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Search results for: WASTEWATER SYSTEMS
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Effects of Different Aeration Modes on Ammonia Removal from Sludge Digester Liquors in the Nitritation-Anammox Process
PublicationSludge digester liquors can be responsible for up to one third of the nitrogen load to the biological step of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The conventional process for ammonia removal via two sequential processes, i.e. nitrification and denitrification, is increasingly being challenged by a one-step process in which ammonium is oxidized directly to nitrogen gas e.g. ammonium oxidation (anammox) process. In this novel process,...
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Analysis of odour interactions in model gas mixtures using electronic nose and fuzzy logic
PublicationMeasurement and monitoring of air quality in terms of odour nuisance is an important problem. Although the source of these nuisances is different (e.g. wastewater treatment plants, municipal landfills), their common feature is that they are a complex mixture of odorants with different odour thresholds. An additional problem is occurrence of the odour interactions between mixture components. From a practical point of view, it would...
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Comparative analysis of earthships and conventional buildings in terms of investment and operating costs
PublicationThe aim of the master's thesis is to present the idea of earthships and compare them with conventional buildings in terms of investment and operating costs. Earthships are buildings erected from tires and other wastes whose characteristic feature is their self-sufficiency. The first part of the master's thesis is to discuss the basic issues related to the earthship building. The beginnings of tire homes and their development are...
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Advances in analysis, quantification and modelling of N2O emission in SBRs under various DO set points
PublicationNitrous oxide (N2O), considered a major greenhouse gas (GHG) in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), is produced during both nitrification and denitrification processes; hence, it needs to be controlled by internal and external strategies. Various factors, such as DO, temperature, and pH, could be incorporated into the mitigation of emissions in WWTPs. In this research, potential operational strategies were investigated in order...
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Determination of odour concentration by TD-GC×GC–TOF-MS and field olfactometry techniques
PublicationField olfactometry is one of the sensory techniques used to determine odour concentration, in atmospheric air, directly in emission sources. A two-dimensional gas chromatography with time of flight mass spectrometer (GC×GC–TOF-MS) allows performing the chemical characterization of various groups of chemical compounds, even in complex mixtures. Application of these techniques enabled determination of odour concentration level in...
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Mesophilic and thermophilic dark fermentation course analysis using sensor matrices and chromatographic techniques
PublicationProduction of biofuels from biomass is expected to benefit the society and the environment. At present, bio waste residues processing includes hydrolysis, dark fermentation, photofermentation, pyrolysis, gasification, and chemical synthesis. As the composition and the chemical structure of organic substances affect the efficiency of mentioned processes, it is believed that the glucose concentration is a crucial parameter for the...
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Occurrence of Surface Active Agents in the Environment
PublicationDue to the specific structure of surfactants molecules they are applied in different areas of human activity (industry, household). After using and discharging from wastewater treatment plants as effluent stream, surface active agents (SAAs) are emitted to various elements of the environment (atmosphere, waters, and solid phases), where they can undergo numerous physic-chemical processes (e.g., sorption, degradation) and freely...
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Application of g-C3N4/ZnO nanocomposites for fabrication of anti-fouling polymer membranes with dye and protein rejection superiority
PublicationPolysulfone (PSf) membranes are privileged for water and wastewater treatment, but because of their hydrophobic nature, they suffer from fouling, which lowers their performance and lifetime. In this work, g-C3N4 and g-C3N4/ZnO nanomaterials were synthesized via a hydrothermal method to modify the PSf membrane for effective dye separation and reduction of organic fouling. Since g-C3N4/ZnO possesses –OH and –NH reactive groups, g-C3N4/ZnO/PSf...
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More than just a beer—the potential applications of by-products from beer manufacturing in polymer technology
PublicationBeer is the most popular alcoholic beverage in the world, and its popularity is continuously growing. Currently, global beer production is estimated at around 2 billion hectoliters. Nevertheless, the increasing production capacity implicates the rising issue of generated by-products—brewers’ spent grain, spent hops, spent yeast, and wastewater. They are generated in massive amounts, so having in mind the current pro-ecological...
