Mehmet Kitis

Disinfection of wastewater with peracetic acid: a review

Peracetic acid is a strong disinfectant with a wide spectrum of antimicrobial activity. Due to its bactericidal, virucidal, fungicidal, and sporicidal effectiveness as demonstrated in various industries, the use of peracetic acid as a disinfectant for wastewater effluents has been drawing more attention in recent years. The desirable attributes of peracetic acid for wastewater disinfection are the ease of implementing treatment (without the need for expensive capital investment), broad spectrum of activity even in the presence of heterogeneous organic matter, absence of persistent toxic or mutagenic residuals or by-products, no quenching requirement (i.e., no dechlorination), small dependence on pH, short contact time, and effectiveness for primary and secondary effluents. Major disadvantages associated with peracetic acid disinfection are the increases of organic content in the effluent due to acetic acid (AA) and thus in the potential microbial regrowth (acetic acid is already present in the mixture and is also formed after peracetic acid decomposition). Another drawback to the use of peracetic acid is its high cost, which is partly due to limited production capacity worldwide. However, if the demand for peracetic acid increases, especially from the wastewater industry, the future mass production capacity might also be increased, thus lowering the cost. In such a case, in addition to having environmental advantages, peracetic acid may also become cost-competitive with chlorine.

Acidic leaching and precipitation of zinc and manganese from spent battery powders using various reductants

The main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of reductive acidic leaching and further precipitation on the recovery of manganese and zinc from spent alkaline and zinc-carbon battery powders. Ascorbic acid (AA), citric acid (CA) and oxalic acid (OA) were tested as the reductants. Sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide were used as precipitating agents. OA with H(2)SO(4) or HCl was not effective on the leaching of zinc due to the formation of zinc oxalate precipitates. However, the other reducing agents (CA and AA) tested under various experimental conditions were effective in the acidic leaching of both zinc and manganese. Leaching yields of both manganese and zinc were higher at leach temperature of 90 degrees C than those at 30 degrees C. Leach solutions were purified by the selective precipitation of manganese and zinc using KOH or NaOH. Complete precipitation was obtained for Mn at pH 9-10 and for Zn at pH 7-8. The use of ascorbic acid or citric acid as reductants in acidic leaching appears to be effective in the simultaneous leaching and further recovery of zinc and manganese from spent alkaline and zinc-carbon battery powders.

Impacts of membrane flux enhancers on activated sludge respiration and nutrient removal in MBRs

This paper presents the findings of experimental investigations regarding the influence of 13 different flux enhancing chemicals (FeCl3, polyaluminium chloride, 2 chitosans, 5 synthetic polymers, 2 starches and 2 activated carbons) on respirometric characteristics and nitrification/denitrification performance of membrane bioreactor (MBR) mixed liquor. Flux enhancing chemicals are a promising method to reduce the detrimental effects of fouling phenomena via the modification of mixed liquor characteristics. However, potentially inhibiting effects of these chemicals on mixed liquor biological activity triggered the biokinetic studies (in jar tests) conducted in this work. The tested polyaluminium chloride (PACl) strongly impacted on nitrification (-16%) and denitrification rate (-43%). The biodegradable nature of chitosan was striking in endogenous and exogenous tests. Considering the relatively high costs of this chemical, an application for wastewater treatment does thus not seem to be advisable. Also, addition of one of the tested activated carbons strongly impacted on the oxygen uptake rate (-28%), nitrification (-90%) and denitrification rate (-43%), due to a decrease of pH. Results show that the changes in kLa values were mostly not significant, however, a decrease of 13% in oxygen transfer was found for sludge treated with PACl.

The adsorptive removal of disinfection by-product precursors in a high-SUVA water using iron oxide-coated pumice and volcanic slag particles.

