Sabrina Copelli

Treatment of slaughterhouse wastewaters using anaerobic filters

In this paper, a laboratory-scale experimentation allowed comparing the performances of two upflow anaerobic packed-bed filters filled with different packing materials and operating at mesophilic conditions (30°C) for treating slaughterhouse wastewaters. Methane production was experimentally evaluated considering different volumetric organic loading rates as well as feeding overloading conditions. Although filter performances declined with loading rates higher than 6 kg CODin m−3 d−1, the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency remained always above 60%. The experimental results allowed for determining kinetic parameters for bacterial growth rate and methane production, following Monod and Chen–Hashimoto models, respectively. Results demonstrated that the reactors reached a cellular retention time significantly greater than the hydraulic retention time. The kinetic parameter values (Ks, μmax) revealed the low microorganisms’ affinity for the substrate and confirmed the moderate biodegradability of slaughterhouse wastewater. The kinetic analysis also allowed the comparison of the filters performances with another anaerobic system and the assessment of the parameters useful for real-scale plant design. The system design, applied to a medium-sized Argentinean slaughterhouse, demonstrated to (i) be energetically self-sufficient and (ii) contribute to the plants water heating requirements.

Improving biotreatment efficiency of hot waste air streams: experimental upgrade of a full plant

Biological methods as bio and biotrickling filtration are an energy-efficient and economical alternative to treat biodegradable odorants and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in order to obey stringent releases regulations that have arisen during the last few decades. In this work a plant upgrade case study, employing these techniques, is presented. It refers to a critical situation in which off air streams, characterized by medium odorous compounds loads and high temperatures, were treated using a biofilter only. In that context, sufficient removal efficiencies were not achieved. Therefore, it has been proposed to replace the existing biofilter by a biotrickling one implementing a minimal number of structural plant modifications.

Application of multi-stage biofilter pilot plants to remove odor and VOCs from industrial activities air emissions

This study includes trials that were conducted to evaluate the performances of two biofiltration pilot plants for industrial applications. The first experimentation analyzed the removal of high concentrations of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from discontinuous gas emissions resulting from the flexographic printing section of a plastic packaging production factory. The adopted layout for the experimentation was a multi-stage plant filled with two different packing materials (shells and peat). The second trial examined the biofiltration of exhaust air from a Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF) drying process treating the dry fraction of municipal solid waste (MSW). Such exhaust streams are characterized by low VOCs content but high odorous compounds, such as H2S and NH3. The pilot plant used for the experimentation had two stages that used shells as packing material. In both cases, the multi-stage biofilter performances indicate that the solutions are suitable as well as applicable for use in industrial plants.

EFFECTIVENESS OF A MULTI-STAGE BIOFILTER APPROACH AT PILOT SCALE TO REMOVE ODOR AND VOCs

This paper describes an experience conducted to evaluate the performances of a multi-stage approach using a biofiltration process applied to treat exhaust air. In particular, the experimentation was carried out using a pilot plant for the biofiltration of exhaust air from a solid recovered fuel drying process treating the dry fraction of municipal solid waste. Such exhaust streams are characterized by low concentrations of volatile organic compounds and high presence of odorous compounds, such as H 2 S and NH 3 . The adopted layout for the experimentation was a multi-stage plant. Each of the two stages (biotrickling filters) used seashells as packing material. In particular, the choice of seashell was defined after the evaluation of the hydrody namic behavior of different packing materials at the same running conditions. Moreover, some velocity measurements were conducted with the aim at improving the geometry of the reactors and the fan sizing. The multi-stage biofiltration performances indicate that the solutions are suitable as well as applicable for use in industrial plants.

Water Pollution: Biological Oxidation and Natural Control Techniques

In this article, all relevant biological oxidation processes for the treatment of wastewaters, based on both suspended and attached cultures, have been treated. Moreover, biological processes for the natural treatment (such as lagoons and constructed wetlands) have been taken into account. Particularly, an overview of the various processes, traditional and innovative, is offered by both citing a summary of their main features and highlighting all technological and process advances currently available in the literature.