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Nitrofurazone Removal from Water Enhanced by Coupling Photocatalysis and Biodegradation
Publication(1) Background: Environmental contamination with antibiotics is particularly serious because the usual methods used in wastewater treatment plants turn out to be insufficient or ineffective. An interesting idea is to support natural biodegradation processes with physicochemical methods as well as with bioaugmentation with efficient microbial degraders. Hence, the aim of our study is evaluation of the effectiveness of different...
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Modelling of sequencing batch reactor operating at various aeration modes
PublicationThe presented study involved designing a computer model of a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) at laboratory scale. The data pertaining to the technical aspects of the bioreactor and quality indicators of wastewater constituted the input for the employed simulation tool, i.e. GPS-X software package. The results of a simulation involving a 12-hour operation cycle are presented in this work; each cycle included 6 phases: filling, mixing,...
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Combination of air-dispersion cathode with sacrificial iron anode generating Fe2+Fe3+2O4 nanostructures to degrade paracetamol under ultrasonic irradiation
PublicationIn the present study, ultrasound (US) was coupled with an electrochemical process (ECP) consisting of a novel cathode of carbon cloth (CC)-carbon black (CB) as the nano-composite air-dispersion cathode (NADC) for the degradation of paracetamol (APAP) in an aquatic medium. The NADC favored in situ production of H2O2 by the cathodic reduction. The implementation of iron sacrificial anode instead of dimensionally stable anodes resulted...
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Primary degradation of antidiabetic drugs
PublicationType 2 diabetes is a chronic disease affecting a large portion of the world population and is treated by orally administered drugs. Since these drugs are often taken in high doses and are excreted unchanged or partially metabolised many of them are nowadays detected in surface waters or wastewater treatment plants effluents. Unmetabolised antidiabetics or some of their transformation products retain their pharmacological activity,...
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Investigation on environmental chemistry changes in the Antarctic Special Management Area (ASMA 1): King George Island, South Shetlands Islands
PublicationThe doctoral dissertation included a review of the scientific literature that resulted in the selection of the research area, type of samples and chemical species that were marked. The published series of articles contains an in-depth description of the results of chemical analyses of surface water, sediment and snow samples from the Antarctic Specially Managed Area (ASMA 1) – King George Island. In addition, studies have been...
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New light on the photocatalytic performance of NH4V4O10 and its composite with rGO
PublicationSolar-driven photocatalysis has shown great potential as a sustainable wastewater treatment technology that utilizes clean solar energy for pollutant degradation. Consequently, much attention is being paid to the development of new, efficient and low-cost photocatalyst materials. In this study, we report the photocatalytic activity of NH4V4O10 (NVO) and its composite with rGO (NVO/rGO). Samples were synthesized via a facile one-pot...
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Hierarchical dissolved oxygen control for activated sludge processes
PublicationA hierarchical controller for tracking the dissolved oxygen reference trajectory in activated sludge processes is proposed and investigated. The removal of nitrogen and phosphorous from wastewater is considered. Typically, an aeration system itself is a complicated hybrid nonlinear dynamical system with faster dynamics compared to the internal dynamics of the dissolved oxygen in a biological reactor. It is a common approach to...
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A distillery by-product as an external carbon source for enhancing denitrification in mainstream and sidestream treatment processes
PublicationThe use of fusel oil as an 'alternative' carbon source for denitrification in the mainstream and sidestream treatment processes was studied. Research comprised two kinds of batch experiments as well as acclimation of process biomass to external carbon sources. In the conventional nitrate utilization rate (NUR) measurements (one-phase experiments with non-acclimated biomass), the NUR with fusel oil was 1.4-1.7 g N/(kg VSS•h which...
