Assessment of a tannin-based organic polymer to harvest Chlorella vulgaris biomass from swine wastewater digestate phycoremediation.

This study investigated the efficiency of an organic tannin polymer alone or amended with polyacrylamide to harvest Chlorella vulgaris biomass grown in a laboratory-scale photobioreactor treating swine wastewater digestate. The effect of biomass concentration, tannin (TAN) dosages and changes in pH were evaluated in jar test experiments. Among the TAN concentrations tested (11, 22, 44, 89, 178 mg L(-1)), 11 mg L(-1) showed the highest biomass recovery (97%). The highest coagulation/ flocculation efficiencies were obtained at pH 5 to 7. Flocculation efficiency improved from 50 to 97% concomitant with the increasing biomass concentrations from 45 to 165 mg L(-1), respectively. Recovery efficiencies above 95% were achieved with the same TAN dosage (11 mg L(-1)) irrespective of the concentration of organic carbon present (75 to 300 mg TOC L(-1)). Overall, the results suggest that TAN could become an interesting alternative choice of non-toxic organic polymer for harvesting Chlorella sp. from organic-rich wastewater.

High nitrogen removal rate using ANAMMOX process at short hydraulic retention time.

The anaerobic ammonium oxidation (ANAMMOX) is a chemolithoautotrophic process, which converts NH(4)(+) to N(2) using nitrite (NO(2)(-)) as the electron acceptor. This process has very high nitrogen removal rates (NRRs) and is an alternative to classical nitrification/denitrification wastewater treatment. In the present work, a strategy for nitrogen removal using ANAMMOX process was tested evaluating their performance when submitted to high loading rates and very short hydraulic retention times (HRTs). An up-flow ANAMMOX column reactor was inoculated with 30% biomass (v v(-1)) fed from 100 to 200 mg L(-1) of total N (NO(2)(-)-N + NH(4)(+)-N) at 35 °C. After start-up and process stability the maximum NRR in the up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor was 18.3 g-N L(-1) d(-1) operated at 0.2 h of HRT. FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization) analysis and process stoichiometry confirmed that ANAMMOX was the prevalent process for nitrogen removal during the experiments. The results point out that high NRRs can be obtained at very short HRTs using up-flow ANAMMOX column reactor configuration.

Removal of heavy metals using a brewer's yeast strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae: advantages of using dead biomass.

AIM: The capacities of live and heat-killed cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae at 45 degrees C for the removal of copper, nickel and zinc from the solution were compared. METHODS AND RESULTS: Kinetic studies have shown a maximum accumulation of Ni(2+) and Zn(2+) after 10 min for both types of cells, while for Cu(2+) this was attained after 30 and 60 min for dead and live cells, respectively. Equilibrium studies have shown that inactivated biomass displayed a greater Zn(2+) and Ni(2+) accumulation than live yeasts. For Cu(2+), live and dead cells showed similar accumulation. Fluorescence, scanning electron microscopy and infrared spectroscopy studies have shown that no appreciable structural or molecular changes occurred in the cells during the killing process. The increased metal uptake observed in dead cells can be most likely explained by the loss of membrane integrity, which allows the exposition of further metal-binding sites present inside the cells. CONCLUSIONS: Heat-killed cells showed a higher degree of heavy metal removal than live cells, being more suitable for further bioremediation works. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: Dead flocculent cells can be used in a low cost technology for detoxifying metal-bearing effluents as this approach combines an efficient metal removal with the ease of cell separation.

Application of potentiometric stripping analysis for speciation of copper complexes with a non-adsorbable ligand on a mercury electrode.

Potentiometric stripping analysis (PSA) was used for determination of conditional stability constants (delta') of copper(II) complexes. Glycine was used as a model of a non-adsorbable ligand on the mercury electrode that forms well defined 1:1 and 1:2 copper(II)-glycine complexes, which are labile within the time scale of the analytical technique. The calculations were performed by the DeFord-Hume method, which was applied to the shifts in peak potential (dt/dE vs. E) provoked by the presence of different concentration of the ligand in the metal solution. For comparison purposes, the study was also carried out by differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry (DPASV). The results obtained by PSA both at pH 6.0, logbeta'(1) = 5.0 +/- 0.2 and logbeta'(2) = 7.6 + 0.2, and at pH 6.5, logbeta'(1) = 5.7 +/- 0.6 and logbeta'(2) = 8.5 +/- 0.4 (standard deviations are given), were in agreement with those obtained by DPASV and from the literature, which indicates that PSA is suitable for this type of study.

