Bjorge Decostere

Filtration performance of electrospun polyamide nanofibres loaded with bactericides

Electrospinning is a process to generate nanofibrous nonwovens. With these nonwovens, many applications can be targeted, such as water filtration. In this paper, polyamide nanofibrous membranes are evaluated for their pore size, a key parameter in water filtration, and for their removal of microorganisms. To increase the removal efficiency to values exceeding the state of the art, innovative functionalization of the nanofibres is studied. The nanofibrous membranes are functionalized using a one step method. Different functionalization chemicals are investigated which are Ag nanoparticles and bactericides. Ag functionalized nanofibres are used as a reference medium to compare with a novel bactericide based functionalization system. It is seen that nanofibrous membranes functionalized with the bactericides exceed the normal removal efficiencies obtained by microfiltration membranes. Furthermore, knowledge is built up on how these bactericides are inserted in the nanofibres themselves.

Sustainable wastewater treatment of temporary events: the Dranouter Music Festival case study

Music festivals and other temporary events, such as bicycle races, lay a heavy burden on the surrounding environment. Treatment of the wastewater originating from such events is necessary if no municipal treatment plant is available. This study demonstrated that activated carbon is a performant technique for the treatment of wastewaters originating from these temporary events. Freundlich isotherms and maximum operational linear velocity (6 m/h) were determined on a lab-scale set-up. A pilot-scale set up was used to treat part (5%) of the total volume of the Dranouter Music Festival shower wastewater. On average 90% removal of COD and suspended solids concentration was obtained. Application of the activated carbon filter resulted in the fact that the local discharge limits were met without operational problems.

Kinetic exploration of intracellular nitrate storage in marine microalgae

ABSTRACT In this study, a recently developed model accounting for intracellular nitrate storage kinetics was thoroughly studied to understand and compare the storage capacity of Phaeodactylum tricornutum and Amphora coffeaeformis. In the first stage the identifiability of the biokinetic parameters was examined. Next, the kinetic model was calibrated for both microalgal species based on experimental observations during batch growth experiments. Two kinetic parameters were calibrated, namely the maximum specific growth rate and the nitrate storage rate (). A significant difference was observed for the nitrate storage rate between both species. For P. tricornutum, the nitrate storage rate was much higher ( = 0.036 m3 g−1 DW d−1) compared to A. coffeaeformis ( = 0.0004 m3 g−1 DW d−1). This suggests that P. tricornutum has a more efficient nitrate uptake ability and intracellular nitrate storage capacity and also indicates the need for determination of in order to quantify nitrate storage.