J. Ferrer

Adsorption of Heavy Metals from Aqueous Solutions onto Activated Carbon in Single Cu and Ni Systems and in Binary Cu–Ni, Cu–Cd and Cu–Zn Systems

Single copper and nickel adsorption from aqueous solutions onto a granular activated carbon is reported. Metal removals increase on raising pH and temperature, and decrease on raising the initial metal concentration at constant carbon dose. The adsorption processes are modelled using the surface complex formation (SCF) Triple Layer Model (TLM) with an overall surface bidentate species. A dependence of the SCF constant on pH, initial molar metal/carbon ratio and temperature is observed, and a correlation for log Kads is determined. The SCF model successfully predicts copper and nickel removals in single metal solutions. Adsorption in the binary metal systems copper–nickel, copper–cadmium and copper–zinc is also reported, showing competitive adsorption effects.

Cadmium and zinc adsorption onto activated carbon: Influence of temperature, pH and metal/carbon ratio

The adsorption characteristics of cadmium and zinc onto a granular activated carbon were studied. Cadmium and zinc removals increased on raising pH and temperature, and decreased on raising the molar metal/carbon ratio. The adsorption processes were modelled using the surface complex formation (SCF) Triple Layer Model (TLM) with an overall bidentate species. A dependence of the SCF constant on pH, the molar metal/carbon ratio and temperature was observed, and a correlation for log K ads was determined. The SCF model successfully predicted cadmium and zinc removals.

Experimental study of the anaerobic urban wastewater treatment in a submerged hollow-fibre membrane bioreactor at pilot scale

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of several operational variables on both biological and separation process performance in a submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor pilot plant that treats urban wastewater. The pilot plant is equipped with two industrial hollow-fibre ultrafiltration membrane modules (PURON® Koch Membrane Systems, 30 m² of filtration surface each). It was operated under mesophilic conditions (at 33 °C), 70 days of SRT, and variable HRT ranging from 20 to 6h. The effects of the influent COD/SO₄-S ratio (ranging from 2 to 12) and the MLTS concentration (ranging from 6 to 22 g L⁻¹) were also analysed. The main performance results were about 87% of COD removal, effluent VFA below 20 mg L⁻¹ and biogas methane concentrations over 55% v/v. Methane yield was strongly affected by the influent COD/SO₄-S ratio. No irreversible fouling problems were detected, even for MLTS concentrations above 22 g L⁻¹.

Single and competitive adsorption of Cd and Zn onto a granular activated carbon

Single and competitive adsorption of cadmium and zinc onto granular activated carbon DARCO 12–20 mesh has been investigated. This activated carbon has been shown as an effective adsorbent for both metals. Cadmium and zinc removals increased with pH and decreased with molar metal/carbon ratio. Surface precipitation phenomena have been detected for the higher pHs and molar ratios. The adsorption process has been modelled on the surface complexation Triple Layer Model (TLM). For this purpose, the amphoteric nature of the activated carbon has been studied. Single metal adsorption data have been used to calibrate TLM parameters. A dependence of the adsorption constants on pH and molar metal/carbon ratio has been observed, and a correlation for log Kads has been determined. In the competitive system, the removal efficiency of the activated carbon decreased for both metals. The TLM model, using surface complexation constants determined from single adsorption experiments, successfully predicted cadmium and zinc removal from the two metal solutions.

Microalgae cultivation in wastewater: nutrient removal from anaerobic membrane bioreactor effluent.

This study investigated the removal of nitrogen and phosphorus from the effluent of a submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor (SAnMBR) by means of a lab-scale photobioreactor in which algae biomass was cultured in a semi-continuous mode for a period of 42 days. Solids retention time was 2 days and a stable pH value in the system was maintained by adding CO(2). Nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in the SAnMBR effluent fluctuated according to the operating performance of the bioreactor and the properties of its actual wastewater load. Despite these variations, the anaerobic effluent proved to be a suitable growth medium for microalgae (mean biomass productivity was 234 mg l(-1)d(-1)), achieving a nutrient removal efficiency of 67.2% for ammonium (NH(4)(+)-N) and 97.8% for phosphate (PO(4)(-3)-P). When conditions were optimum, excellent water quality with very low ammonium and phosphate concentrations was obtained.

Phosphorus recovery by struvite crystallization in WWTPs: Influence of the sludge treatment line operation

Phosphorus recovery by struvite (MgNH(4)PO(4).6H(2)O) crystallization is one of the most widely recommended technologies for treating sludge digester liquors especially in wastewater treatments plants (WWTP) with enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR). In this paper, phosphorus recovery by struvite crystallization is assessed using the rejected liquors resulting from four different operational strategies of the sludge treatment line. Phosphorus precipitation and recovery efficiencies of between 80-90% and 70-85%, respectively, were achieved in the four experiments. The precipitates formed were mainly struvite, followed by amorphous calcium phosphate and, in some experiments, by calcite. The highest global phosphorus recovery taking into account both the sludge line and the crystallizer was achieved when mixed thickening and high elutriation were carried out (8.4 gP/kg treated sludge). However, low struvite content was obtained in the crystallizer with this operation scheme due to the high calcium content in the elutriation stream. Therefore, if the final purpose is to obtain struvite, the reduction of the elutriation flowrate is widely recommended in the case of high water hardness.