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Entrained Flow Plasma Gasification of Sewage Sludge–Proof-of-Concept and Fate of Inorganics
PublicationSewage sludge is a residue of wastewater processing that is biologically active and consists of water, organic matter, including dead and living pathogens, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and heavy metals, as well as organic and inorganic pollutants. Landfilling is on the decline, giving way to more environmentally friendly utilisation routes. This paper presents the results of a two-stage gasification–vitrification system, using...
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A Comparison of the Efficiency of Deammonification under Different Aeration Strategies in a Laboratory-Scale Sequencing Batch Reactor
PublicationAn important source of nitrogen load entering the biological part of wastewater treatment plants (WWPTs) is derived from the anaerobic sludge digestion processes. Sludge digestion liquors constitute only 1-2% of the inflow to the plant, but the load of nitrogen directed with them to the main stream may be as high as 10-20% of the total nitrogen load. Therefore, numerous studies have focused on treatment of sludge digestion liquors...
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Process Control of Biogas Purification Using Electronic Nose
PublicationNowadays, biogas produced from landfills and wastewater treatment plants or lignocellulosic biomass is important sustainable and affordable source of energy. Impurities from biogas stream can cause a serious odor problem, especially for residents of areas immediately adjacent to production plants. Therefore, biogas pre-treatment is necessary to protect engines that convert biogas into energy and in order to increase the specific...
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Computer Simulation in Predicting Biochemical Processes and Energy Balance at WWTPs
PublicationNowadays, the use of mathematical models and computer simulation allow analysis of many different technological solutions as well as testing various scenarios in a short time and at low financial budget in order to simulate the scenario under typical conditions for the real system and help to find the best solution in design or operation process. The aim of the study was to evaluate different concepts of biochemical processes and...
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Evaluation of Partial Nitritation/Anammox (PN/A) Process Performance and Microorganisms Community Composition under Different C/N Ratio
PublicationA one-stage partial nitritation/anammox (PN/A) process with intermittent aeration is possible under sidestream conditions, but implementation in a mainstream is a challenge due to increased Carbon/Nitrogen (C/N) ratios in domestic wastewater. This study investigated the effect of C/N ratios on process efficiency and the effect of narrowing non-aeration time on process improvement at high chemical oxygen demand (COD) load. An increase...
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Combining Computational Fluid Dynamics with a Biokinetic Model for Predicting Ammonia and Phosphate Behavior in Aeration Tanks
PublicationThe aim of this study was to use computational fluid dynamics for predicting the behavior of reactive pollutants (ammonia and phosphate) in the aerobic zone of the bioreactor located at the Wschod wastewater treatment plant in Gdansk, Poland. The one-dimensional advection-dispersion equation was combined with simple biokinetic models incorporating the Monod-type expressions as source terms for the two pollutants. The problem was...
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The effects of different aeration modes on ammonia removal from sludge digester liquors in the nitritation–anammox proces
PublicationThe aim of this study was to determine the impact of continuous and intermittent aeration on the rate of ammonia removal in the combined nitritation–anammox process. This process was run in two parallel sequencing batch reactors (SBRs), with a working volume V = 10 L, treating sludge digester liquors from the Gdansk (Poland) wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The ammonia oxidizing bacteria were cultivated from activated sludge...
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Ongoing progress on novel nanocomposite membranes for the separation of heavy metals from contaminated water
PublicationMembranes, as the primary separation element of membrane-based processes, have greatly attracted the attention of researchers in several water treatment applications, including wastewater treatment, water purification, water disinfection, toxic and non-toxic chemical molecules, heavy metals, among others. Today, the removal of heavy metals from water has become challenging, in which chemical engineers are approaching new materials...
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Ball milling treatment of Mn3O4 regulates electron transfer pathway for peroxymonosulfate activation
PublicationHeterogeneous metal catalysts have attracted considerable interest in advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for wastewater treatment by activating peroxymonosulfate (PMS). However, it remains challenging to the rational design of efficient reaction pathway for high-performance contaminants removal by regulating the inherent structure of metal oxides. Herein, a high-energy ball milling method was employed to modulate the electronic...
