Agricultural Runoff and Treatment Methods

Increasing global population intensifies the food demand pressure while meeting the increasing environmental legislation. To cater for such demand, agriculture sector shifts for mass food production accompanied with the use of a large amount of agrochemicals such as fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics, and growth hormones. As a result, these agrochemicals' residues pollute the ecosystem and environment through surface runoff. It has been a great challenge in treating agricultural runoff due to its contaminant loadings and wide variability of different compounds in the wastewater to meet the stringent standards in an economically feasible manner. This chapter delineates the current state-of-the-art of wastewater treatment methods for agricultural runoff.

Application of Soil Washing Treatment Method for the Remediation of Petroleum Polluted Soil

The increasing contamination of soil by petroleum products has been a great source of concern to our society because of its negative consequences on the environment. Thus, several remediation technologies and trials have been propounded for a crude oil-polluted environment. This chapter reviews the dynamics of pollutants in the soil and the various treatment technologies for petroleum-polluted soils viz physico-chemical, thermal, and biological treatment methods. Authors experimented on soil washing using detergent for the remediation of petroleum contaminated soils considering different concentrations. The percentage removal of aliphatic and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) was determined using Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The highest percentage removal efficiencies of 97.55% and 61.41% for aliphatic and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons were obtained at detergent concentration of 20w/v% respectively.

Reverse Osmosis Membrane Desalination Technology and Process

This chapter gives an overview about reverse osmosis membrane desalination technology and process. Desalination process can be considered as one of the crucial processes in obtaining fresh water to meet the increasing fresh water demand throughout the world. Desalination process begins with the intake of seawater or brackish water. The intake system usually comprises a pump and piping system. Then, the seawater goes through pre-treatment process. From there, the treated seawater will go through desalination process. The most widely used desalination is membrane desalination utilizing reverse osmosis membrane. After desalination process, the fresh water will go through more filtration and a series of post-treatment. Post-treatment consists of conditioning and stabilizing the water for distribution. This chapter concludes with a case study to illustrate the operation and sustainability of a small-scale desalination plant that utilizes brackish city polluted water as source.

Recent Advances in Fluidized Bed Gasification of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches

The chapter presents recent developments in the gasification of oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) through fluidized bed gasifiers. The bioenergy potential of oil palm EFB as an environmentally friendly biomass is presented. Furthermore, the chapter highlights the prospects of utilising biomass gasification technology as a practical method for valorising EFB. The successful development and deployment of gasification for oil palm EFB depends on a critical understanding of the fundamental theories of the chemical reactions, classification, and operational parameters of biomass gasifiers. Hence, the potential use of fluidized bed gasifiers for oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) is highlighted in detail. Next, the analysis of the fundamental theories, assumptions, and equations of fluidization critical to fluidized bed gasification of EFB is presented. The chapter concludes by highlighting the potential of oil palm EFB as a low-cost, abundant, lignocellulosic feedstock for valorisation through fluidized bed gasification.

Waste Management Practice in Malaysia and Future Challenges

Malaysia current waste management systems are not able to solve the disposal rates. The reduction of waste through 3Rs programme (reduce, reuse, and recycle) is in precontemplation stage. The municipal solid waste (MSW) condition is mixed and wet. The landfill and Thermal Treatment Plant (incineration) are the current practices for the MSW disposal. Landfill created leachate while incineration released unhealthy gases. Incineration failed due to the improper management and high cost of the operation. Torrefaction is needed before it goes to the incineration to improve the high heating value (HHV). The MSW pyrolysis and gasification are able to convert into valuable products (bio-oil, biochar, combustible gases). Combustible gases can be used to feedback into the incinerator. The heat of the incinerator can be performed waste to energy (WTE), which is able to convert into electricity as a Feed-in-Tariff (FiT).

