Assessing the potential of coal ash and bagasse ash as inorganic amendments during composting of municipal solid wastes.

This study investigates the potential of incorporating inorganic amendments such as coal and bagasse ashes in different composting mixes. 10 different composting mixes were assessed as follows: A-20% bagasse ash (BA) with unsorted municipal solid wastes (UMSW); B-40% BA with UMSW; C-UMSW; D-20% BA with sorted municipal solid wastes (SMSW); E-40% BA with SMSW; F-SMSW; G-20% coal ash (CA) with UMSW; H-40% CA with UMSW; I-20% CA with SMSW and J-40% CA with SMSW. The composting processes were carried out in rotary drum composters. Composting mixes D, F, G and I achieved a temperature above 55 °C for at least 3 days, with the following peak temperatures: D-62 °C, F-57 °C, G-62 °C and I-58 °C. D resulted in the highest average net Volatile solids (VS) degradation of 68.6% and yielded the highest average volume reduction of 66.0%. The final compost from D, G, I, C and F were within range for electrical conductivities (EC) (794-1770 µS/cm) and pH (6.69-7.12). The ashes also helped in maintaining high average water holding capacities within the range of 183-217%. The C/N ratio of sorted wastes was improved by the addition of 20% coal ash and bagasse ash. Higher germination indices, above 0.8 were obtained for the ash-amended compost (D, G, I), indicating the feasibility and enhancement of using bagasse and coal ash as inorganic amendment in the composting process. Regarding heavy metals content, the chromium concentration for the composting mix G was found to be the highest whereas mixes D and I showed compliance with the MS (Mauritian Standards) 164 standards.

Design of an innovative, ecological portable waste compressor for in-house recycling of paper, plastic and metal packaging waste.

Waste management in Greece relies heavily on unsustainable waste practices (mainly landfills and in certain cases uncontrolled dumping of untreated waste). Even though major improvements have been achieved in the recycling of municipal solid waste during recent years, there are some barriers that hinder the achievement of high recycling rates. Source separation of municipal solid waste has been recognised as a promising solution to produce high-quality recycled materials that can be easily directed to secondary materials markets. This article presents an innovative miniature waste separator/compressor that has been designed and developed for the source separation of municipal solid waste at a household level. The design of the system is in line with the Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC), since it allows for the separate collection (and compression) of municipal solid waste, namely: plastic (polyethylene terephthalate and high-density polyethylene), paper (cardboard and Tetrapak) and metal (aluminium and tin cans). It has been designed through the use of suitable software tools (LS-DYNA, INVENTROR and COMSOL). The results from the simulations, as well as the whole design process and philosophy, are discussed in this article.

Membrane thickening aerobic digestion processes.

Sludge management accounts for approximately 60% of the total wastewater treatment plant expenditure and laws for sludge disposal are becoming increasingly stringent, therefore much consideration is required when designing a solids handling process. A membrane thickening aerobic digestion process integrates a controlled aerobic digestion process with pre-thickening waste activated sludge using membrane technology. This process typically features an anoxic tank, an aerated membrane thickener operating in loop with a first-stage digester followed by second-stage digestion. Membrane thickening aerobic digestion processes can handle sludge from any liquid treatment process and is best for facilities obligated to meet low total phosphorus and nitrogen discharge limits. Membrane thickening aerobic digestion processes offer many advantages including: producing a reusable quality permeate with minimal levels of total phosphorus and nitrogen that can be recycled to the head works of a plant, protecting the performance of a biological nutrient removal liquid treatment process without requiring chemical addition, providing reliable thickening up to 4% solids concentration without the use of polymers or attention to decanting, increasing sludge storage capacities in existing tanks, minimizing the footprint of new tanks, reducing disposal costs, and providing Class B stabilization.

Going green with eco-friendly dentistry.

Eco-friendly dentistry is currently transforming the medical and dental field to decrease its affect on our natural environment and reduce the amount of waste being produced. Eco-friendly dentistry uses a sustainable approach to encourage dentists to implement new strategies to try and reduce the energy being consumed and the large amount of waste being produced by the industry. Many reasonable, practical and easy alternatives do exist which would reduce the environmental footprint of a dental office were it to follow the 'green' recommendations. Dentist should take a leading role in the society by implementing 'green' initiatives to lessen their impact on the environment. This article provides a series of 'green' recommendations that dentists around the world can implement to become a leading Stewards of the environment.

Control of electrothermal heating during regeneration of activated carbon fiber cloth.

