Wastewater Treatment Plan Research Articles

Enhanced Performance of Membrane Bioreactor in Sewage Treatment through Integrated Control Strategy

<p>Wastewater includes sewage water, which presents serious environmental problems that necessitate effective treatment techniques. Membrane Bioreactors (MBRs) have emerged as promising solutions, albeit plagued by membrane fouling and computational loading issues. To resolve these issues, this research article presents an innovative control strategy combining both artificial bee colony optimization (ABC) and recurrent neural network (RNN) to regulate the performance of MBR in sewage treatment. Initially, the influent wastewater data was collected and pre-processed using the regression imputation approach. RNN architecture was designed and trained using the pre-processed data to forecast the performance of the MBN system. Further, the ABC algorithm was applied to optimize the function of MBR by adjusting the control variables. The developed model was validated with the publically available wastewater treatment plan dataset and the effectiveness of the developed model was validated by performing intensive performance and comparative assessment. The performance evaluation demonstrates that the proposed methodology attained greater results of 98.59% effluent quality, 98.70% of nutrient removal efficiency, less computational time of 2.87s, and a low membrane fouling index of 1.23%. The comparative analysis illustrates that the presented approach achieved improved performances than the existing methodologies.</p>

Assessing the presence of microplastic in agriculture soils irrigated with treated waste waters using Lumbricus sp.: Ecotoxicological effects

Global water scarcity entailed the use of treated wastewater (TWW) in agriculture, however, this water can vehiculate numerous pollutants into soil and further crops such as microplastics (MPs). To date, few studies had quantified the accumulation of MPs in soils and earthworms after irrigation with TWW as well as their toxicological effects. Hence, the main objective of the present work is to evaluate the toxicity of MPs using Lumbricus sp. earthworms collected from TWW irrigated soils with an increasing gradient of time (5 years, 16 years and 24 years). MPs determination in soil, as well as in earthworms were performed. The intestinal mucus was quantified, and cytotoxicity (Lysosomal membrane stability (LMS), Catalase (CAT) and glutathione-S-Transferase (GST) activities), neurotoxicity (Acetylcholinesterase activity (AChE)) and genotoxicity (Micronuclei frequency (MNi)) biomarker were assessed. Our results revealed that the use of TWW rendered MPs accumulation in earthworms' tissues and induce alteration on the intestinal mucus. An important cytotoxicity time-depending was observed being associated with an increase on genotoxicity. Overall, the present investigation highlights the ecotoxicological risk associated with the use of TWWs as an important driver of MPs and consequently measures are necessary to reduce MPs in wastewater treatment plans to improve this non-conventional water quality.

Performance of Waste Water Treatment Plans in Hospitals : Literature Review

Introduction: Hospitalrecyclingwhich cannot function normally and there are calculation errors in thewater mass balanceTo minimize the impact of waste water on environmental pollution, an evaluation of the IPAL unit is carried out. The aim of this research is to evaluate the IPAL and provide suggestions related to optimizing wastewater treatment at Hospital to improve wastewater removal performance. Material and Methods: This study refers to design criteria and quality standards based on literature review with PICO Analysis and evaluation of existing conditions using secondary and primary data. Based on the results of the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) evaluation, it was found that the waste water discharge was 166.3 m3/day, had an efficiency that was in the very efficient and efficient category in processing waste water pollutant parameters so that the waste water treatment process ran well, and there was equalization of the first and second settling tanks. , activated sludge, trickling filter, filtration, disinfection and recycling did not meet the design criteria so recalculations were carried out.. Results: The solution provided is to tighten monitoring and testing of the condition of the quality of wastewater coming out of the WWTP unit by changing the sampling test method, re-measuring the quality of influent wastewater, improving the workings of the IPAL unit according to the applicable Standart Operation Procedure (SOP). Conclusion: After evaluating the waste water treatment unit, conclusions can be drawn, among others, based on the results of water quality tests and the work performance of the waste water quality parameters. The waste water quality parameter degradation efficiency is very effective, effective and quite effective and all parameters tested are in accordance with applicable quality standards.

