scholarly journals Integrated Membrane Process for the Treatment and Reuse of Residual Table Olive Fermentation Brine and Anaerobically Digested Sludge Centrate

Membranes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 253
Author(s):  
Carlos Carbonell-Alcaina ◽  
Jose Luis Soler-Cabezas ◽  
Amparo Bes-Piá ◽  
María Cinta Vincent-Vela ◽  
Jose Antonio Mendoza-Roca ◽  
...  

Management of wastewater is a major challenge nowadays, due to increasing water demand, growing population and more stringent regulations on water quality. Wastewaters from food conservation are especially difficult to treat, since they have high salinity and high organic matter concentration. The aim of this work is the treatment of the effluent from a table olive fermentation process (FTOP) with the aim of reusing it once the organic matter is separated. The process proposed in this work consists of the following membrane-based technologies: Ultrafiltration (UF) (UP005, Microdyn Nadir), Forward Osmosis (FO) (Osmen2521, Hydration Technology Innovation) and Nanofiltration (NF) (NF245, Dow). The FO process was implemented to reduce the salinity entering the NF process, using the FTOP as draw solution and, at the same time, to concentrate the centrate produced in the sludge treatment of a municipal wastewater treatment plant with the aim of obtaining a stream enriched in nutrients. The UF step achieved the elimination of 50% of the chemical oxygen demand of the FTOP. The UF permeate was pumped to the FO system reducing the volume of the anaerobically digested sludge centrate (ADSC) by a factor of 3 in 6.5 h. Finally, the ultrafiltrated FTOP diluted by FO was subjected to NF. The transmembrane pressure needed in the NF stage was 40% lower than that required if the ultrafiltration permeate was directly nanofiltered. By means of the integrated process, the concentration of organic matter and phenolic compounds in the FTOP decreased by 97%. Therefore, the proposed process was able to obtain a treated brine that could be reused in other processes and simultaneously to concentrate a stream, such as the ADSC.

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 130-135
Author(s):  
Anna Ciaciuch ◽  
Jerzy Gaca ◽  
Karolina Lelewer

Abstract The research presents the changes in chemical oxygen demand (COD) fractions during the two-stage thermal disintegration and anaerobic digestion (AD) of sewage sludge in municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). Four COD fractions have been separated taking into account the solubility of substrates and their susceptibility to biodegradation: inert soluble organic matter SI, readily biodegradable substrate SS, slowly biodegradable substrates XS and inert particulate organic material XI. The results showed that readily biodegradable substrates SS (46.8% of total COD) and slowly biodegradable substrates XS (36.1% of total COD) were dominant in the raw sludge effluents. In sewage effluents after two-stage thermal disintegration, the percentage of SS fraction increased to 90% of total COD and percentage of XS fraction decreased to 8% of total COD. After AD, percentage of SS fraction in total COD decreased to 64%, whereas the percentage of other fractions in effluents increased.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stavroula Kappa ◽  
Simos Malamis

In recent years, the research community has made constant efforts to develop new technologies for the recovery and valorization of water, nutrient and energy content of municipal wastewater. However, the recovery process is significantly limited due to the low-strength of sewage. Over the last 10 years, the Forward Osmosis (FO) process, has gained interest as a low-cost process with low membrane fouling propensity, which can convert municipal wastewater into a concentrated low-volume effluent, characterized by high organic and nutrient concentration. This chapter presents the main configurations that have been implemented for the concentration of municipal wastewater using FO, including their performance in terms of contaminant removal and water/reverse salt flux (Jw/Js). Furthermore, the draw solutions and respective concentrations that have been used in FO for the treatment of sewage are reported, while at the same time the positive and negative characteristics of each application are evaluated. Finally, in the last section of this chapter, the spontaneous FO followed by anaerobic process is integrated in a municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and compared with a conventional one. The comparison is done, in terms of the mass balance of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and in terms of the energy efficiency.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 622 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabella Pecorini ◽  
Francesco Baldi ◽  
Renato Iannelli

Four inocula collected from different operating facilities were tested in their hydrogenic performances by means of two biochemical hydrogen potential test set-ups using sucrose and food waste as substrates, with the aim of evaluating the influence of inoculum media in batch fermentative assays. The selected inocula were: activated sludge collected from the aerobic unit of a municipal wastewater treatment plant, digested sludge from an anaerobic reactor treating organic waste and cattle manure, digested sludge from an anaerobic reactor treating agroindustrial residues, and digested sludge from an anaerobic reactor of a municipal wastewater treatment plant. Test results, in terms of specific hydrogen production, hydrogen conversion efficiency, and volatile solids removal efficiency, were significantly dependent on the type of inoculum. Statistical analysis showed different results, indicating that findings were due to the different inocula used in the tests. In particular, assays performed with activated sludge showed the highest performances for both substrates and both experimental set-ups.