Classification and optimization of potentially runaway processes using topology tools

Abstract Fast and strongly exothermic reactions can exhibit a well-known phenomenon called “thermal runaway”. To identify high productivity and safe conditions for these reactions, with particular reference to industrial semibatch processes carried out using both isothermal and isoperibolic temperature control mode, a dedicated classification/optimization software has been implemented. This software is able to both classify a set of operating parameters from the thermal stability viewpoint and identify the optimum reacting/synthesis conditions using a topological criterion that binds the so-called “QFS region”, where reactants accumulation is low and all the heat released is readily removed by the cooling equipment. During the search for system optimum a number of safety and quality constraints can be taken into account. The software reliability, in terms of both classification and optimization ability, has been tested using both laboratory and industrial scale experimental data. Obtained results confirm a good agreement between theoretical predictions and experimental evidence.

Modeling and Simulation of an Emulsion Copolymerization Process

Modeling and Simulation of an Emulsion Copolymerization Process Sabrina Copelli*, Mario Dente, Marco Derudi, Giulia Bozzano, Vincenzo Torretta Università degli Studi dell’Insubria Dip. di Scienza e Alta Tecnologia Via G.B. Vico 46 21100 Varese Italy b Politecnico di Milano Dip. di Chimica, Materiali e Ingegneria Chimica “G. Natta”P.za Leonardo da Vinci 20133 Milano Italy sabrina.copelli@uninsubria.it

Detailed modelling of an industrial process: Vinyl acetate emulsion homopolymerization

Detailed Modelling of an Industrial Process: Vinyl Acetate Emulsion Homopolymerization Sabrina Copelli*, Giuseppe Storti, Vincenzo Torretta, Marco Derudi, Carlo Sala Cattaneo, Renato Rota Università degli Studi dell’Insubria Dip. di Scienza e Alta Tecnologia Via G.B. Vico 46 21100 Varese – Italy ETH Zürich – Institute for Chemistry and Bioengineering Wolfgang Pauli Strasse 10 8093 Zürich – Switzerland Politecnico di Milano Dip. di Chimica, Materiali e Ingegneria Chimica “G. Natta” Via Mancinelli 7 20131 Milano Italy sabrina.copelli@uninsubria.it

Study of a Nimble Model to Evaluate the Effects of a Gasoline Fire in a Road Tunnel

Study of a Nimble Model to Evaluate the Effects of a Gasoline Fire in a Road Tunnel Carlo Sala Cattaneo, Silvia Tavelli, Marco Derudi, Renato Rota, Massimo Raboni, Vincenzo Torretta, Sabrina Copelli Politecnico di Milano Dip. di Chimica, Materiali e Ingegneria Chimica “G. Natta” Via Mancinelli 7 20131 Milano Italy Università degli Studi dell’Insubria Dip. di Scienza e Alta Tecnologia Via G.B. Vico 46 21100 Varese Italy sabrina.copelli@uninsubria.it

Comparison between absorption and biological activity on the efficiency of the biotrickling filtration of gaseous streams containing ammonia

Polluted air streams can be purified using biological treatments such as biotrickling filtration, which is one of the most widely accepted techniques successfully tuned to treat a wide variety of exhausted gaseous streams coming from a series of industrial sectors such as food processing, flavor manufacturers, rendering, and composting. Since the degradation of a pollutant occurs at standard pressure and temperature, biotrickling filtration, whether compared with other more energy-demanding chemical-physical processes of abatement (such as scrubbing, catalytic oxidation, regenerative adsorption, incineration, advanced oxidation processes, etc.), represents a very high energy-efficient technology. Moreover, as an additional advantage, biodegradation offers the possibility of a complete mineralization of the polluting agents. In this work, biotrickling filtration has been considered in order to explore its efficiency with respect to the abatement of ammonia (which is a highly water-soluble compound). Moreover, a complete mathematical model has been developed in order to describe the dynamics of both absorption and biological activities which are the two dominant phenomena occurring into these systems. The results obtained in this work have shown that the absorption phenomenon is very important in order to define the global removal efficiency of ammonia from the gaseous stream (particularly, 44% of the ammonia is abated by water absorption). Moreover, it has been demonstrated (through the comparison between experimental results and theoretical simulations) that the action of bacteria, which enhance the rate of ammonia transfer to the liquid phase, can be modeled through a simple Michaelis-Menten relationship.