Selection of waste water treatment plans alternative: a neutrosophy based MCDM approach

Selection of waste water treatment plans alternative: a neutrosophy based MCDM approach

Dynamics of CO2, CH4, and N2O in Ria Formosa coastal lagoon (southwestern Iberia) and export to the Gulf of Cadiz

A first characterization of greenhouse gases had been carried out to study their role and impact in a productive transitional coastal system of the southern Portugal – Ria Formosa lagoon. To this purpose, the partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) and the concentration of dissolved CH4 and N2O have been measured. Two surveys were carried out during 2020, at low tide under typical conditions of Spring (March) and end of Summer (October). The samplings sites were distributed along the costal lagoon covering: i) inner areas with strong human impact (influence of different flows of treated wastewater discharges); and ii) main channels in connection with the main inlets to study the exchanges with the ocean. In general, the highest values of the three greenhouse gases were found at the inner studied areas, especially affected by the disposal of treated effluents from wastewater treatment plans, in October. The mean water - atmosphere fluxes of the CO2, CH4 and N2O are positive, showing that the study area acts as a source of these gases to the atmosphere. On the other hand, it was calculated a rough estimation of the three gases globally exported from Ria Formosa to the ocean, through the main six inlets to evaluate the magnitude of the supply of these gases from Ria Formosa to the adjacent ocean. The mean CO2, CH4 and N2O horizontal water fluxes exported from all the inlets of Ria Formosa to the Gulf of Cadiz for both seasons, during low water, are 8.7 ± 3.9 mmol m−2 s−1, 8.0 ± 3.5 μmol m−2 s−1 and 3.2 ± 1.5 μmol m−2 s−1, which corresponds to a mass transport through the inlets section of 0.7 ± 0.7 kg s−1, 0.2 ± 0.2 g s−1 and 0.2 ± 0.3 g s−1 respectively. From these estimates, as expected, the higher mass transport was found at the larger and deeper inlets (Faro-Olhão and Armona).

Mobile phase and column chemistry selection for high sensitivity non-targeted LC/ESI/HRMS screening of water

Systematic selection of mobile phase and column chemistry type can be critical for achieving optimal chromatographic separation, high sensitivity, and low detection limits in liquid chromatography electrospray high resolution mass spectrometry (LC/MS). However, the selection process is challenging for non-targeted screening where the compounds of interest are not preselected nor available for method optimization. To provide general guidance, twenty different mobile phase compositions and four columns were compared for the analysis of 78 compounds with a wide range of physicochemical properties (logP range from −1.46 to 5.48), and analyte sensitivity was compared between methods. The pH, additive type, column, and organic modifier had significant effects on the analyte response factors, and acidic mobile phases (e.g. 0.1% formic acid) yielded highest sensitivity. In some cases, the effect was attributable to the difference in organic modifier content at the time of elution, depending on the mobile phase and column chemistry. Based on these findings, 0.1% formic acid, 0.1% ammonia and 5.0 mM ammonium fluoride were further evaluated for their performance in non-targeted LC/ESI/HRMS analysis of wastewater treatment plan influent and effluent, using a data dependent MS2 acquisition and two different data processing workflows (MS-DIAL, patRoon 2.1) to compare number of detected features and sensitivity. Both data-processing workflows indicated that 0.1% formic acid yielded the highest number of features in full scan spectrum (MS1), as well as the highest number of features that triggered fragmentation spectra (MS2) when dynamic exclusion was used.

Strategic routes for wastewater treatment plant upgrades to reduce micropollutants in European surface water bodies

The European Union is determined to address the problem of contaminants of emerging concern (CEC) occurrence in natural water bodies. However, if a broad range of possible advanced treatment technological solutions exists as well as a variety of possible future conditions, then emission and consequently strategies for wastewater treatment plan (WWTP) upgrade and operation are not easy to anticipate. Here, a strategic foresight exercise was carried out to support decision-making matching anticipated future conditions toward the goal of finding suitable treatment upgrades to control CECs release in the environment. As a result, a roadmap and strategic routes were developed based on the interpretation of drivers for the EU region in the context of Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) global change narratives. Screening and ranking of WWTP tertiary and advanced treatment technology upgrades were performed. Analysis of the resulting envisioned strategic routes allowed identifying and confronting core challenges such as the CEC removal agenda, technologies’ performance, requirements for CEC removal and water scarcity. The results also underline opportunities to shape WWTP technological upgrade planning such as: enhancing circular economy solutions in WWTP, water reclamation, and accelerated increase of the technology readiness level of hybrid and nature-based solutions.

