• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.339-349
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• 2015

Experiments were carried out using granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorption techniques to treat wastewater contaminated with organic compounds caused by diverse human activities. Two techniques were assessed: adsorbent GAC prepared from coconut shell (GACC) and adsorbent GAC from palm shell (GACP). A comparison of these two techniques was undertaken to identify ways to improve the efficiency of the treatment process. Analysis of the processed wastewater showed that with GACC the removal efficiency of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), turbidity, total suspended solids (TSS) and total dissolved solids (TDS) was 65, 60, 82, 82 and 8.7%, respectively, while in the case of GACP, the removal efficiency was 55, 60, 81, 91 and 22%, respectively. It can therefore be concluded that GACC is more effective than GACP for BOD removal, while GACP is better than GACC for TSS and TDS removal. It was also found that for COD and turbidity almost the same results were achieved by the two techniques. In addition, it was observed that both GACC and GACP reduced pH value to 7.9 after 24 hrs. Moreover, the optimal time period for removal of BOD and TDS was 1 hr and 3 hrs, respectively, for both techniques.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.290-294
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• 2001

The removal of nitrogen compounds from waste water is essential and is often accomplished by biological process. The denitrifying bacterium, Paracoccus denitrificans (KCTC 2530), was employed to study the characteristics and the denitrification differences of Permeabilized strains and untreated strains. The permeabilization rate increased with increasing toluene concentration, but some part of the toluene contributed to denaturing the datachment of proteins from the plasma membrane. Permeabilized Paracoccus denitrificans had long lag phase and high specific growth rate in cultivation, and showed excellent denitrification characteristic compared with untreated strains. But, in both cases, the denitrification ability was significantly reduced after 4 or 5 denitrifications. It seems that the strains fall into the death phase when the nutrient was exhausted. When the nutrient recovered to its initial level, the denitrification ability also recovered to the normal level. The results obtained were encouraging enough to apply to practical water treatment situation.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.247-255
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• 2020

Sand filter is a key unit process for particle removal in water purification treatments. Its long-standing use is due to on-site customized retrofit. Proper selection of filter media is one of the retrofit approaches to improve filter performance. This study described a series of controlled laboratory column tests and examined the effects of media property on filtration and backwash. When sand media of 0.51 mm in effective size was replaced by sand of 0.60 mm, the filter run increased up to 5 times in the given bed depth. The change of media property required an increase of backwash rate by 0.05 m/min to satisfy the requirement of bed expansion, more than 20%. When the anthracite was changed with lower effective size and uniformity coefficient, correlation with sand in the filter bed could be satisfied within the permissible error between media and bulk characteristics. Besides, this selection resulted in a well-stratified configuration of media layers after bed expansion. The column study showed that the correlation of property between the dual media had a significant effect on the filter productivity and backwash interval.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.405-415
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• 2019

Microcystins (MCs) are toxins produced by cyanobacteria causing a major environmental threat to water resources worldwide. Although several MCs have been reported in previous studies, microcystin-LR (m-LR) has been extensively studied as it is highly toxic. Among the several techniques employed for the removal of this toxin, adsorption with AC has been extensively studied. AC has gained wide attention as an effective adsorbent of m-LR due to its ubiquity, high sorption capacity, cost effectiveness and renewability. In this review, the adsorption of m-LR onto AC was evaluated using the information available in existing scientific literature. The effects of the pore volume and surface chemistry of AC on the adsorption of m-LR considering the structural and chemical properties of ACs were also discussed. Furthermore, we identified the parameters that influence adsorption, including natural organic matter (NOM), pH, and ionic strength during the m-LR adsorption process. The effect of these parameters on MCs adsorption onto AC from previous studied is compiled and highlighted. This review may provide new insights into future activated carbon-m-LR adsorption research, and broaden its application prospects.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.183-189
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• 2022

This study seeks towards an optimal way to control sulfate ions in semiconductor wastewater effluent with potential eco-toxicity. We developed a system based on ettringite (Ca₆Al₂(SO₄)₃(OH)₁₂·26H₂O). The basic idea is that the pH of the water is raised to approximately 12 with Ca(OH)₂. After, aluminium salt is added, leading to the precipitation of ettringite. Lab-scale batch and continuous experiment results with real semiconductor wastewater demonstrated that 1.5 and 1 of stoichiometric quantities for Ca²⁺ and A³⁺ with pH above 12.7 could be considered as the optimal operation condition with 15% of sludge recycle to the influent. A mixed AlCl₃ + Fe reagent was selected as the beneficial Al³⁺ source in ettringite process, which resulted in 80% of sludge volume reduction and improved sludge dewaterability. The results of continuous experiment showed that with precipitation as ettringite, sulfate concentration can be stably reduced to less than 50 mg/L in effluent from the influent 2,050 ± 175 mg/L on average (1,705 ~ 2,633 mg/L).