2019 ◽  
Vol 80 (9) ◽  
pp. 1654-1661
Author(s):  
J. Tauber ◽  
V. Parravicini ◽  
K. Svardal ◽  
J. Krampe

Abstract In this research, sources of methane emissions of an anaerobic digester (AD) system at a municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) with 260,000 population equivalent (PE) capacity were detected by a non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) camera. The located emissions were evaluated qualitatively and were documented with photographs and video films. Subsequently, the emission sources were quantified individually using different methods like the Flux-Chamber method and sampling from the digester's circulation pipe. The dissolved methane in the sludge digester was measured via gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and 6.8% oversaturation compared to the equilibrium after Henry's law was found. Additionally, the residual gas potential of the digestate was measured using batch tests with 10 days' additional stabilisation time. The PE-specific residual gas production of the full-scale AD was calculated to 12.4 g CH4/(PE · y). An extended chemical oxygen demand (COD) balance including methane emissions for the whole digester system was calculated. Also the measured methane loads were calculated and summed up. The total methane loss of the AD was calculated at 24.6 g CH4/(PE · y), which corresponds to 0.4% of the produced biogas (4,913 g CH4/(PE · y)). PE-specific methane emission factors are presented for each investigated (point) source like the sludge outlet at the digester's head, a leaking manhole sealing and cracks in the concrete structure.


2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marketa Julinova ◽  
Jan Kupec ◽  
Roman Slavik ◽  
Maria Vaskova

Abstract A synthetic polymer, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP - E 1201) primarily finds applications in the pharmaceutical and food industries due to its resistance and zero toxicity to organisms. After ingestion, the substance passes through the organism unchanged. Consequently, it enters the systems of municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) without decomposing biologically during the waste treatment process, nor does it attach (through sorption) to particles of activated sludge to any significant extent, therefore, it passes through the system of a WWTP, which may cause the substance to accumulate in the natural environment. For this reason the paper investigates the potential to initiate aerobic biodegradation of PVP in the presence of activated sludge from a municipal wastewater treatment plant. The following agents were selected as the initiators of the biodegradation process - co-substrates: acrylamide, N-acethylphenylalanine and 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, a substance with a similar structure to PVP monomer. The biodegradability of PVP in the presence of co-substrates was evaluated on the basis of biological oxygen demand (BOD) as determined via a MicroOxymax O2/CO2/CH4 respirometer. The total substrate concentration in the suspension equaled 400 mg·dm-3, with the ratio between PVP and the cosubstrate being 1:1, while the concentration of the dry activated sludge was 500 mg·dm-3. Even though there was no occurrence of a significant increase in the biodegradation of PVP alone in the presence of a co-substrate, acrylamide appeared to be the most effective type of co-substrate. Nevertheless, a recorded decrease in the slope of biodegradation curves over time may indicate that a process of primary decomposition was underway, which involves the production of metabolites that inhibit activated sludge microorganisms. The resulting products are not identified at this stage of experimentation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 77 (11) ◽  
pp. 2723-2732 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaowei Zheng ◽  
Shenyao Zhang ◽  
Jibiao Zhang ◽  
Deying Huang ◽  
Zheng Zheng

Abstract With the improvement of wastewater discharge standards, wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are continually undergoing technological improvements to meet the evolving standards. In this study, a quartz sand deep bed denitrification filter (DBDF) was used to purify WWTP secondary effluent, utilizing high nitrate nitrogen concentrations and a low C/N ratio. Results show that more than 90% of nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N) and 75% of chemical oxygen demand (COD) could be removed by the 20th day of filtration. When the filter layer depth was set to 1,600 mm and the additional carbon source CH3OH was maintained at 30 mg L−1 COD (20 mg L−1 methanol), the total nitrogen (TN) and COD concentrations of DBDF effluent were stabilized below 5 and 30 mg L−1, respectively. Analysis of fluorescence revealed that DBDF had a stronger effect on the removal of dissolved organic matter (DOM), especially of aromatic protein-like substances. High throughput sequencing and qPCR results indicate a distinctly stratified microbial distribution for the main functional species in DBDF, with quartz sand providing a good environment for microbes. The phyla Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Chloroflexi were found to be the dominant species in DBDF.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7198
Author(s):  
Eleni P. Tsiakiri ◽  
Aikaterini Mpougali ◽  
Ioannis Lemonidis ◽  
Christos A. Tzenos ◽  
Sotirios D. Kalamaras ◽  
...  