High-resolution hydrodynamics of coral reefs and tracing of pollutants from hotel areas along the west coast of Unguja Island, Zanzibar

A rapid increase in population size along with expansion in hotel investment have been identified as key drivers of marine pollution in Zanzibar coastal waters. A validated high-resolution hydrodynamic tracer model was used to estimate the dispersal and impact range of pollutants from the main hotel areas along the western coastline of Unguja Island. The model showed the highest impact of pollutants from land during the northeast monsoon season due to the weakening of the main current. Marine protected areas with short distances to hotel areas and weak tidal currents were more likely to be impacted by pollutants from land than the more remote areas with higher flushing in agreement with water quality and seagrass health measurements. Cumulative effects of pollutants instead of single sources are important to consider for integrated wastewater treatment plans and management strategies to reduce pollution for the protection of biodiversity and guide future monitoring.

Use of natural fibers in alternative wastewater treatment technologies, aiming at a more sustainable production: A review

The most worrisome issues today are the excessive production of solids in wastewater and the discharge of wastewater containing toxic components. Despite current environmental legislation, there are still difficulties in treating wastewater and properly disposing of the waste generated in the various stages of the production process to avoid inadequate and premature disposal that may pollute the environment. As a result, techniques are being developed to reuse wastewater differently, and in this scenario, natural fibers can be used to treat wastewater through an adsorption-based technique. Thus, this research has been developed from an exploratory bibliographic survey carried out according to scientific papers that used natural fibers as bioadsorbents in Scopus, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, and Capes databases. VOSviewer® software was used to create a cluster map to analyze the correlation between citations of selected papers. It was observed an increase in the number of research on the above topic over the years, especially in 2021. The most used natural fibers were plant-based, mostly cellulose. When evaluating the scientific contribution by country, Malaysia, India, and China were the most relevant. Brazil ranked fourth. Therefore, even with legislation on wastewater disposal and targets for the 2030 wastewater treatment plan, some countries are lagging in alternative techniques for the use of natural fibers in adsorption processes.

Decision support algorithm for efficient environmental impact assessments: Focusing on aquatic environment assessment in South Korea

This study aimed to design an algorithm that could support the decision-making of agencies and operators responsible for environmental impact assessment (EIA) of aquatic environments in South Korea. The study provided background information on the basics of assessment, including the review standards of review agencies and review opinions for major project requiring improvements. Thus, the algorithm was designed according to the aquatic environment status survey, impact prediction and reduction measures during construction and operation, and post-environmental impact survey plan. Among the issues continuously raised in the review opinions, this study presented specific algorithms focused on soil runoff reduction plans during construction and wastewater treatment plans during operation. The algorithm was designed in a program called Workflow, with the entire procedure serving as the main algorithm and each implemented algorithm consisting of subroutines. Research on algorithms for EIA can support assessment decision-making and serve as a basis for future digital EIAs, as well as help secure the objectivity of EIAs and build trust with stakeholders.

Improving Water Conservation at Universitas Diponegoro, Indonesia

It is estimated that the amount of water needed by Universitas Diponegoro will increase in the years to come. Several efforts are required to ensure the fulfillment of water needed while also considering its sustainability. There have been studies on water conservation at the industrial level. Still, limited studies have discussed this problem in Indonesia specifically at university level. Therefore, this study discusses the water conservation program at Universitas Diponegoro that might be used as a reference for other universities to address water supply problems. This study aims to discuss in depth water conservation efforts at Universitas Diponegoro. This study incorporates a descriptive-qualitative approach along with direct observation. Some programs on water supply have been implemented in Universitas Diponegoro such as conservation, treated water consumed, water recycling and water-efficiency. The existence of rainwater harvesting tanks (RWH), reservoirs, biopores, wastewater treatment plans (WWTPs) and ponds are among the efforts that have been applied at Universitas Diponegoro in order to conserve the water. To date, Universitas Diponegoro has successfully conserved more than 75% of the water, recycling about >50% of wastewater, installing about >50% of water-saving equipment, and has treated clean water into drinking water using reverse osmosis.Keyword: water, conservation, sustainability, campus