The main objective of this work was to study the effectiveness of iron oxide-coated pumice and volcanic slag particles in removing disinfection by-product (DBP) precursors from a raw drinking water source with high specific UV absorbance (SUVA(254)) value. Iron oxide coating of particles significantly increased dissolved organic carbon (DOC) uptakes and decreased DBP formation after chlorination compared to uncoated particles. pH values close to neutral levels during adsorption and chlorination provided DOC, trihalomethane and haloacetic acid reductions around 60-75% employing 6 g/L coated particle dosage. Higher degree of DOC and DBP reductions (>85%) were obtained with increasing particle dose. The uptake of bromide by iron oxide surfaces was negligible and increasing bromide concentrations (up to 550 μg/L) did not negatively impact the DOC uptake. However, due to competition between natural organic matter (NOM) and bicarbonate for the iron oxide surfaces, increasing bicarbonate alkalinity levels reduced DOC uptakes. Overall, the results indicated that the iron oxide-coated pumice/slag particles are effective adsorbents to remove NOM and control DBP formation in waters with relatively high DOC and SUVA(254) levels. However, they may not be effective for waters with alkalinity levels above 250 mg CaCO(3)/L.

Prediction of Bromate Formation Using Multi-Linear Regression and Artificial Neural Networks

The main objective of this study was to develop simple models for the prediction of bromate formation in ozonated bottled waters, using rapidly and practically measurable raw water quality and/or operational parameters. A total of 6 multi-linear regression (MLR) with or without principal component analysis (PCA) and 2 artificial neural networks (ANN) models with multilayer perceptron architecture were developed for the prediction of bromate formation. PCA was employed to better identify relations between variables and reduce the number of variables. Experimental data used in modeling was provided from the ozonation of samples from 5 groundwater sources at various applied ozone dose and contact time. MLR models#1 and #2 well-predicted bromate formation although correlations (i.e., the signs of regression constants) among pH (as input variable) and bromate concentrations did not agree with the chemistry. MLR model#6, containing practical input parameters that are measured on-line in full-scale treatment plants, adequately predicted bromate formation and agreed with the chemistry, although fewer input parameters were used compared to MLR#1 and #2. Although both of the ANN models exhibited high regression coefficients (R2) (0.97 for both) ANN#1 was found to provide better prediction of bromate formation based on mean square error (MSE) values. However, since ANN#2 included easily measurable input parameters it may be practically used by water companies employing ozonation. Results overall indicated that ANN models have stronger prediction capabilities of bromate formation than MLR models. ANN modeling appears to be a strong tool in situations where the relations between variables are non-linear, interactive and complex, as in the bromate formation by ozonation.

Modelling of COD removal in a biological wastewater treatment plant using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system and artificial neural network

This work evaluated artificial neural network (ANN) and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) modelling methods to estimate organic carbon removal using the correlation among the past information of influent and effluent parameters in a full-scale aerobic biological wastewater treatment plant. Model development focused on providing an adaptive, useful, practical and alternative methodology for modelling of organic carbon removal. For both models, measured and predicted effluent COD concentrations were strongly correlated with determination coefficients over 0.96. The errors associated with the prediction of effluent COD by the ANFIS modelling appeared to be within the error range of analytical measurements. The results overall indicated that the ANFIS modelling approach may be suitable to describe the relationship between wastewater quality parameters and may have application potential for performance prediction and control of aerobic biological processes in wastewater treatment plants.

Effects of chemical additives on filtration and rheological characteristics of MBR sludge.

The main goal of this study was to control the fouling phenomena in MBR using chemical additives. In the first phase of the study, SMP removal and bound EPS formation capacity of chemical additives were determined. Highest SMP removal (72%) was achieved by the Poly-2 additive. In the second phase of the study, short term filtration tests were conducted. Poly-1 exhibited highest performance based on membrane resistance, permeability and average TMP. According to the results obtained from constant shear rate tests in fourth phase, no significant change in viscosity with time was observed. Studies for the adaptation of rheograms to common flow models showed that chitosan and starch was not able to fit to Ostwald de Waele and Bingham models. At a shear rate of 73.4 s(-1) viscosities of all samples were close to each other. Chitosan and starch achieved highest viscosity values at the shear rate of 0.6 s(-1).

