A Short Communication on Wastewater Treatment Techniques Used in Pharmaceutical Plant

Toxic and difficult to biodegrade pharmaceutical wastewater is complex in composition with high concentrations of organic debris and microorganisms. There may still exit quantities of suspended particles and dissolved organic materials even after further treatment. Advanced treatment is required to improve the quality of pharmaceutical wastewater discharge. In this study, the pharmaceutical technology categorization has been established, and the features of pharmaceutical wastewater effluent quality have been summarized. On the other hand, The methods of advanced treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater have been incorporate, including coagulation and sedimentation, flotation, activated carbon adsorption, membrane separation, advanced oxidation processes, membrane separation, and biological treatment. In the meanwhile, each process's features were specified.

Modification of Septic Tank for Sedimentation Optimization in the Public Toilet (Case Study at Wisdom Park UGM)

Septic tank with sedimentation and anaerobic processes in the same tank is commonly used as a domestic wastewater treatment technology in individual households and communal systems. Although simple to construct, such a system has some problems, such as effluent not meeting the quality requirement and blocking by trash and suspended solid before the second treatment chamber. This research aims to develop a new septic tank design that is simpler to construct and improve performance. The new design uses HDPE material, which is easier to build and standardized compared to the conventional concrete structure. The performance of the new design was compared to the conventional septic tank. The start-up process was monitored for flowrate, COD, TSS, NH3N, PO4-P parameters and evaluated against effluent standards. The study was conducted at public toilet facilities at Wisdom Park UGM and Sunday Morning Market. Results from the study show that the new design effectively improves effluent quality and overcomes the trash problem.

Design of Feedback Control Strategies in a Plant-Wide Wastewater Treatment Plant for Simultaneous Evaluation of Economics, Energy Usage, and Removal of Nutrients

Simultaneous removal of nitrogen and phosphorous is a recommended practice while treating wastewater. In the present study, control strategies based on proportional-integral (PI), model predictive control (MPC), and fuzzy logic are developed and implemented on a plant-wide wastewater treatment plant. Four combinations of control frameworks are developed in order to reduce the operational cost and improve the effluent quality. As a working platform, a Benchmark simulation model (BSM2-P) is used. A default control framework with PI controllers is used to control nitrate and dissolved oxygen (DO) by manipulating the internal recycle and oxygen mass transfer coefficient (KLa). Hierarchical control topology is proposed in which a lower-level control framework with PI controllers is implemented to DO in the sixth reactor by regulating the KLa of the fifth, sixth, and seventh reactors, and fuzzy and MPC are used at the supervisory level. This supervisory level considers the ammonia in the last aerobic reactor as a feedback signal to alter the DO set-points. PI-fuzzy showed improved effluent quality by 21.1%, total phosphorus removal rate by 33.3% with an increase of operational cost, and a slight increase in the production rates of greenhouse gases. In all the control design frameworks, a trade-off is observed between operational cost and effluent quality.

Solar homogeneous catalysis to the removal of organic matter from slaughterhouse effluents undergone to a prior biological process

This study shows the effectiveness of the wastewater treatment from a municipal slaughterhouse undergone to a previous biological treatment applying a sequence of stages, reaching a 75% of elimination of the COD using sedimentation in combination of coagulation-flocculation, using 0.5 g/L FeCl3 which is one of the best known inorganic coagulants. Then, the elimination of COD was around 98% adding the Fenton process where 1,000 mg/L H2O2 and FeSO4 are used. In addition to the COD, other water quality parameters were measured to evaluate the level of purification of the test samples, such as solids of different types, pH, DOC and so on. With the above, it can be noted that the Fenton process had a slight improvement in the effluent quality by using a solar concentrator in the now called photo-Fenton process, reaching around 99% of COD removal (0.36 g/L), 91% of total suspended solids (0.32 g/L) and 89% of DOC (0.20 g/L). These results were the best achieved within a proposed treatment train for this type of complex wastewater. Moreover, this last part of the process adds an improvement, by the usage of renewable energy sources such as sunlight.

Monitoring of Food Waste Anaerobic Digestion Performance: Conventional Co-Substrates vs. Unmarketable Biochar Additions

This study proposed the selection of cost-effective additives generated from different activity sectors to enhance and stabilize the start-up, as well as the transitional phases, of semi-continuous food waste (FW) anaerobic digestion. The results showed that combining agricultural waste mixtures including wheat straw (WS) and cattle manure (CM) boosted the process performance and generated up to 95% higher methane yield compared to the control reactors (mono-digested FW) under an organic loading rate (OLR) range of 2 to 3 kg VS/m3·d. Whereas R3 amended with unmarketable biochar (UBc), to around 10% of the initial fresh mass inserted, showed a significant process enhancement during the transitional phase, and more particularly at an OLR of 4 kg VS/m3·d, it was revealed that under these experimental conditions, FW reactors including UBc showed an increase of 144% in terms of specific biogas yield (SBY) compared to FW reactors fed with agricultural residue. Hence, both agricultural and industrial waste were efficacious when it came to boosting either FW anaerobic performance or AD effluent quality. Although each co-substrate performed under specific experimental conditions, this feature provides decision makers with diverse alternatives to implement a sustainable organic waste management system, conveying sufficient technical details to draw up appropriate designs for the recovery of various types of organic residue.

Enhance nitrogen removal in bioretention cells with addition of hydrothermal pre-treated pine barks as external carbon source

The problem of poor carbon source is a common factor limiting the nutrients removal in bioretention cells (BRCs). This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of using modified biomass in BRCs filled with a mixture of fly ash ceramsite and pumice fillers to enhance nitrogen removal. Different pretreatment methods (hydrothermal-treated, acid-treated and alkali-treated) were attempted, and hydrothermal pretreatment showed a best performance in carbon release ability. The scanning electron microscopy showed that the lignin in hydrothermal pretreated pine barks (H-PBs) was destroyed, and the fiber structure became thinner with more irregular folds, which improved the accessibility of cellulose and attachment of microorganisms. The addition of H-PBs significantly enhanced the nutrients removal in BRCs, and the removal rates of TN and NO3−-N increased by 23.25% and 38.22% compared with those in BRC-A (without external carbon source), but the removal rate of NH4+-N was inferior to BRC-A. Besides, the large carbon release amount of H-PBs did not deteriorate the effluent quality, with COD removal rate of 87.98% in the 48 d. These results indicate that the BRCs by adding H-PBs could intensify the denitrification process.

Challenges and development directions of membrane bioreactors operated on passenger ships in international shipping

In membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology, the activated sludge method is integrated with the separation of solid particles by ultrafiltration (UF). The technology ensures a high effluent quality, a shortened hydraulic retention time and a long sludge age that promotes slowly growing microorganisms and low sludge production. These advantages and the modular construction mean that MBRs have started to treat wastewater generated on passenger ships to adjust the treatment systems to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships. The aim of this paper is to present operational aspects of MBRs treating wastewater generated on ships, which are different from the aspects of MBR operation on land. This paper describes the consequences of separate treatment of gray wastewater (from showers, washing machines and kitchens) and black wastewater (from toilets), and of discontinuous flow of wastewater resulting from very high variability in the passenger numer and the use of the MBR as a ship ballast element. The possibility of introducing a water recovery technology using the existing infrastructure on passenger ships as well as the hybrid UF/reverse osmosis technology is presented. The findings demonstrated that gray effluent may be reused for marine main engine cooling jackets of high and low temperature, ship boilers or ship laundry.