Electrothermal swing adsorption (ESA) of organic gases generated by industrial processes can reduce atmospheric emissions and allow for reuse of recovered product. Desorption energy efficiency can be improved through control of adsorbent heating, allowing for cost-effective separation and concentration of these gases for reuse. ESA experiments with an air stream containing 2000 ppm(v) isobutane and activated carbon fiber cloth (ACFC) were performed to evaluate regeneration energy consumption. Control logic based on temperature feedback achieved select temperature and power profiles during regeneration cycles while maintaining the ACFC's mean regeneration temperature (200 °C). Energy requirements for regeneration were independent of differences in temperature/power oscillations (1186-1237 kJ/mol of isobutane). ACFC was also heated to a ramped set-point, and the average absolute error between the actual and set-point temperatures was small (0.73%), demonstrating stable control as set-point temperatures vary, which is necessary for practical applications (e.g., higher temperatures for higher boiling point gases). Additional logic that increased the maximum power application at lower ACFC temperatures resulted in a 36% decrease in energy consumption. Implementing such control logic improves energy efficiency for separating and concentrating organic gases for post-desorption liquefaction of the organic gas for reuse.

Sugarcane bagasse enzymatic hydrolysis: rheological data as criteria for impeller selection.

The aim of this work was to select an efficient impeller to be used in a stirred reactor for the enzymatic hydrolysis of sugar cane bagasse. All experiments utilized 100 g (dry weight)/l of steam-pretreated bagasse, which is utilized in Brazil for cattle feed. The process was studied with respect to the rheological behavior of the biomass hydrolysate and the enzymatic conversion of the bagasse polysaccharides. These parameters were applied to model the power required for an impeller to operate at pilot scale (100 l) using empirical correlations according to Nagata [16]. Hydrolysis experiments were carried out using a blend of cellulases, ß-glucosidase, and xylanases produced in our laboratory by Trichoderma reesei RUT C30 and Aspergillus awamori. Hydrolyses were performed with an enzyme load of 10 FPU/g (dry weight) of bagasse over 36 h with periodic sampling for the measurement of viscosity and the concentration of glucose and reducing sugars. The mixture presented pseudoplastic behavior. This rheological model allowed for a performance comparison to be made between flat-blade disk (Rushton turbine) and pitched-blade (45°) impellers. The simulation showed that the pitched blade consumed tenfold less energy than the flat-blade disk turbine. The resulting sugar syrups contained 22 g/l of glucose, which corresponded to 45% cellulose conversion.

Enhanced ammonia nitrogen removal using consistent ammonium exchange of modified zeolite and biological regeneration in a sequencing batch reactor process.

Utilizing preferential ion exchange of the modified zeolite, the zeo-sequencing batch reactor (SBR) is recommended for a new nitrogen removal process. In this study, natural zeolite was modified by sodium chloride to enhance sorption capacity for ammoniacal nitrogen. The untreated and treated zeolite was characterized by XPS and XRD techniques. The sorption isotherm tests showed that equilibrium sorption data were better represented by the Langmuir model than by the Freundlich model. Treatment of natural zeolite by sodium chloride increased the sorption capacity for ammoniacal nitrogen removal from aqueous solutions. As a result of the continuous bioregeneration of ammonium saturated zeolite-floc in the SBR, the nitrogen removal efficiency of the zeo-SBR was relatively ideal. Scanning electron microscopy results showed that microbes were abundant in the zeo-SBR process.

Transmissivity evolution through interface of composite liners under applied constraint.

In landfill liners, geomembranes have defects that constitute preferential passages of leachate from rainwater percolation. Non-woven geotextiles are widely used in wastelandfills as materials having the functions of protection, separation, filtration and drainage. This study seeks to select geotextiles through an investigation conducted among landfill operators who commonly arise a geotextile in the geomembrane-clay interface to facilitate geomembrane welding and to prevent its puncture by angular materials. It also attempts to find out the influence of geotextile in a decimetric transmissivity cell size under 50 kPa stress and smooth ground surface. The results show that the transmissivity in composite liner interface is almost the same as the one calculated with the European standard EN ISO 12958. Transmissivity depends on the mechanical stress applied to the bottom liner, on the geotextile type in the interface and on the ground surface.

DMS cyclone separation processes for optimization of plastic wastes recycling and their implications.