Extraction and separation of lipids from municipal sewage sludge for biodiesel production: Kinetics and thermodynamics modeling

Safe disposal of municipal sewage sludge is a severe environmental issue in the wastewater treatment plan worldwide due to its enormous volume of generation and containing hazardous substances. The purpose of the present study is to appraise the possibility of utilizing the municipal sewage sludge as a lipids feedstock for biodiesel production. Lipids from the municipal sewage sludge were extracted via the soxhlet extraction method using methanol as a solvent. The soxhlet extraction of lipids was conducted with varying temperature (40–80 °C), treatment time (2–12 h), and sewage sludge to solvent (S/L) rato (1: 05–1:10). The maximum lipids extraction obtained about 27% from municipal sewage sludge using methanol as a solvent at S/L ratio of 1: 10, the temperature of 70 °C, and a treatment time of 8 h. Thermodynamics and kinetics behavior of the soxhlet extraction of lipids were determined using Eyring theory and a second-order rate equation, respectively. Approximately 84% of biodiesel was synthesized from soxhlet extracted lipids using the alkaline transesterification method at a catalyst loading of 5 wt%, temperature of 60 °C, an oil and methanol molar ratio of 1:9, and reaction time of 4 h. The physicochemical characterization of biodiesel showed that the biodiesel properties complied with the American Society for Testing and Materials standards of D6751 (ASTM D6751) and European Nationals standards of 14214 (EN 14214). The finding of the present study showed that the municipal sewage sludge could be consumed as an impending feedstock for biodiesel production.

Impact of stem age and winter outdoor storage on willow chip chemical composition and physicochemical properties

Willow (Salix) biomass production has been expanding dramatically in recent years with the development of phytoremediation and wastewater treatment projects and plans to build bio-refineries are increasing the future options for valorizing this biomass. In this context, winter storage of biomass after harvesting is unavoidable, due to limited shelter capacity. Questions about the impact of outdoor storage during winter and stem age at harvest time led to the establishment of an experiment on the site of Ramo®, a biomass-based products producer. Two- and three-year-old Salix miyabeana ‘SX67′ stems were chipped and piled after leaf fall in November 2018. Temperature was measured during the experiment, while physicochemical parameters and biomass composition were analyzed at the beginning and the end. The experiment showed that stem age influenced the initial biomass composition, with the two-year-old stems containing more extractives and the three-year-old stems containing more structural sugars. Heat production varied with stem age, which was reflected in the final biomass composition. A loss of extractives and an increase in lignin was measured in both stem types, while an increase in glucan, xylan and mannan was also measured in the two-year-old chips. This new information complements existing data on mass loss during wood chip storage and provides essential knowledge for future decision-making related to the development of lignocellulose value chains from bioenergy crops.

Time-based evaluation of bioavailable phosphorus in a calcareous soil after the application of anaerobically digested sewage sludge

Nowadays, phosphorus natural reserves are being depleted, while P fertilizers demand is increasing. Phosphorus is well contained in waste materials such as sewage sludge. Only a small amount (1–3%) of the soil total phosphorus is bioavailable for plant nutrition. More in detail, the present study focuses on the determination of the kinetics of bioavailable phosphorus concentrations in a sandy calcareous soil after the application of sewage sludge. A centrifuged (C) and dried (D) anaerobic digestate from sewage sludges obtained from the same wastewater treatment plan were separately tested to fertilize a calcareous sandy soil. Falcon tubes (50 mL) containing negative control (T) and soil treated with C and D were incubated from 1 to 90 days. Soil phosphorus fractionation was performed with the SMT method and bioavailable-P was extracted through the Olsen method. Phosphorus was spectrophotometrically quantified by the molybdovanadate method. Lastly, kinetics of bioavailable-P on soils were evaluated using four kinetic models. Phosphorus fractions were constant throughout the experiment. Conversely, the bioavailable-P significantly decreased from day 1 to day 90 in C treatment (from 34.9 ± 2.9 to 23.8 ± 1.5 ppm) and T treatment (from 4.2 ± 1.2 to 0.3 ± 0.6 ppm). This decrease might be due to the precipitation of P with calcium; in fact, high concentration of Ca2+ ions and the alkaline soil pH can induce the sequential formation of calcium phosphates, even less soluble over time. Whereas D treatment showed a peak of bioavailable-P concentration on day 14 (26.6 ± 3.0). This trend could be due to organic carbon compounds, competitive sorption and metal bridging. The fitting of experimental data revealed that the Elovich model best described the adsorptive-precipitate process of bioavailable-P in T (r2 = 0.90) and C (r2 = 0.93). Conversely, none of the models satisfactorily described the behavior of bioavailable-P in D samples. This study increases the knowledge on P-related phenomena for designing and optimizing fertilizers and reducing their drawbacks such as eutrophication.