The removal of disinfection by-product precursors from water with ceramic membranes

The main objective of this work was to investigate the effectiveness of ceramic ultrafiltration (UF) membranes with different pore sizes in removing natural organic matter (NOM) from model solutions and drinking water sources. A lab-scale, cross-flow ceramic membrane test unit was used in all experiments. Two different single-channel tubular ceramic membrane modules were tested with average pore sizes of 4 and 10 nm. The impacts of membrane pore size and pressure on permeate flux and the removals of UV(280 nm) absorbance, specific UV absorbance (SUVA(280 nm)), and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) were determined. Prior to experiments with model solutions and raw waters, clean water flux tests were conducted. UV(280) absorbance reductions ranged between 63 and 83% for all pressures and membranes tested in the raw water. More than 90% of UV(280) absorbance reduction was consistently achieved with both membranes in the model NOM solutions. Such high UV absorbance reductions are advantageous due to the fact that UV absorbing sites of NOM are known to be one of the major precursors to disinfection by-products (DBP) such as trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids. For both UF membranes, the ranges of DOC removals in the raw water and model NOM solutions were 55-73% and 79-91%, respectively. SUVA(280) value of the raw water decreased from 2 to about 1.5 L/mg-m by both membranes. For the model solutions, SUVA(280) values were consistently reduced to < or =1 L/mg-m levels after membrane treatment. As the SUVA(280) value of the NOM source increased, the extent of SUVA(280) reduction and DOC removal by the tested ceramic UF membranes also increased. The results overall indicated that ceramic UF membranes, especially the one with 4 nm average pore size, appear to be effective in removing organic matter and DBP precursors from drinking water sources with relatively high and sustainable permeate flux values.

Filterability of membrane bioreactor (MBR) sludge: impacts of polyelectrolytes and mixing with conventional activated sludge

The main objective of this work was to investigate the filterability of MBR sludge and its mixture with conventional activated sludge (CAS). In addition, the impacts of type and dose of various polyelectrolytes, filter type and sludge properties on the filterability of both MBR and Mixed sludges were determined. Specific cake resistance (SCR) measured by the Buchner funnel filtration test apparatus and the solids content of the resulting sludge cake were used to assess the dewaterability of tested sludges. The type of filter paper used in Buchner tests affected the results of filterability for MBR, CAS and Mixed sludges. SCR values and optimum polyelectrolyte doses increased with increasing MLSS concentrations in the MBR, which suggested that increase in MLSS concentrations accompanied by increases in EPS and SMP concentrations and a shift toward smaller particles caused poorer dewaterability of the MBR sludge. The significant differences observed among the filterability of CAS and MBR sludges suggested that MLSS alone is not a good predictor of sludge dewaterability. Combining CAS and MBR sludges at different proportions generally improved their dewaterability. Combining MBR sludges having typically high MLSS and EPS concentrations with CAS having much lower MLSS concentrations may be an option for full-scale treatment plants experiencing sludge dewaterability problems. Better filterability and higher cake dry solids were achieved with cationic polyelectrolytes compared to anionic and non-ionic ones for all sludge types tested.

Hybrid Adsorptive and Oxidative Removal of Natural Organic Matter Using Iron Oxide-Coated Pumice Particles

The aim of this work was to combine adsorptive and catalytic properties of iron oxide surfaces in a hybrid process using hydrogen peroxide and iron oxide-coated pumice particles to remove natural organic matter (NOM) in water. Experiments were conducted in batch, completely mixed reactors using various original and coated pumice particles. The results showed that both adsorption and catalytic oxidation mechanisms played role in the removal of NOM. The hybrid process was found to be effective in removing NOM from water having a wide range of specific UV absorbance values. Iron oxide surfaces preferentially adsorbed UV280-absorbing NOM fractions. Furthermore, the strong oxidants produced from reactions among iron oxide surfaces and hydrogen peroxide also preferentially oxidized UV280-absorbing NOM fractions. Preloading of iron oxide surfaces with NOM slightly reduced the further NOM removal performance of the hybrid process. Overall, the results suggested that the tested hybrid process may be effective for removal of NOM and control disinfection by-product formation.