Sediments as monitors of heavy metal contamination in the Ave river basin (Portugal): multivariate analysis of data.

The concentrations of heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn) were determined in river sediments collected at the Ave river basin (Portugal) to obtain a general classification scenery of the pollution in this highly polluted region. Multivariate data analysis techniques of clustering, principal components and eigenvector projections were used in this classification. Five general areas with different polluting characteristics were detected and several individual heavy metal concentration abnormalities were detected in restricted areas. A good correlation between the overall metal contamination determined by multivariate analysis and metal pollution indexes for all sampling stations was obtained. Some preliminary experiments showed that the metal concentrations normalised to the volatile matter content in the sediment fraction with grain size <63 microm seems to be an adequate method for assessing metal pollution.

Hybrid reactor performance in pentachlorophenol (pcp) removal by anaerobic granules.

The present research aimed at evaluating pentachlorophenol (PCP) degradation in a hybrid reactor supplied with a mixture of fatty acids (propionic, butyric, acetic and lactic) and methanol. The performance of the reactor is remarkably stable and efficient during PCP additions at range of 2.0 to 21.0 mg/L. The reduction of chemical oxygen demand (COD) was around 97% and methane was found to be 88% in the biogas production. The efficiency of volatile fatty acids breakdown was 93%, 64% and 74% respectively for butyric, propionic and acetic. PCP total removal of more than 99% was reached by granular sludge activities formed during 21 months of reactor operation. Methanogenic microorganisms predominance was noticed with 10(5) to 10(6) cells/mL during enumeration on methanol or lactate added to sulfate culture media. The removal rate was 1.07 mg PCP.g-1 VS.d-1 during the highest PCP concentration addition.

Nutrient removal from piggery effluent using vertical flow constructed wetlands in southern Brazil.

Santa Catarina State, southern Brazil, has the greatest swine breeding activities of Latin America. Generally, the piggery wastewater is treated in pond systems that are able to remove organic material according to local environmental legislation. However, these systems do not remove nitrogen and phosphorus efficiently. This work deals with a post-treatment system, using vertical flow constructed wetlands. The experiment was conducted in a swine production farm which has 45,000 animals. Although the pond system was able to partially remove the content of nutrients, their concentration in the effluent was high for environmental disposal. A four-bed vertical flow constructed wetland pilot plant, using Typha spp., was built. The pilot plant operated for 280 days for beds 2-4 (sand 2). However, the experiments with beds 1-3 (sand 1) were stopped after 111 days of operation, when a reduction in the wastewater drainage was observed. The beds with sand 2 showed a 33% COD removal, and about 49% of nitrification was observed from 111 days until the end of the operation. PO(4)-P removal was 45% with a loading rate of around 1.36 g m(-2) d(-1).

Viability and release of complexing compounds during accumulation of heavy metals by a brewer's yeast.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae NCYC 1190 cells accumulated (after 1 h) lead and cadmium at similar levels, and to a lesser degree also copper. During heavy metal accumulation, there was a considerable loss of viability of copper-treated cells (about 99% in the first 20 min of contact with the metal), and a less pronounced lethal effect on cadmium- and lead-treated cells (about 66% and 46% after 1 h of contact with cadmium or lead, respectively) was detected. During copper accumulation, a leakage of UV-absorbing compounds and inorganic phosphate was observed; this did not occur with lead, whereas with cadmium a small amount of leakage of inorganic phosphate was detected. The filtrates of copper-treated cells contained copper-binding molecules. The copper-binding capacity of the filtrates increased with time according to the release of inorganic phosphate and UV-absorbing compounds. These compounds can bind an appreciable quantity of metal ions, making them unavailable for cell uptake and thus reducing the efficiency of heavy metals removal by yeast cells.