It is demonstrated that substantial reductions in plastics presently disposed of in landfills can be achieved by cyclone density media separation (DMS). In comparison with the size fraction of plastics presently processed by industrial density separations (generally 6.4 to 9.5 mm), cyclone DMS methods are demonstrated to effectively process a substantially greater range of particle sizes (from 0.5 up to 120 mm). The purities of plastic products and recoveries obtained with a single stage separation using a cylindrical cyclone are shown to attain virtually 100% purity and recoveries >99% for high-density fractions and >98% purity and recoveries were obtained for low-density products. Four alternative schemas of multi-stage separations are presented and analyzed as proposed methods to obtain total low- and high-density plastics fraction recoveries while maintaining near 100% purities. The results of preliminary tests of two of these show that the potential for processing product purities and recoveries >99.98% of both density fractions are indicated. A preliminary economic comparison of capital costs of DMS systems suggests cyclone DMS methods to be comparable with other DMS processes even if the high volume capacity for recycling operations of these is not optimized.

Waveguide monitoring (such as sewer pipes or ocean zones) via matched field processing.

Detecting and locating changes in a waveguide can be extremely difficult. A method is suggested here which does not require simplification of the problem (no spherical chickens) nor any modeling of the waveguide nor of the propagation within it. The method relies only on previous broadband data recorded on an array of receivers (two or more) which is then compared to more recent data to investigate change. Backscattered energy is to be examined here although bistatic configurations may also be possible. This approach is applicable whenever there is sufficient, appropriate data for comparison (note that absolute levels are not needed) and can be applied to acoustically search for scatterers introduced to an ocean zone (such as targets or pollutants), blockages or changes in sewer pipes, or even to non-acoustic energy in a waveguide, e.g., the use of electromagnetic energy in the earth-ionosphere waveguide. This method is based on the signal processing technique known as matched field processing and will be demonstrated on a variety of laboratory sewer pipe data. The method (particularly for localization) is introduced here, as is the suggestion for application to general waveguide environments.

Improving the performance of membrane bioreactors by powdered activated carbon dosing with cost considerations.

Effects of powdered activated carbon (PAC) dosing on the overall performance of membrane bioreactors (MBR) were investigated in two bench-scale submerged MBRs. Positive impacts of PAC dosing on membrane fouling and the removal of 17beta-estradiol (E2) and 17alpha-ethyinylestradiol (EE2) were demonstrated over a six-month stable operational period. PAC dosing in the MBR increased the removal rates of E2 and EE2 by 3.4% and 15.8%, respectively. The average soluble extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and colloidal total organic carbon (TOC) concentrations in the PAC-MBR sludge was 60.1% and 61.8% lower than the control MBR sludge, respectively. Lower soluble EPS and colloidal TOC concentrations in the PAC-MBR sludge resulted in a slower rate of trans-membrane pressure (TMP) increase during MBRs operation, which could prolong the lifespan of membranes. Cost assessment showed that PAC dosing could reduce the operating cost for membrane cleaning and/or membrane replacement by about 25%. The operating cost for PAC dosing could be offset by the benefit from its reducing the cost for membrane maintenance.

Removal of gaseous tetrahydrofuran via a three-phase airlift bioreactor loaded with immobilized cells of GFP-tagged Pseudomonas oleovorans GDT4.

Tetrahydrofuran (THF) is a common highly toxic cyclic aliphatic ether that frequently exists in waste gases. Removal of gaseous THF is a serious issue with important environmental ramifications. A novel three-phase airlift bioreactor (TPAB) loaded with immobilized cells was developed for efficient THF removal from gas streams. An effective THF-degrading transformant, Pseudomonas oleovorans GDT4, which contains the pTn-Mod-OTc-gfp plasmid and was tagged with a green fluorescent protein (GFP), was constructed. Continuous treatment of THF-containing waste gases was succeeded by the GFP-labelled cells immobilized with calcium alginate and activated carbon fiber in the TPAB for 60 days with >90% removal efficiency. The number of fluorescent cells in the beads reached 1.7 × 1011 cells·g-1 of bead on day 10, accounting for 83.3% of the total number of cells. The amount further increased to 3.0 × 1011 cells·g-1 of bead on day 40. However, it decreased to 2.5 × 1011 cells·g-1 of bead with a substantial increase in biomass in the liquid because of cell leakage and hydraulic shock. PCR-DGGE revealed that P. oleovorans was the dominant microorganism throughout the entire operation. The maximum elimination capacity was affected by empty bed residence time (EBRT). The capacity was only 25.9 g m-3·h-1 at EBRT of 80 s, whereas it reached 37.8 g m-3·h-1 at EBRT of 140 s. This work provides an alternative method for full-scale removal of gaseous THF and presents a useful tool for determining the biomass of a specific degrader in immobilized beads.

Cylinder cyclone (LARCODEMS) density media separation of plastic wastes.