Struvite formation from the supernatants of an anaerobic digestion pilot plant

This work studied the influence of the characteristics of the supernatants on the struvite precipitation process. Eighteen experiments with the supernatants generated in an anaerobic digestion pilot plant were performed in a stirred reactor. In order to obtain the pH control during the crystallization process, a Fuzzy Logic based controller was used. High phosphorus precipitation and recovery efficiencies were obtained. The composition of the supernatants was analyzed in order to study its influence on the solids formed from those solutions. The presence of calcium reduced the percentage of phosphorus precipitated as struvite leading to the formation of amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP), which tended to be lost with the effluent of the reactor. Calcite was also formed when supernatants with high magnesium:phosphorus (Mg/P) and calcium:phosphorus (Ca/P) molar ratios were employed. Some ammonium volatilization by conversion to NH(3) occurred in all the experiments. The use of air to increase the pH to an adequate value showed to be feasible. Aeration cleaned struvite crystals from suspended solids, which makes aeration interesting for struvite separation. However, aeration slightly increased the loss of phosphorus with the effluent of the reactor and promoted ammonium volatilization.

A voltammetric electronic tongue as tool for water quality monitoring in wastewater treatment plants

The use of a voltammetric electronic tongue as tool for the prediction of concentration levels of certain water quality parameters from influent and effluent wastewater from a Submerged Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor pilot plant applied to domestic wastewater treatment is proposed here. The electronic tongue consists of a set of noble (Au, Pt, Rh, Ir, and Ag) and non-noble (Ni, Co and Cu) electrodes that were housed inside a stainless steel cylinder which was used as the body of the electronic tongue system. As a previous step an electrochemical study of the response of the ions sulphate, orthophosphate, acetate, bicarbonate and ammonium was carried out in water using the electrodes contained in the electronic tongue. The second part of the work was devoted to the application of the electronic tongue to the characterization of the influent and effluent waters from the wastewater treatment plant. Partial Least Squares analysis was used to obtain a correlation between the data from the tongue and the pollution parameters measured in the laboratory such as soluble chemical oxygen demand (CODs), soluble biological oxygen demand (BODs), ammonia (NH(4)-N), orthophosphate (PO(4)-P), Sulphate (SO(4)-S), acetic acid (HAC) and alkalinity (Alk). A total of 28 and 11 samples were used in the training and the validation steps, respectively, for both influent and effluent water samples. The electronic tongue showed relatively good predictive power for the determination of BOD, COD, NH(4)-N, PO(4)-P, SO(4)-S, and Alk.

Methane recovery efficiency in a submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor (SAnMBR) treating sulphate-rich urban wastewater: Evaluation of methane losses with the effluent

The present paper presents a submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor (SAnMBR) as a sustainable approach for urban wastewater treatment at 33 and 20 °C, since greenhouse gas emissions are reduced and energy recovery is enhanced. Compared to other anaerobic systems, such as UASB reactors, the membrane technology allows the use of biogas-assisted mixing which enhances the methane stripping from the liquid phase bulk. The methane saturation index obtained for the whole period (1.00±0.04) evidenced that the equilibrium condition was reached and the methane loss with the effluent was reduced. The methane recovery efficiency obtained at 20 °C (53.6%) was slightly lower than at 33 °C (57.4%) due to a reduction of the treatment efficiency, as evidenced by the lower methane production and the higher waste sludge per litre of treated wastewater. For both operational temperatures, the methane recovery efficiency was strongly affected by the high sulphate concentration in the influent wastewater.

Factors that affect the permeability of commercial hollow-fibre membranes in a submerged anaerobic MBR (HF-SAnMBR) system

A demonstration plant with two commercial HF ultrafiltration membrane modules (PURON(®), Koch Membrane Systems, PUR-PSH31) was operated with urban wastewater. The effect of the main operating variables on membrane performance at sub-critical and supra-critical filtration conditions was tested. The physical operating variables that affected membrane performance most were gas sparging intensity and back-flush (BF) frequency. Indeed, low gas sparging intensities (around 0.23 Nm(3) h(-1) m(-2)) and low BF frequencies (30-s back-flush for every 10 basic filtration-relaxation cycles) were enough to enable membranes to be operated sub-critically even when levels of mixed liquor total solids were high (up to 25 g L(-1)). On the other hand, significant gas sparging intensities and BF frequencies were required in order to maintain long-term operating at supra-critical filtration conditions. After operating for more than two years at sub-critical conditions (transmembrane flux between 9 and 13.3 LMH at gas sparging intensities of around 0.23 Nm(3) h(-1) m(-2) and MLTS levels from around 10-30 g L(-1)) no significant irreversible/irrecoverable fouling problems were detected (membrane permeability remained above 100 LMH bar(-1) and total filtration resistance remained below 10(13) m(-1)), therefore no chemical cleaning was conducted. Membrane performance was similar to the aerobic HF membranes operated in full-scale MBR plants.