Coagulation-Flocculation Technology in Water and Wastewater Treatment

Coagulation and flocculation processes are widely used in potable water treatment due to its high efficiency in turbidity removal. Egyptians discovered this method in 1500 BC by using alum to settle the suspended solids in the water. Today, the coagulation and flocculation processes are implemented with the purpose of agglomerate colloids and fine particles in water into larger particles, which is also known as floc. Therefore, reduction of turbidity and pollutants e.g. organic matter, inorganic matter, suspended solid, etc. can be achieved. This chapter covers the principle of coagulation and flocculation process which includes the charge neutralization and various binding mechanisms e.g. interparticle bridging, sweeping coagulation, and absorption. Besides, various types of coagulants and flocculants that have been discovered and their respective effectiveness in potable water treatment are discussed as well in this chapter. Polymer modifications to synthesize new coagulant/flocculant i.e. grafting and crosslinking are also included.

Industrial Wastewater Treatment

The development of effective and simple methods for treating wastewater is a challenging task for environmental engineers. In this chapter, a novel modified anaerobic hybridized baffled (MAHB) bioreactor, which is a combination of regular suspended-growth and fixed biofilm systems together with the modification of baffled-reactor configurations, was proven to be a modest bioreactor for wastewater treatment rather than the commercial anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR). The significant advantages of this bioreactor were its ability to nearly realize the multi-stages anaerobic theory, allowing different bacterial groups to develop under more favourable conditions, reduced sludge bed expansion, no special gas or sludge separation required, and high stability to organic and toxic shock loads. The compartmentalization of this bioreactor results in a buffering zone between the primary acidification zone and active methanogenesis zone, and provided the strong ability to resist shock loads which broaden the usage of multi-phase anaerobic technology for industrial wastewater treatment.

Application of Graded Limestone as Roughing Filter Media for the Treatment of Leachate

This chapter examined limestone performance as a roughing media for pollutant removal from leachate using a filtration column. Limestone with a density of 2554 kg/m3 was crushed and graded between 4-6, 8-12 and 12-18 mm as filter media. The length of run for each experiment of the various individual media sizes and combination sizes was 10 days. Test analysis was performed at intervals of 24 hours to ascertain the percentage removal efficiency for the parameters desired. The observed best removal occurred when a combination of 4 – 8mm, 8 – 12mm and 12 – 18mm, media top to bottom was used. This obtained a BOD removal in the range of 22 to 81%, COD was 22 to 75%, and turbidity was 32 to 86% while the colour was 36 to 62%, respectively. A general decline in removal efficiency was observed after the sixth day showing maximum adsorption and breakthrough had been achieved. The study indicates that limestone is an effective adsorbent that can be used for short-term treatment of leachate.

Utilization of Waste Cooking Oil (WCO) in Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA)

The use of WCO in binder modification is widely explored in response to waste management issue. A chemical treatment was proposed to reduce the acidity of the WCO that causes its poor performance. Therefore, this chapter evaluates the performance of binders modified with untreated and treated WCO. The physical and rheological tests of binder were conducted to determine optimum percentages of untreated and treated WCO in the binder. The optimum WCOs were utilized for mechanical performance evaluation of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) mixture through resilient modulus and dynamic creep. The test showed the failure temperature of binder modified using the treated WCO has increased to 70°C and the treated WCO mixture recorded superior performance by being less susceptible to permanent deformation as compared to the control mix. In conclusion, the chemical treatment had improved the treated WCO performance in the modified binder as asphalt paving materials.

Real-Time Construction Waste Reduction Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

The paradigm shift towards waste reduction in the construction industry has produced revolutionary techniques in assessing and mitigating waste during the construction lifecycle. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology presents potentials in real-time construction waste management for informed decision-making processes for site managers. Due to the dynamic and complex construction work environment, material and equipment, labour and management policies are subjected to latent and identified hazards. Therefore, this chapter focuses on the real time impact of construction waste. UAV technology was adopted. UAV flight mission and deployment time were designed to meet target requirements and snapshot checklist. Data images were captured from an 11-storey residential building and analysed for conformity to construction waste and safety requirements. The prevalence of exposed material and equipment, low labour awareness, and need for policy shift to circular economy was predominant. Further studies can explore multiple construction monitoring and other category of construction works.