Wastewater treatment plants have been traditionally developed for the aerobic degradation of effluent organic matter, and are associated with high energy consumption. The adoption of sustainable development targets favors the utilization of every available energy source, and the current work aims at the identification of biomethane potential from non-conventional sources derived from municipal wastewater treatment processes. Byproducts derived from the primary treatment process stage were collected from four sewage treatment plants in Greece with great variation in design capacity and servicing areas with wide human activities, affecting the quality of the influents and the corresponding primary wastes. The samples were characterized for the determination of their solids and fats content, as well as the concentration of leached organic matter and nutrients, and were subjected to anaerobic digestion treatment for the measurement of their biomethane production potential according to standardized procedures. All samples exhibited potential for biogas utilization, with screenings collected from a treatment plant receiving wastewater from an area with combined rural and agro-industrial activities presenting the highest potential. Nevertheless, these samples had a methanogens doubling time of around 1.3 days, while screenings from a high-capacity unit proved to have a methanogens doubling time of less than 1 day. On the other hand, floatings from grit chambers presented the smallest potential for energy utilization. Nevertheless, these wastes can be utilized for energy production, potentially in secondary sludge co-digestion units, converting a treatment plant from an energy demanding to a zero energy or even a power production process.


2019 ◽  
Vol 80 (4) ◽  
pp. 762-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hazim Qiblawey ◽  
Simon Judd

Abstract A comprehensive OPEX analysis for both municipal and industrial wastewaters has been conducted encompassing energy, critical component (membrane) replacement, chemicals consumption, waste disposal and labour. The analysis was preceded by a review of recent data on industrial effluent treatability with reference to published chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal data for four effluent types: food and beverage, textile, petroleum and landfill leachate. Outcomes revealed labour costs to be the most significant of those considered, contributing 50% of the OPEX for a 10,000 m3/day capacity municipal wastewater treatment works. An analysis of the OPEX sensitivity to 12 individual parameters (labour cost, flux, electrical energy cost, membrane life, feed COD, membrane cost, membrane air-scour rate, chemicals cost, waste disposal cost, mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) concentration, recirculation ratio, and transmembrane pressure) revealed OPEX to be most sensitive to labour effort and/or costs for all scenarios considered other than a large (100,000 m3/day capacity) works, for which flux and electrical energy costs were found to be slightly more influential. It was concluded that for small- to medium-sized plants cost savings are best made through improving the robustness of plants to limit manual intervention necessitated by unforeseen events, such as electrical/mechanical failure, foaming or sludging.


2010 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 956-962 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agostina Chiavola ◽  
Piero Sirini ◽  
Sandro Cecili

The present paper shows the results obtained through an experimental activity carried out on a pilot-scale plant using an innovative technology which couples the granular aerobic sludge with the sequencing batch process. Treatment efficiency and operation costs were evaluated in order to assess feasibility of this new technology for the upgrading of the existing continuous flow activated sludge treatment plant located in Casal Monastero, a decentralized area of the City of Rome. During start-up (about 3 months), the granular aerobic sludge was developed by controlling the dissolved oxygen concentration, the value of pH and the up-flow velocity. Besides, the influent organic loading was progressively increased starting from 0.1 kg/m3 d up to 0.9 kg/m3 d. In order to improve nitrogen removal, an anoxic phase was temporary added to the operative cycle. Complete development of the granular sludge determined an appreciable improvement of the denitrification process which allowed to eliminate the anoxic phase. At regime conditions, the plant was operated with 3 daily cycles, each one of 8 h. The new system showed a reduced sludge production (of about 20–35%) as compared to the existing plant, along with high removal efficiency of both Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and nitrogen. However, the operation was discontinuous and strictly related to the strength of the granular sludge. Therefore, a careful monitoring is recommended in order to control operation and performance of this new system.


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