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Ultrasound-Assisted Dispersive Liquid-Liquid Microextraction Using Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs) for Neutral Red Dye Spectrophotometric Determination
PublicationDeep eutectic solvents (DES), which have low toxicity and are low cost, biodegradable, and easily synthesized, were used for the extraction of neutral red (NR) dye before its spectrophotometric analysis. DES, containing choline chloride as a hydrogen bond acceptor and phenol as a hydrogen bond donor with a molar ratio of 1:2, was used for the extraction of NR dye from aqueous media. The possible interaction of different DESs with...
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Closing the loop: Upcycling secondary waste materials into nanoarchitectured carbon composites for the electrochemical degradation of pharmaceuticals
PublicationIn this study, we demonstrated the application of electrochemical oxidation as a safer and cleaner technology for minimizing the impact of pharmaceuticals in wastewaters, simultaneously mediated by upcycled secondary waste materials (SWMs)-derived electrodes, to further reduce their environmental impact. The modularity, scalability, ease of operation and reliability make electrochemical oxidation an ideal process for the destruction...
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Adsorptive Removal of Aqueous Phase Crystal Violet Dye by Low-Cost Activated Carbon Obtained from Date Palm (L.) Dead Leaflets
PublicationUp to now, water pollution is still one of the important issues and challenges worldwide, due to its environmental, economic and human life impacts. It is also remains a challenge to environment scientists and technologists. Nowadays, the textile dyeing industry is considered one of the largest water consuming industries and produces large volumes of colored wastewater in its dyeing and finishing process. In this study, date palm...
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Monitoring Lead Concentration in the Surrounding Environmental Components of a Lead Battery Company: Plants, Air and Effluents—Case Study, Kenya
PublicationLead (Pb) pollution from smelters and lead–acid battery has become a serious problem worldwide owing to its toxic nature as a heavy metal. Stricter regulations and monitoring strategies have been formulated, legislated and implemented in various parts of the world on heavy metal usage. Developed countries such as the USA and in Europe largely operate within the set standards, however, developing countries such as Kenya, Nigeria...
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Impact of aeration conditions on the removal of low concentrations of nitrogen in a tertiary partially aerated biological filter
PublicationA submerged biological aerated filter (BAF) partially aerated was used to study the removal of low concentrations of ammonia nitrogen (0.3 g N/m3 to 30.5 g N/m3) typically found in nutrient enriched river and lake waters, and treated effluents. Four series of experiments were performed with a synthetic wastewater at ammonia loading rates between 6 g N/m3 d and 903 g N/m3 d and C/N ratios from 2 to 20. The results showed that ammonia...
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Pilot scale degradation study of 16 selected volatile organic compounds by hydroxyl and sulfate radical based advanced oxidation processes
PublicationThe studies of effective technologies for complete degradation of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs), are very important due to the high biotoxicity of the VOCs which makes the biological technologies ineffective. It also increases the risk of VOCs emission instead of their treatment when using open air biological technologies. In the present study, different types of Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) were investigated for...
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Possibilities of Leachate Co-Treatment Originating from Biogas Production in the Deammonification Process
PublicationIn the methane fermentation process, sewage sludge is the single substrate or serves as a co-substrate with the addition of various waste products. After the treatment stable digestate is obtained, which consists of two phases solid and liquid. Liquid phase, called as a leachate, due to the high content of nutrients must be treated before they are discharged into the final receiver. Physical and chemical methods of leachate treatment...
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Integrated dewatering and stabilization system as an environmentally friendly technology in sewage sludge management in Poland
PublicationSludge treatment reed beds (STRBs) are an environmentally friendly technology which provides integrated dewatering and stabilization of sewage sludge. STRBs do not require the use of chemicals to improve the dewatering process. STRB is both, a low-emission and a low-energy-consuming method. After the stabilization process, sludge is characterized by the chemical composition similar to that of humus. The aim of the paper is to present...
