Nigmet Uzal

Sequential (anaerobic/aerobic) biological treatment of malt whisky wastewater

The anaerobic treatability of malt whisky distillery wastewater was investigated. Biochemical methane potential (BMP) experiments were conducted both with and without basal medium (BM) to observe the effect of nutrient supplementation. For batch reactors containing no nutrients but only NaHCO3, net total gas production at the end of 29 days were observed as 0.019 m3 gas/kg COD removed. With nutrient supplemented reactors the net total gas production was 0.020 m3 gas/kg COD. Continuous reactor experiments were carried out in two stage upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors. These experiments indicated that the two stage UASB reactor configuration is an efficient system for malt whisky wastewater treatment until up to 33 866 mg/l influent COD concentration. Following the UASB experiments aerobic experiments in batch reactors were also conducted and further COD and BOD removal of up to 55 and 70%, respectively, were achieved.

Nanofiltration and Reverse Osmosis for Reuse of Indigo Dye Rinsing Waters

A membrane based treatment strategy was developed for the possible recycling of rinsing wastewater from indigo dyeing to the process itself. Performances of three different nanofiltration (NF) (NF 270 and NF 90, Dow Film Tech, USA and NF 99, Alfa Laval, Denmark) and two different reverse osmosis (RO) (HR 98 PP and CA 995 PE, Alfa Laval, Denmark) membranes were investigated with wastewater collected from the first post-rinsing tank of indigo dyeing process of a denim manufacturing plant. Dead-end microfiltration with a 5 µm filter was employed to remove coarse particles and minimize fouling of further NF and RO membranes. For NF and RO, a lab scale plate-and-frame membrane module was operated at a pressure of 5.07 bar and at a 0.62 m/s cross-flow velocity. The permeate quality from all the tested NF and RO membranes was acceptable for reuse in terms of COD and color. However, only the permeate from HR 98 PP RO and NF 90 membranes were with an acceptable conductivity. On the other hand, NF 270 membrane was superior to all the other NF and RO membranes in terms of the permeation rate. Flux declines obtained for all membranes were higher than 50% but fouling was not considerable and completely reversible. The good performance of NF 270 in terms of permeate quality (permeate conductivity, color, and COD values were 4.3 mS/cm, 8 Pt-Co, and 87 mg/L, respectively) together with a higher flux makes this membrane preferable over the other membranes to recycle denim textile rinsing wastewaters.

Developing a Decision-Support System for Waste Management in Aluminum Production

Industrial enterprises constitute a major portion of the world’s economy, as well as a large proportion of a country’s businesses and total employment. In Turkey, industrial enterprises are underdeveloped in terms of knowledge, skill, capital, and particularly accessing and benefiting from the advantages provided by modern information and communication technologies. Aluminum manufacturing has been reported to be the largest industry in Turkey with respect to production volumes and application fields. However, aluminum production is known to be an important contributor to environmental pollution, and the relative contribution of other related enterprises to the total industrial environmental impact is unknown. Environmental pollution sources can typically be classified into three categories: gaseous emissions, solid wastes, and wastewaters. The types of wastes produced by aluminum production vary based on the process line used, the variety of target products produced, and the production capacity of a given plant. As the capacities of facilities grow, the type and amount of waste become more variable. Therefore, the primary objective of this study is to determine the priority of each waste type in aluminum manufacturing industries. This study was conducted in the Industrial Zone of Kayseri in Turkey. Three different facilities that range in size from large to small based on their production volume, plant capacity, and variety of production are selected for this study. The priority of waste types was determined by combining the AHP and PROMETHEE II multicriteria decision methods. While wastewater was categorized as having the highest priority in large facilities, solid waste was determined to be the highest priority in medium and small facilities.

Arsenic removal from aqueous solutions by ultrafiltration assisted with polyacrylamide: an application of response surface methodology

AbstractThe present work deals with removal of arsenic from aqueous solutions by ultrafiltration assisted with polyacrylamide as an environmental friendly complexing polymer. The system performance was evaluated in relation to quality of permeate in terms of operating variables as feed concentration of arsenic ions (Co, μg L−1), ratio of polymer to arsenic (r, w/w), and pH of feed solution. The effect of the operating variables and maximum arsenic removal efficiency was determined by adopting design of experiments and response surface methodology under different conditions for this polymer. The experimental data were analyzed with a second order polynomial model validated by statistical analysis. Based on the response model developed, the maximum removal efficiency, close to 100%, of arsenic ions has been obtained at optimum operating parameters as Co: 150 μg L−1, r: 2, and pH 10.

Recovery of caustic from mercerizing wastewaters of a denim textile mill

AbstractThe objective of this study was to evaluate caustic recovery from mercerizing wastewater originating from a denim textile producing plant using membrane technology. For this purpose, ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF) processes were considered. In the first stage, in an attempt to control the possible membrane fouling, pretreatment alternatives of flocculation, centrifugation, and microfiltration were evaluated. These pretreatment application alternatives were unsuccessful as they did not provide considerable color and solids removal. In the second stage, UF and NF processes were tested using a tight UF membrane (GR95PP, Alfalaval) and three NF membranes (NP010 and NP030, Microdyn Nadir, and MPF34, Koch Membranes) to accomplish the caustic recovery without applying any pretreatment. The best performance was obtained with NP010 NF in terms of permeate flux along with color and COD rejections. Then, for this membrane the effects of transmembrane pressure (4.03 and 6.23 bar), cross-flow vel...