Removal of COD and BOD from animals’ slaughterhouse wastewater through polyethersulfone/cellulose nano crystals membrane

A slaughterhouse is a building used for slaughtering animals. Slaughterhouses produce waste in the form of feces, urine, waste in the rumen or stomach, meat or fat, and washing water. The waste water treatment plan system at the slaughterhouse in Banda Aceh is dysfunctional and unusable, consequently wastewater is thrown directly into the sewer. It has the potential to contaminate the quality of water. Slaughterhouse waste treatment is carried out chemically, aerobically, and anaerobically, through coagulation, filtration, adsorption, electrocoagulation, and processing with membranes. Processing with membranes is an alternative to treating liquid waste. In this study, the membrane process used was ultrafiltration with polyether sulfone (PES) membrane material, methylpirrolidone (NMP) solvent, and nanocrystalline cellulose additive. The variables in this study were M1 (pure PES membrane), M2 (PE membrane + 1% nanocrystal cellulose), and M3 (PES membrane + 5% nanocrystalline cellulose). The purpose of this study was to examine the results of the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), the mechanical strength of the membrane, the results of COD and BOD analysis of the Slaughterhouse wastewater, the effect of adding nanocrystal cellulose to the flux value, and physical observations of the liquid waste after going through the filtration process using a membrane. The top layer without nanocrystal cellulose has thinner pores than the membrane with the addition of nanocrystal cellulose. The break elongation value produced by the membrane with additives is 68%. Pure water flux data for pure PES membranes is greater than the membranes using additives, at 17.96 L/m 2 .jam.bar. The addition of nanocrystalline cellulose makes a dense layer thicker than the layers of other membranes, thereby increasing the flux on the membrane. After processing with a filtration test, the results of the water analysis, specifically COD and BOD from slaughterhouse waste, do not pass the quality standard value, indicating that slaughterhouse waste can be thrown directly into water bodies without disturbing the surrounding population.

POSSIBILITY STUDY OF IMPLEMENTING VERTICAL CONSTRUCTED WETLAND FOR DOMESTIC WASTE WATER TREATMENT IN URBAN KAMPONG

The Indonesian Ministry of Environment in 2014 released study results that 60-70% of rivers in Indonesia have been polluted by domestic wastewater, which is not treated properly. Improper and inadequate wastewater treatment not only pollutes water resources and damages ecosystems, but can also pose a significant public health risk. The development of spontaneous settlements in urban kampong makes the environmental quality within the settlements getting worse and many people consider that the area of urban kampong is not habitable. The efforts to treat wastewater before being discharged into water bodies are very important. The study of "vertical constructed wetland" model using water plants which are also ornamental plants can be considered as an alternative system for household wastewater treatment in kampong settlements. The objective of the research is to develop an alternative model of wastewater treatment that can overcome the obstacles of implementing a wastewater treatment system in terms of cost and availability land. The result shows that the removal efficiency of BOD, phosphate and total coliform are 71.64%, 50,92% and 99.67% respectively. Since the research is still being conducted on a laboratory scale, the further study must be developed with real case studies in low income community settlements in Kampung Kota. Additionally this research can give suggestions to local government an alternative policy to implement domestic waste water treatment plan in a densely populated settlement along the riverbank in the city.