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.95-106
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• 2023

In the developing country like India, groundwater is the main sources for household, irrigation and industrial use. Its contamination poses hydro-geological and environmental concern. The hazardous waste sites such as landfills can lead to contamination of ground water. The contaminants existing at such sites can eventually find ingress down through the soil and into the groundwater in case of leakage. It is necessary to understand the process of migration of pollutants through sub-surface porous medium for avoiding health risks. On this backdrop, the present paper investigates the behavior of pollutants' migration through porous media. The laboratory experiments were carried out on a soil-column model that represents porous media. Two different types of soils (standard sand and red soil) were considered as the media. Further, two different solutes, i.e., non-reactive and reactive, were used. The experimental results are simulated through numerical modeling. The percentage variation in the experimental and numerical results is found to be in the range of 0.75- 11.23 % and 0.84 - 1.26% in case of standard sand and red soil, respectively. While a close agreement is observed in most of the breakthrough curves obtained experimentally and numerically, good agreement is seen in either result in one case.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.21 no.12
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• pp.1495-1501
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• 2012

In this study, an experiment was conducted on influent water with low concentrations of organic matter, such as river water or secondary treatment water of a sewage treatment plant, according to HRT changes by using aerobic biofilm. In the biofilm process, as the biofilm increases in thickness, the inner membrane can be low in oxygen transfer rate and become anaerobic conditions, while the detachment of biomass from biofilm occurs. To overcome these limitations in the detachment of microorganisms in biofilm, the yarn, which was made from poly propylene(PP), was weaved and manufactured into a tube. Then, a test was carried out by injecting air so that the interior of the biofilm could create aerobic conditions. The results of the experiment showed that the removal efficiency of $TCOD_{cr}$ reached 66.1~81.2% by HRT 2hr, and 50.9 ~61.8% after HRT 1 hr. The removal efficiency of $SCOD_{cr}$ was 45.9 to 55.1% by HRT 1hr, and 26.1% in HRT 0.5hr, showing the highest removal efficiency in HRT 1hr. The SS removal efficiency was at 81.8 to 94.6%, and the effluent SS concentration was very low, indicating less than 2.2 mg/L in all HRT's. As a result, the $SCOD_{cr}$ and $NH_4{^+}$-N that were removed per specific surface area and attached to microbial biofilm showed the highest efficiency in HRT 1hr with 8.37 $gSCOD_{cr}/m^2{\cdot}d$, 2.93 $gNH_4{^+}-N/m^2{\cdot}d$. From the result of reviewing the characteristics of biofilm growth, microorganisms were found to be attached, and increased by 36 days. Later, they decreased in number through detachment, but showed a tendency to increase again 41 days later due to microbial reproduction.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.123-128
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• 2018

Common aquaculture practices include the use of certain pharmaceuticals such as antibiotics in avoiding diseases and promoting a healthier growth of the culture. The aim of this study is to monitor and assess the influence of different low oxytetracycline concentrations on the transformation of nitrogen compounds under aeration condition in a lab-scale recirculating aquaculture system (RAS). Over $1mg\;L^{-1}$ dose of oxytetracycline to aquaculture had induced ammonia($NH_4-N$), nitrate($NO_3-N$), soluble COD accumulation in RAS. In addition, nitrous oxide ($N_2O$) emission from RAS was significantly reduced during the oxytetracycline dose periods. After ceasing the dose of oxytetracycline, ammonia oxidation and nitrous oxide re-emission were observed. This observation indicated that low concentrations of oxytetracycline could affect the nitrogen species in RAS. Also, the emission mechanisms of $N_2O$ may not be only dependent on nitrification process but also dependent on denitrification process in our RAS system.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.161-169
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• 2017

The adsorption of phosphate onto mesoporous $TiO_2$ was investigated in order to reduce phosphorus concentrations in wastewater and provide a potential mode of phosphorus recovery. Three equilibrium isotherms were used to optimize and properly describe phosphate adsorption ($R^2$>0.95). The maximum capacity of phosphate on the adsorbent was found to be 50.4 mg/g, which indicated that mesoporous $TiO_2$ could be an alternative to mesoporous $ZrO_2$ as an adsorbent. A pseudo-second order model was appropriately fitted with experimental data ($R^2$>0.93). Furthermore, the suitable pH for phosphate removal by $TiO_2$ was observed to be in the range of pH 3-7 in accordance with ion dissociation. In contrast, increasing the pH to produce more basic conditions noticeably disturbed the adsorption process. Moreover, the kinetics of the conducted temperature study revealed that phosphate adsorption onto the $TiO_2$ adsorbent is an exothermic process that could have spontaneously occurred and resulted in a higher randomness of the system. In this study, the maximum adsorption using real wastewater was observed at $30^{\circ}C$.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.89-98
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• 2024

The ability of Zizyphus lotus stem powder (ZLSP) to remove Pb (II) and Cd (II) ions from an aqueous solution was evaluated. The present phenomenon of biosorption was revealed to depend on pH, biosorbent dosage, temperature, initial ionic concentration, time of contact and biosorbent's particle size. The sorption process was exothermic (∆H°<0), and showing a strong Pb(II)/Cd(II)-ZLSP affinity (∆S°>0). Gibbs free energy data (∆G°<0, and decreases as temperature increase) reveals that the process studied is characterized by its feasibility and spontaneous nature. The best fits of the equilibrium data were obtained by the Temkin model and the Langmuir model. The maximum Pb(II)/Cd(II)-ZLSP biosorption capacities were 33.02 mg/g for Pb (II) and 20.73 mg/g for Cd (II). The pseudo-second order model was the most appropriate for fitting the kinetic data. The characterization of the biochemical groups essentially involved in the sorption phenomenon was made possible by FTIR spectral analysis. The capacity of ZLSP as an effective and ecofriendly biosorbent is confirmed through this study.