Cylindrical cyclone media separators using a suspended calcite separation media simulating industrial scale operations are demonstrated to effectively separate a wide variety of forms and a greater range of particle sizes of plastics by density than presently recycled. Purities of plastic products and recoveries obtained from mixed plastic wastes are comparable to those reported for established separations. Products of approximately 100% purity with recoveries of >99% were obtained for high density fractions and >98% purities and recoveries for the low density fractions. Cyclonic centrifugal forces and/or the fine particle size of the separation media appear to minimize hydroscopic and particle shape effects. A mathematical model is proposed for defining plastic waste feed rates and treatable particle size ranges for the LARCODEMS media separator. Waste plastic separations yielded Ecart probable (Ep) values 0.024 for a water only separation media. The Ep for 1.1gcm(-3) separation medias was <0.032 with minimal to no variation in values for 1-8mm particle sizes. Variation in the quality of separations is shown to be minimal with <72microm, <45microm and <2microm media particle sizes. Media density offset created varied according to particle size.

A simple novel route for porous carbon production from waste tyre.

In this research, waste tyre rubber was used for activated carbon production with a novel route by modified physo-chemical approach. Potassium hydroxide and carbon dioxide were selected as chemical and physical activating agents, respectively and the process was carried out without carbonization under inert atmospheric conditions. The experiments were designed by applying the central composite design (CCD) as one of the subsets of response surface methodology (RSM). The effects of activation temperature (550-750 °C), activation time (15-75 min), impregnation ratio of KOH/rubber (0.75-3.75) and CO2 flow rate (200-400 mL/min) on production yield and specific surface area of produced activated carbon were studied. Based on the results, the 2FI and quadratic models were selected for production yield and specific surface area, respectively. The activation temperature was the main effective parameter on both responses in this process. The production yield and specific surface area of produced activated carbon at optimized conditions for each model were 47% and 928 m2/g, respectively. BET, XRF, XRD, FT-IR, EDS and FE-SEM analyses were carried out on the optimized sample of specific surface area model in order to investigate the residual salts and morphological porous structures. Based on the surface properties and the presence of sulfur compounds in produced activated carbon, this activated carbon has the ability of eliminating heavy metals such as mercury from industrial waste water.

The hydraulic separator Multidune: preliminary tests on fluid-dynamic features and plastic separation feasibility.

Recycling of plastic materials is a rapidly developing discipline because of environmental awareness, the need to conserve materials and energy, and the growing demand to increase the production economy. The main problem in plastics recovery and recycling is related to the variety of plastic wastes, even if selective collection occurs. Therefore, plastic materials can be recycled either as mixtures or as single types, separating the different typologies by their physical (size, specific mass, etc.) and/or chemical properties. However, separation of plastics in single typologies by traditional processes and devices is difficult due to their typical low variability in properties. This paper presents a new research development for recycling industry: the Multidune separator. This is a device constructed from a sequence of parallel semi-cylindrical tubes of transparent plastic welded together in a plane. The lower half is shifted laterally and then fixed relative to the upper half. Flow is then induced in the lateral direction normal to the axis of the tubes, creating a main flow channel and two recirculation zones. This apparatus creates a differential transport of particles of low specific mass, near to 1g/cm3, allowing their separation. The flow field in the Multidune separator is studied via Particle Tracking Velocimetry (PTV). Eulerian analysis of the data is performed to gather information about the fluid-dynamics features established by different hydraulic heads at the inlet of the Multidune. Preliminary tests on monomaterial samples have been performed, varying several operative parameters to determine the best set of values. Therefore, separation tests have been executed on composite samples, obtaining satisfactory results in terms of plastic separation feasibility.

Characterisation of polymer fractions from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and implications for waste management.

There is an increasing interest in the end-of-life management of polymers present in waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). This is mainly due to high recycling and recovery quotas set by the European WEEE directive, which can only be fulfilled by including the plastic fraction in recycling and recovery approaches. Previous studies identified a high material diversity and various contaminants in WEEE plastics, including heavy metals, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), diphenyl ethers (PBDE), as well as polybrominated dibenzodioxins and dibenzofurans (PBDD/F). These substances are regulated by European directives that limit their levels in marketable products. Consequently, both material diversity and contaminants are strong arguments against material recycling and point to hazardous waste treatment. However, recent developments in the production of flame retardants and electrical and electronic goods aimed to reduce contaminants and material diversity. Thus, the present study summarises updated contaminant levels of plastic fractions of European WEEE, as well as data on materials in waste housing polymers. Material characterisation revealed housing fractions to be interesting sources for polymer recycling, which however has to implement potent material separation and/or bromine elimination techniques. With respect to contaminants, our data indicate an effective phase-out of PBB, but still high levels of PBDE and PBDD/F are found. Sources and implications for the material recycling and thermal recovery approaches are discussed in detail.