Case Study Regarding the Variation of the Qualitative Parameters of Wastewater

Romania is making efforts in order to enforce the Directive concerning urban waste water treatment and was left behind by other member states. Starting from the premise that the lack of a proper treatment of wastewater can negatively influence the quality of the emissary in which they are discharged., we proposed that in this paper we analyze the main indicators of wastewater quality, identifying also the causes of water pollution. For this purpose, we followed the variation of five representative indicators of wastewater from Calarasi Wastewater Treatment Plan: chemical oxygen consumption, biochemical oxygen consumption, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, suspended solids. The best results in purification were observed regarding the biochemical oxygen consumption (over 95%). The low temperature of wastewater at the entrance to the Wastewater Treatment Plant during winter leads to a difficult exploitation of the biological step and implicitly to the increase of the phosphorus and total nitrogen concentration in the effluent, which means a weak process of eutrophication in the emissary.

Purification of the key enzyme complexes of the anammox pathway from DEMON sludge.

Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidation ("anammox") is a bacterial process in which nitrite and ammonium are converted into nitrogen gas and water, yielding energy for the cell. Anammox is an important branch of the global biological nitrogen cycle, being responsible for up to 50% of the yearly nitrogen removal from the oceans. Strikingly, the anammox process uniquely relies on the extremely reactive and toxic compound hydrazine as a free intermediate. Given its global importance and biochemical novelty, there is considerable interest in the enzymes at the heart of the anammox pathway. Unfortunately, obtaining these enzymes in sufficiently large amounts for biochemical and structural studies is problematic, given the slow growth of pure cultures of anammox bacteria when high cell densities are required. However, the anammox process is being applied in wastewater treatment to remove nitrogenous waste in processes like DEamMONification (DEMON). In plants using such processes, which rely on a combination of aerobic ammonia-oxidizers and anammox organisms, kilogram amounts of anammox bacteria-containing sludge are readily available. Here, we report a protein isolation protocol starting from anammox cells present in DEMON sludge from a wastewater treatment plan that readily yields pure preparations of key anammox proteins in the tens of milligrams, including hydrazine synthase HZS and hydrazine dehydrogenase (HDH), as well as hydroxylamine oxidoreductase (HAO). HDH and HAO were active and of sufficient quality for biochemical studies and for HAO, the crystal structure could be determined. The method presented here provides a viable way to obtain materials for the study of proteins not only from the central anammox metabolism but also for the study of other exciting aspects of anammox bacteria, such as for example, their unusual ladderane lipids.

The assessment of technical -economic efficiency of Sequencing Batch Reactors in municipal wastewater treatment in developing countries

The Sequencing Batch Reactors (SBR) is a variation of activated sludge and has been wide applied in wastewater treatment since 1920s. The advantages of this technology are not only the high performance in low or varying flow patterns but also present worth cost for a long time. Therefore, the article evaluates the technical -economic efficiency of this technology in municipal wastewater treatment from combined sewerage system. Based on building and operation pilot SBR with process Nitrification/Denitrification and bio-film in municipal wastewater treatment plan for 1 months, the technical -economic efficiency has been determinates. Firstly, the efficiency removal pollutants is more stable and the quality of pilot’s effluence achieved Russian Standard about treated water. After that, the environmental damage has been decreased for 8 – 11 time, especially damage from nitrogen ammonia and nitrate. At least, the calculation from economic factors of SBR has been showed that the cost of treating 1 m3 wastewater than 0.5 USD when optimized this technology by process Nitrification/Denitrification and bio-film.

Assessment of watershed characteristics with limited water quantity and quality data.

The evaluations of water quantity and quality and then modeling of its phenomenon are required for water quality protection in Brady Creek watershed. This study is to predict the monthly flow, reservoir storage volume, and salinity; estimate the benefit of brush and aging flood-retardation dam control; and evaluate the impact of evaporation and discharge from Waste Water Treatment Plans (WWTP). The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model is verified with the monthly flow developed for pre-dam construction condition and shows the difference of - 9% and 10% than measured average flow for calibration and validation periods, respectively. The SWAT monthly flows are adjusted by 1963-2010 yearly conversion factors and are used as the input in the Water Rights Analysis Package (WRAP) model. The WRAP model verified with measured reservoir storage volume and total dissolved solid shows the average differences of simulated reservoir storage volume and salinity by - 13% lower and 11% higher for calibration period and 0% and 3% higher for validation period than measured average value, respectively. The impacts from brush and dams controls increase the runoff but also increase the water quality parameters. The impact of evaporation and WWTP discharge provide the information of relative impact for watershed phenomenon.