Stefania Casu

Pyrolysis process for the treatment of scrap tyres: Preliminary experimental results

The aim of this work is the evaluation, on a pilot scale, of scrap tyre pyrolysis process performance and the characteristics of the products under different process parameters, such as temperature, residence time, pressure, etc. In this frame, a series of tests were carried out at varying process temperatures between 550 and 680 degrees C, other parameters being equal. Pyrolysis plant process data are collected by an acquisition system; scrap tyre samples used for the treatment, solid and liquid by-products and produced syngas were analysed through both on-line monitoring (for gas) and laboratory analyses. Results show that process temperature, in the explored range, does not seem to seriously influence the volatilisation reaction yield, at least from a quantitative point of view, while it observably influences the distribution of the volatile fraction (liquid and gas) and by-products characteristics.

Decolourisation of textile wastewater in a submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor

Azo dye decolourisation can be easily achieved by biological reduction under anaerobic conditions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the applicability of submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactors (SAMBRs) for the decolourisation of dyeing wastewater containing azo dyes. The reactive orange 16 was used as model of an azo dye. The results demonstrated that very high decolourisation (higher than 99%) can be achieved by SAMBRs. Although decolourisation was not significantly influenced by the azo dye concentrations up to 3.2 g L(-1), methane production was greatly inhibited (up to 80-85%). Since volatile fatty acids accumulated in the treatment system with the azo dye concentration increase, methanogenes seem to be the most sensitive microbial populations of the anaerobic ecological community. The results demonstrated that anaerobic process combined with membrane filtration can deal with highly concentrated wastewaters that result from stream separation of industrial discharges.

Effect of the organic loading rate on biogas composition in continuous fermentative hydrogen production

Some systems did not select for hydrogen-producing microorganisms and an unexpected growth of hydrogenotrophic methanogens was observed, although the reactors were operated under well-defined operating conditions that could result in biohydrogen production. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the organic loading rate (OLR) on the hydrogen and methane composition of the biogas produced in dark fermentative processes. The study was carried out using an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor in order to evaluate the OLR effect in systems with sludge retention. During continuous operation, the UASB reactor showed the slow development of methanogenic activity, related to the applied OLR. The results demonstrate that operating an UASB reactor at pH 5.5 is not enough to prevent the acclimation of methanogens to the acidic pH and therefore long-term biohydrogen production cannot be achieved. Moreover, this study demonstrates that OLR also has an effect on the biogas composition, where the higher the OLR the greater the biogas H2 content.

Wastewater treatment in a submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor

Although most membrane bioreactors are used under aerobic conditions, over the last few years there has been increased interest in their application for anaerobic processes. This paper presents the results obtained when a bench-scale submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor was used for the treatment of wastewaters generated in the agro-food industry. The reactor was fed with synthetic wastewater consisting of cheese whey and sucrose, and volumetric organic loading rates (OLRs) ranging from 1.5 to 13 kgCOD/(m3*d) were applied. Under the operating conditions studied, the maximum applicable OLR was between 6 and 10 gCOD/(g*L), which fell within the ranges of the high-rate anaerobic wastewater treatment systems, while high concentrations of volatile fatty acids were produced at higher OLR rates. With an OLR of 1.5–10 gCOD/(g*L), the reactor showed 94% COD removal, whereas this value dropped to 33% with the highest applied OLR of 13 gCOD/(g*L). The study therefore confirms that membrane bioreactors can be used for anaerobic wastewater treatment.

Textile wastewater treatment in a bench-scale anaerobic-biofilm anoxic-aerobic membrane bioreactor combined with nanofiltration

This study evaluated the treatability of textile wastewaters in a bench-scale experimental system, comprising an anaerobic biofilter, an anoxic reactor and an aerobic membrane bioreactor (MBR). The MBR effluent was thereafter treated by a nanofiltration (NF) membrane. The proposed system was demonstrated to be effective in the treatment of the textile wastewater under the operating conditions applied in the study. The MBR system achieved a good COD (90–95%) removal; due to the presence of the anaerobic biofilter, also effective color removal was obtained (70%). The addition of the NF membrane allowed the further improvement in COD (50–80%), color (70–90%) and salt removal (60–70% as conductivity). In particular the NF treatment allowed the almost complete removal of the residual color and a reduction of the conductivity such as to achieve water quality suitable for reuse.

Modelling wastewater treatment in a submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor

Mathematical modelling has been widely applied to membrane bioreactor (MBRs) processes. However, to date, very few studies have reported on the application of the anaerobic digestion model N.1 (ADM1) to anaerobic membrane processes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the applicability of the ADM1 to a submerged anaerobic MBR (SAMBR) treating simulated industrial wastewater composed of cheese whey and sucrose. This study demonstrated that the biological processes involved in SAMBRs can be modelled by using the ADM1. Moreover, the results showed that very few modifications of the parameters describing the ADM1 were required to reasonably fit the experimental data. In particular, adaptation to the specific conditions of the coefficients describing the wastewater characterisation and the reduction of the hydrolysis rate of particulate carbohydrate (khyd,ch) from 0.25 d-1 (as suggested by the ADM1 for high-rate mesophilic reactors) to 0.13 d-1 were required to fit the experimental data.