Application of polyimide membranes for biogas purification and enrichment.

Biogas is a clean environment friendly fuel that is produced by bacterial conversion of organic matter under anaerobic (oxygen-free) conditions. Raw biogas contains about 55-65% methane (CH(4)), 30-45% carbon dioxide (CO(2)), traces of hydrogen sulphide (H(2)S) and fractions of water vapour. Pure methane has a calorific value of 9100 kcal/m(3) at 15.5 degrees C and 1 atm; the calorific value of biogas varies from 4800 to 6900 kcal/m(3). To achieve the standard composition of the biogas and calorific value of 5500 kcal/m(3) the treatment techniques like absorption or membrane separation should be applied. In the paper the results of the tests of the CH(4) enrichment in simulated biogas mixture consisted of methane, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide were presented. It was showed that using the capillary module with polyimide membranes it was possible to achieve the enrichment of CH(4) from the concentrations of 55-85% up to 91-94.4%. The membrane material was resistant to the small concentrations of sour gases and assured the reduction of H(2)S and water vapour concentrations, as well. The required enrichment was achieved in the single module, however to prevent CH(4) losses the multistage or hybrid systems should be used to improve process efficiency.

Transmitted-light microscopy - a new method for surface structure analysis of cleanable non-woven dust filter media.

With regard to the more stringent legislation in environmental protection strong efforts have been made to reduce fine dust emissions. As a result filter devices equipped with dry operating cleanable textile filter media have become one of the most favoured separation techniques for fine dust. For improvement of cleanable filter media it is necessary to understand the influence of their structure on their filtration behaviour and to develop parameters for characterising their clogging and penetration behaviour. The aim of the research work presented in this paper was to improve the already developed reflected-light method [W. Koschutnig, G. Mauschitz, W. Höflinger, Charakterisierung der Oberflächenbehandlung und des Verstopfungsverhaltens von abreinigbaren Staubfiltermedien mittels Bildanalyse, CIT 76, 2004, 10, 5 pp.] to get a structure parameter of cleanable non-woven dust filter media, which can give information about the particle penetration. To reach this goal transmitted-light is used instead of reflected-light. By that way images with higher contrast will be achieved which enable to define a mean hydraulic diameter for the pores near the outer surface of cleanable non-woven dust filter media. Experimental measurements were carried out which prove that the mean hydraulic pore diameter can be a measure for the particle penetration of a filter medium. The pore volume equivalent, which can be used as a measure of the dust storage capacity of the filter medium can also be detected by the transmitted-light method.

Optimization of metals and plastics recovery from electric cable wastes using a plate-type electrostatic separator.

Plate-type electrostatic separators are commonly employed for the selective sorting of conductive and non-conductive granular materials. The aim of this work is to identify the optimal operating conditions of such equipment, when employed for separating copper and plastics from either flexible or rigid electric wire wastes. The experiments are performed according to the response surface methodology, on samples composed of either "calibrated" particles, obtained by manually cutting of electric wires at a predefined length (4mm), or actual machine-grinded scraps, characterized by a relatively-wide size distribution (1-4mm). The results point out the effect of particle size and shape on the effectiveness of the electrostatic separation. Different optimal operating conditions are found for flexible and rigid wires. A separate processing of the two classes of wire wastes is recommended.

Enhancing recovery of ammonia from swine manure anaerobic digester effluent using gas-permeable membrane technology.

Gas-permeable membrane technology is useful to recover ammonia from manure. In this study, the technology was enhanced using aeration instead of alkali chemicals to increase pH and the ammonium (NH4(+)) recovery rate. Digested effluents from covered anaerobic swine lagoons containing 1465-2097 mg NH4(+)-N L(-1) were treated using submerged membranes (0.13 cm(2) cm(-3)), low-rate aeration (120 mL air L-manure(-1) min(-1)) and nitrification inhibitor (22 mg L(-1)) to prevent nitrification. The experiment included a control without aeration. The pH of the manure with aeration rose from 8.6 to 9.2 while the manure without aeration decreased from 8.6 to 8.1. With aeration, 97-99% of the NH4(+) was removed in about 5 days of operation with 96-98% recovery efficiency. In contrast, without aeration it took 25 days to treat the NH4(+). Therefore, the recovery of NH4(+) was five times faster with the low-rate aeration treatment. This enhancement could reduce costs by 70%.