Mixotrophic denitrification processes in basalt fiber bio-carriers drive effective treatment of low carbon/nitrogen lithium slurry wastewater.

Lithium battery slurry wastewater was successfully treatedby using basalt fiber (BF) bio-carriers in a biological contact oxidation reactor. This resulted in a significant reduction of COD (93.3 ± 0.5 %) and total nitrogen (77.4 ± 1.0 %) at 12 h of HRT and dissolved oxygen (DO) of 0-1 mg/L. The modified Stover-Kincannon model indicated that the total nitrogen removal rate was 4.462 kg/m3/d in R-BF while the substrate maximum specific reaction rate (qmax) in the Monod model was 0.323 mg-N/mgVSS/d. A stable internal environment was established within the bio-nest. Metataxonomic analysis revealed the presence of denitrification and decarbonization bacteria, combined heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification bacteria, nitrite-oxidizing bacteria, and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria. Functional analysis displayed changes related to (aerobic)chemoheterotrophy, nitrogen respiration, nitrate reduction, respiration/denitrification of nitrite, and nitrate in R-BF. The study proposes a novel approach to achieve denitrification for the treatment of lithium slurry wastewater at low C/N conditions.

Treatment of high-load organic wastewater by novel basalt fiber carrier media.

The carrier medium plays a key role in improving existing remediation potential of conventional biological contact oxidation reactors. In this study, a biological contact oxidation reactor was constructed using basalt fiber (R-BF) as a biological carrier. The bioreactor performance was investigated in terms of reduction in chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N), and total nitrogen (TN) at organic loadings rate of 15.243 kg/m3·d and nitrogen loading rate of 1.068 kg/m3·d. We found that COD, NH4+-N, and TN were reduced to 99.1%, 97.9%, and 97.8%, respectively. Within the R-BF, a bio-nest was developed which had abundant pores and channels and supported successful movement of nutrients, resulting in high biological activity (55.78%). The microbial communities within the bio-nest were diverse and rich and sludge production during operation was minimal. This makes BF a promising application for wastewater treatment. This research might be useful in the construction of integrated bioreactors that can operate under high organic and nitrogen loadings rates with reduced energy consumption, i.e. 75% in this study.

Treatment of simulated electroplating wastewater containing Ni(II)-EDTA by Fenton oxidation combined with recycled ferrite process under ambient temperature.

Developing low cost and efficient method for the treatment of electroplating wastewater containing heavy metals complexed with chelating agent has attracted increasing attention in industrial wastewater treatment. This study involved a system combining Fenton oxidation (FO) and recycled ferrite (RF) process for treating synthetic solution containing Ni(II)-EDTA at ambient temperature. In this system, the FO reaction can produce hydroxyl radicals with high redox potential to decomplex the metal-organic complexes and degrade the organics, thereby enhancing the removal efficiency of heavy metals. The RF process is to incorporate the non-iron metal into the spinel ferrites at room temperature, and stabilize the sludge. As a result, the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure can fulfill the relevant standards. Furthermore, the ferrous ions in Fenton reaction could be used as the source of irons in RF process. After treatment by the combined process, the effluent water fulfills the relevant standard in China. In comparison with conventional alkaline precipitation, the sludge sedimentation velocity of FO-RF is 2.16 times faster than that of conventional alkaline precipitation and the volume of sludge is reduced by half, which strongly demonstrated the advantages of the presented FO-RF system and indicated the huge potential for the treatment of EDTA-chelated nickel.

Feasibility of using basalt fiber as biofilm Carrier to construct bio-nest for wastewater treatment.

Generally, biofilms developed for wastewater treatment readily detach from carrier medium once available thickness exceeds about 2 mm. Carrier media made of basalt fibers (BFs) could form ball-like aggregates (more than 10 cm in size, and called bio-nest). To demonstrate its feasibility for wastewater treatment, both reactors with and without BF carriers (RBF and RCO) were evaluated in terms of nutrient removal, oxygen mass transport and biological viabilities as well as biofilm adsorption characteristics. Therefore, oxygen microprofiles and confocal images for bio-nest as well as functional groups for biofilm-attached BF were performed on microsensor systems, confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). Despite COD:N ratio, both reactors removed about 90% of COD, while only RBF reactor achieved high denitrification capabilities, with nitrogen removal efficiencies varying between 60.10 ±â€¯0.45% and 82.07 ±â€¯0.64%. Microprofile and confocal images showed that dissolved oxygen could reach the core with depth up to 50 mm, at which viable bacteria were detected. Characteristic peaks on FT-IR spectrum demonstrated that various functional groups of polysaccharide and proteins in EPS played a key role in aggregating biofilm-attached BFs into a bio-nest. Thus, BF provides a promising alternative to conventional carrier medium for wastewater treatment.