of wastewater generated by a textile dyeing factory has been considered. Activated sludge used in the process was obtained from a municipal wastewater treatment plant and adapted to real dyeing wastewater using either an anaerobic-only or an anaerobic-aerobic process over a period of 90 days. The use of activated sludge adapted using the anaerobic-aerobic process resulted in a higher overall decolorization efficiency compared to that achieved with activated sludge adapted using the anaerobic-only cycles. Anaerobic and aerobic periods of around 34 and 22 hours respectively resulted in an effluent with chemical oxygen demand (COD) and color content which met the standards for discharge into the centralized wastewater treatment plant of the industrial estate in which the dyeing factory was situated. Neutralization of the real dyeing wastewater and addition of carbon source to it, both of which results in significant increase in the cost of the bacterial treatment process, was not found to be necessary to achieve the required discharge standards.

Optimization of photocatalytic degradation of real textile dye house wastewater by response surface methodology.

This study evaluates the advanced oxidation process for decolorization of real textile dyeing wastewater containing azo and disperse dye by TiO2 and UV radiation. Among effective parameters on the photocatalytic process, effects of three operational parameters (TiO2 concentration, initial pH and aeration flow rate) were examined with response surface methodology. The F-value (136.75) and p-value <0.0001 imply that the model is significant. The 'Pred R-Squared' of 0.95 is in reasonable agreement with the 'Adj R-Squared' of 0.98, which confirms the adaptability of this model. From the quadratic models developed for degradation and subsequent analysis of variance (ANOVA) test using Design Expert software, the concentration of catalyst was found to be the most influential factor, while all the other factors were also significant. To achieve maximum dye removal, optimum conditions were found at TiO2 concentration of 3 g L-1, initial pH of 7 and aeration flow rate of 1.50 L min-1. Under the conditions stated, the percentages of dye and chemical oxygen demand removal were 98.50% and 91.50%, respectively. Furthermore, the mineralization test showed that total organic compounds removal was 91.50% during optimum conditions.