Özer Çinar

Stripping/flocculation/membrane bioreactor/reverse osmosis treatment of municipal landfill leachate

This study presents a configuration for the complete treatment of landfill leachate with high organic and ammonium concentrations. Ammonia stripping is performed to overcome the ammonia toxicity to aerobic microorganisms. By coagulation-flocculation process, COD and suspended solids (SS) were removed 36 and 46%, respectively. After pretreatment, an aerobic/anoxic membrane bioreactor (Aer/An MBR) accomplished the COD and total inorganic nitrogen (total-N(i)) removals above 90 and 92%, respectively, at SRT of 30 days. Concentrations of COD and total-N(i) (not considering organic nitrogen) in the Aer/An MBR effluent decreased to 450 and 40 mg/l, respectively, by significant organic oxidation and nitrification/denitrification processes. As an advanced treatment for the leachate, the reverse osmosis (RO) was applied to the collected Aer/An MBR effluents. Reverse osmosis provided high quality effluent by reducing the effluent COD from MBR to less than 4.0mg/l at SRT of 30 days.

Simultaneous heterotrophic and sulfur-oxidizing autotrophic denitrification process for drinking water treatment: Control of sulfate production

A long-term performance of a packed-bed bioreactor containing sulfur and limestone was evaluated for the denitrification of drinking water. Autotrophic denitrification rate was limited by the slow dissolution rate of sulfur and limestone. Dissolution of limestone for alkalinity supplementation increased hardness due to release of Ca(2+). Sulfate production is the main disadvantage of the sulfur autotrophic denitrification process. The effluent sulfate concentration was reduced to values below drinking water guidelines by stimulating the simultaneous heterotrophic and autotrophic denitrification with methanol supplementation. Complete removal of 75 mg/L NO(3)-N with effluent sulfate concentration of around 225 mg/L was achieved when methanol was supplemented at methanol/NO(3)-N ratio of 1.67 (mg/mg), which was much lower than the theoretical value of 2.47 for heterotrophic denitrification. Batch studies showed that sulfur-based autotrophic NO(2)-N reduction rate was around three times lower than the reduction rate of NO(3)-N, which led to NO(2)-N accumulation at high loadings.

Bioelectricity generation in continuously-fed microbial fuel cell: Effects of anode electrode material and hydraulic retention time

The main aim of this study is to investigate the bioelectricity production in continuously-fed dual chambered microbial fuel cell (MFC). Initially, MFC was operated with different anode electrode material at constant hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 2d to evaluate the effect of electrode material on electricity production. Pt electrode yielded about 642 mW/m(2) power density, which was 4 times higher than that of the MFC with the mixed metal oxide titanium (Ti-TiO2). Further, MFC equipped with Pt electrode was operated at varying HRT (2-0.5d). The power density generation increased with decreasing HRT, corresponding to 1313 mW/m(2) which was maximum value obtained during this study. Additionally, decreasing HRT from 2 to 0.5d resulted in increasing effluent dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration from 1.92 g/L to 2.23 g/L, corresponding to DOC removal efficiencies of 46% and 38%, respectively.

Effect of electron donor source on the treatment of Cr(VI)-containing textile wastewater using sulfate-reducing fluidized bed reactors (FBRs)

The treatment of Cr(VI) containing textile wastewater was studied in ethanol and glucose-fed sulfate-reducing fluidized bed reactors at 35°C for around 250 days. The synthetic wastewater contained Cr(VI) (5-45 mg L(-1)), azo dye (Remazol Brilliant Violet 5R) (100-200 mg L(-1)), sulfate (2000 mg L(-1)) and ethanol or glucose (2000 mg L(-1) chemical oxygen demand (COD)). The robustness of two FBRs was assessed under varying Cr(VI) and azo dye loadings. Both reactors performed well in terms of COD, sulfate, color and Cr(VI) removals. However, ethanol-fed FBR performed better than glucose-fed one. The COD, sulfate, chromium and color removals at the highest Cr(VI) concentration (45 mg L(-1)) in ethanol-fed FBR were around 75%, 95%, 93%, and 99%, respectively. Further increase in influent Cr(VI) concentration adversely effected reactor performance. The COD, sulfate, chromium and color removals at 45 mg L(-1) Cr(VI) in glucose-fed FBR were around 60%, 50%, 93%, and 76%, respectively.