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The impact of sediment, fresh and marine water on the concentration of chemical elements in water of the ice-covered lagoon
PublicationThe common use of chemical elements by man has been contributing to their extraction for centuries. As a consequence, they have been directly or indirectly introduced into the biogeochemical cycle. In the framework of many conventions, mining and processing of elements are currently subject to many restrictions. However, their large load that has already been deposited in the soil and bottom sediments can be remobilised and...
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Enhanced electrochemical activity of boron-doped nanocarbon functionalized reticulated vitreous carbon structures for water treatment applications
PublicationAn extraordinary charge transfer kinetics and chemical stability make a boron-doped diamond (BDD) a prom- ising material for electrochemical applications including wastewater treatment. Yet, with flat geometrical sur- faces its scaling options are limited. In this study, the reticulated Vitreous Carbon (RVC) served as a substrate for boron-doped diamondized nanocarbons (BDNC) film growth resulting with complex heterogeneity carbon structures...
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Corncob-supported calcium oxide nanoparticles from hen eggshells for cadmium (Cd-II) removal from aqueous solutions; Synthesis and characterization
PublicationThis study investigated the efficient removal of cadmium ions from aqueous solutions using calcium oxide nanoparticles (CaO NPs) synthesized from waste hen eggshells using a Sol-gel method and supported on corncob bio-adsorbent. The synthesized CaO NPs were characterized using FT-IR, XRD, specific surface area, and TGA. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to examine the influence of process parameters such as adsorbent...
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Exploring synergistic effects in physical-chemical activation of Acorus calamus for water treatment solutions
PublicationThe research proposed a novel method of obtaining sorption material from readily available Acorus calamus bio- mass through a combination of physical and chemical activation processes. The material with the highest specific surface area (1652 m2 g−1) was obtained by physical activation with CO2, followed by chemical activation with KOH. Reversing the order of activation methods resulted in a lower specific surface area (1014 m2...
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Artificial neural network prophecy of ion exchange process for Cu (II) eradication from acid mine drainage
PublicationThe removal of heavy metal ions from wastewater was found to be significant when the cation exchange procedure was used effectively. The model of the cation exchange process was built using an artificial neural network (ANN). The acid mine drainage waste’s Cu(II) ion was removed using Indion 730 cation exchange resin. Experimental data from 252 cycles were recorded. In a column study, 252 experimental observations validated the...
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Recovery of Anammox Biomass at Short Hydraulic Retention Time in a MBR Reactor
PublicationThe anammox system has been consider as an economical option for treating high concentration of nitrogen and poor in biodegradable orgaednic carbon wastewaters. This process is attractive option compared with conventional nitrogen removal because it provides a significant saving in aeration and organic addition for denitrification. The anammox technology has been applied mostly for concentrated nitrogenous wastewater containing...
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An overview of the strategies for the deammonification process start-up and recovery after accidental operational failures
PublicationThe deammonification process has been universally acknowledged as an energy-efficient technology for sewage disposal. In contrast with traditional biological nitrogen removal technology, the deammonification process is able to remove ammonia from wastewater with the simplest nitrogen removal process because of its advantages of lower operating expenses, no organic carbon consumption, lower biomass production, lower carbon dioxide...
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The Influence of COD Fraction Forms and Molecules Size on Hydrolysis Process Developed by Comparative OUR Studies in Activated Sludge Modelling
PublicationThe activated sludge models (ASMs) commonly used by the International Water Association (IWA) task group are based on chemical oxygen demand (COD) fractionations. However, the proper evaluation of COD fractions, which is crucial for modelling and especially oxygen uptake rate (OUR) predictions, is still under debate. The biodegradation of particulate COD is initiated by the hydrolysis process, which is an integral part of an ASM....