Application of an unsupervised artificial neural network technique to multivariant surface water quality data

Surface water contamination from agricultural and urban runoff and wastewater discharges from industrial and municipal activities is of major concern to people worldwide. Classical models can be insufficient to visualise the results because the water quality variables used to describe dynamic pollution sources are complex, multivariable, and nonlinearly related. Artificial intelligence techniques with the ability to analyse multivariant water quality data by means of a sophisticated visualisation capacity can offer an alternative to current models. In this study, the Kohonen self-organising feature maps (SOM) neural network was initially applied to analyse the complex nonlinear relationships among multivariable surface water quality variables using the component planes of the variables to determine the complex behaviour of water quality parameters. The dependencies between water quality variables were extracted and interpreted using the pattern analysis visualised in component planes. For further investigation, the k-means clustering algorithm was used to determine the optimal number of clusters by partitioning the maps and utilising the Davies–Bouldin clustering index, leading to seven groups or clusters corresponding to water quality variables. The results reveal that the concentrations of Na, K, Cl, NH4-N, NO2-N, o-PO4, component planes of organic matter (pV), and dissolved oxygen (DO) were significantly affected by seasonal changes, and that the SOM technique is an efficient tool with which to analyse and determine the complex behaviour of multidimensional surface water quality data. These results suggest that this technique could also be applied to other environmentally sensitive areas such as air and groundwater pollution.

Kinetics of autotrophic denitrification process and the impact of sulphur/limestone ratio on the process performance

Kinetics of sulphur–limestone autotrophic denitrification process in batch assays and the impact of sulphur/limestone ratio on the process performance in long-term operated packed-bed bioreactors were evaluated. The specific nitrate and nitrite reduction rates increased almost linearly with the increasing initial nitrate and nitrite concentrations, respectively. The process performance was evaluated in three parallel packed-bed bioreactors filled with different sulphur/limestone ratios (1:1, 2:1 and 3:1, v/v). Performances of the bioreactors were studied under varying nitrate loadings and hydraulic retention times (3–12 h). The maximum nitrate reduction rate of 0.66 g L−1 d−1 was observed at the loading rate of in the reactor with sulphur/limestone ratio of 3:1. Throughout the study, nitrite concentrations remained quite low (i.e. below 0.5 mg L−1 . The reactor performance increased in the order of sulphur/limestone ratio of 3:1, 2:1 and 1:1. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis of 16S rRNA genes showed quite stable communities in the reactors with the presence of Methylo virgulaligni, Sulfurimonas autotrophica, Sulfurovum lithotrophicum, Thiobacillus aquaesulis and Sulfurimonas autotrophica related species.

Biodegradation of Azo Dyes in Anaerobic–Aerobic Sequencing Batch Reactors

Effluent discharge from textile and dyestuff industries to neighboring water bodies is currently causing significant health concerns to environmental regulatory agencies due to the toxicity, mutagenicity, and carcinogenicity of the dyes and their breakdown products. Therefore, considerable attention has been given to evaluate the removal of dyes during wastewater treatment and in the natural environment. The most widely used dyes in industries are azo dyes, which require an anaerobic and aerobic phases for their complete biodegradation. Anaerobic stage is the first step of the treatment process in which azo dyes are reduced, resulting in toxic and colorless aromatic amines. Since breakdown products of azo dyes, which are formed when the azo bond is cleaved and color is removed, are resistant to anaerobic biodegradation, aerobic phase is therefore essential for complete biodegradation of colored effluents. Biological treatment has long been known, and the use of sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) for treating textile wastewater has attracted interest. The cyclic operations of SBR provide both color removal in anaerobic stage and aromatic amine removal in aerobic stage.

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.

The impact of feed composition on biodegradation of benzoate under cyclic (aerobic/anoxic) conditions

The response of a mixed microbial culture to different feed compositions, that is, containing benzoate and pyruvate as sole carbon sources at different levels, was studied in a chemostat with a 48-h hydraulic residence time under cyclic aerobic and anoxic (denitrifying) conditions. The cyclic bacterial culture was well adapted to different feed compositions as evidenced by the lack of accumulation of benzoate or pyruvate in the chemostat. Both the benzoate-degrading capabilities and the in vitro catechol 2,3-dioxygenase (C23DO) activities of the cyclic bacterial cultures were in direct proportion to the flux through the chemostat of the substrate degraded by the pathway containing C23DO, with some exceptions. The quantity of C23DO showed a transient decrease during the initial portion of the aerobic period before returning to the level present during the anoxic period. That decrease was most likely caused by the production of H(2)O(2) by the cells upon being returned to aerobic conditions.