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Advanced Supervisory Control System Implemented at Full-Scale WWTP—A Case Study of Optimization and Energy Balance Improvement
PublicationIn modern and cost-eective Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs), processes such as aeration, chemical feeds and sludge pumping are usually controlled by an operating system integrated with online sensors. The proper verification of these data-driven measurements and the control of different unit operations at the same time has a strong influence on better understanding and accurately optimizing the biochemical processes at WWTP—especially...
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Advanced Oxidation Processes for Degradation of Water Pollutants—Ambivalent Impact of Carbonate Species: A Review
PublicationAdvanced oxidation processes (AOPs) hold great promise in the removal of organic contaminants. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced in AOPs react with target pollutants to initially form several intermediate compounds that finally undergo complete mineralization. Such observations are reported, especially for laboratory-scale experiments performed in pure water. On the other hand, while considering real contaminated wastewater...
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Complementary use of GCxGC–TOF–MS and statistics for differentiation of variety in biosolid samples
PublicationFormation of biosolid cakes, which are one of the main wastes generated in wastewater treatment plants, is connected with emission of many hazardous chemical compounds, including odoriferous ones. To optimize particular processes of biosolid cake processing, it is necessary to assess chemical composition of the gas mixtures containing the compounds released from the cakes. The paper proposes application of two-dimensional gas chromatography...
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Electrochemical degradation of textile dyes in a flow reactor: effect of operating conditions and dyes chemical structure
PublicationIn this study, electrochemical oxidation of five azo dyestuffs (Yellow D-5GN, Red D-B8, Ruby F-2B, Blue D-5RN, Black DN), that are widely used in the textile industry, was investigated in a flow reactor. BDD electrode with a high boron doping level (C/B = 10 000) was prepared and used. Two configurations of reactor were considered, i.e., one with the undivided cell, and the other with the cell divided by anodic and cathodic compartments....
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Alternative methods for dark fermentation course analysis
PublicationDark fermentation course analysis is crucial, as complexed matrix of gaseous components may be formed and revealed during the process. The paper considers key issues related to the microbiological process in which complex organic substances are transformed into hydrogen. For the purposes of hydrogen generation, the application of wastewater mixed sludge pre-treated according to Faloye method (Faloye et al. in Int J Hydrog Energy...
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Nitrogen removal in vertical flow constructed wetlands: influence of bed depth and high nitrogen loadings
PublicationThe aim of the study was to evaluate the nitrogen removal and its effects on the plant’s growth and leaves morphology. using two subsurface vertical flow (VF bed), with different depths (0.24 m2 × 0.70 m; 0.24 m2 × 0.35 m) and nitrogen load increments. The VF bed were planted with Vetiveria zizanioides, filled with light expanded clay aggregates (Leca®NR 10/20) and fed in parallel mode with synthetic wastewater. High ammonium nitrogen...
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Phototransformation of three selected pharmaceuticals, naproxen, 17α-Ethinylestradiol and tetracycline in water: Identification of photoproducts and transformation pathways
PublicationTransformation products (TPs) may be formed during various processes, however, it was proved that one of the main mechanisms responsible for degradation of pharmaceuticals in natural waters is photolysis. Three compounds were selected, tetracycline (TC), 17-α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) and naproxen (NAP), for degradation experiments which were performed using a xenon lamp emitting light with a spectrum closely approximating that of...
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Singlet oxygen in the removal of organic pollutants: An updated review on the degradation pathways based on mass spectrometry and DFT calculations
PublicationThe degradation of pollutants by a non-radical pathway involving singlet oxygen (1O2) is highly relevant in advanced oxidation processes. Photosensitizers, modified photocatalysts, and activated persulfates can generate highly selective 1O2 in the medium. The selective reaction of 1O2 with organic pollutants results in the evolution of different intermediate products. While these products can be identified using mass spectrometry...