Electrochemical disinfection and removal of ammonia nitrogen for the reclamation of wastewater treatment plant effluent.

Residual ammonia and pathogenic microorganisms restrict the reclamation and reuse of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent. An electrochemical system was developed for the simultaneous removal of ammonia and disinfection of actual WWTP effluent. The performance of the electrochemical process on synthetic wastewater at different chloride ion concentrations was also investigated. Results demonstrated that the optimal chloride concentration for ammonia and Escherichia coli (E. coli) removal was 250 mg/L. Successful disinfection of E. coli in actual effluent was achieved at 0.072 Ah/L, but the inverse S-type inactivation curve indicated that there was a competitive consumption of strong oxidants and chloramines working as another disinfectant. A higher electric charge (0.58 Ah/L) was required to simultaneously reduce E. coli and ammonia to levels that meet the reclamation requirements for WWTP effluent. At this electric charge, no trihalomethane, chlorate, or perchlorate in the system was observed, indicating the biological safety of this process. These results demonstrate the potential of this electrochemical process as a tertiary wastewater treatment process for WWTP effluent reclamation purposes.

Hybrid electrooxidation and adsorption process for the removal of ammonia in low concentration chloride wastewater.

The ammonia removal performance of a hybrid electrooxidation and adsorption reactor (HEAR) is evaluated. The influences of current density, chloride concentration, and packing particles for ammonia removal in HEAR were investigated, and the performance of HEAR under serials circulation was studied. Results indicated that ammonia removal efficiency achieved around 70 % under the optimal condition after 30-min electrolysis. The optimal condition was determined as current density of 10 mA/cm2, Cl-/NH4+ molar ratio of 1.8, and modified zeolites as particles. The ammonia adsorption kinetic and adsorption isotherm on zeolites fitted well with second-order kinetic and Langmuir isotherm model, respectively. Adsorption amount of ammonia on zeolites sampled at 30-min electrolysis achieved 2.4 mg/L, higher than 1.9 mg/L of zeolites at 20-min electrolysis, indicating that electrooxidation coupled with adsorption led to simultaneous ammonia removal and zeolite regeneration in HEAR. No decrease of ammonia removal efficiency was observed over several cycles with the electrooxidation treatment. The presence of free chlorine indicating ammonia removal in HEAR was due to the combined influence by adsorption and indirect electrooxidation. These results showed that HEAR was a prospective alternative as a tertiary treatment for wastewater with low chloride ions.

Fractional, biodegradable and spectral characteristics of extracted and fractionated sludge extracellular polymeric substances.

Correlation between fractional, biodegradable and spectral characteristics of sludge extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) by different protocols has not been well established. This work extracted sludge EPS using alkaline extractants (NH4OH and formaldehyde + NaOH) and physical protocols (ultrasonication, heating at 80 °C or cation exchange resin (CER)) and then fractionated the extracts using XAD-8/XAD-4 resins. The alkaline extractants yielded more sludge EPS than the physical protocols. However, the physical protocols extracted principally the hydrophilic components which were readily biodegradable by microorganisms. The alkaline extractants dissolved additional humic-like substances from sludge solids which were refractory in nature. Different extraction protocols preferably extracted EPS with distinct fractional, biodegradable and spectral characteristics which could be applied in specific usages.

Conditioning of wastewater sludge using freezing and thawing: role of curing.

Freeze/thaw (F/T) treatment is an efficient pre-treatment process for biological sludges. When bulk sludge was frozen, tiny unfrozen regimes in the ice matrix were continuously dehydrated by surrounding ice fronts, termed as the "curing stage". This work demonstrated that the F/T treatment could not only enhance sludge dewaterability, but also solubilize organic matters from sludge matrix. Most enhancement of sludge dewaterability was achieved during bulk freezing stage, with the waste activated sludge more readily dewatered than the mixed sludges after treatment. Conversely, the freezing stage released only limited quantities of organic matters to liquid. Conversely, the curing contributed mostly on chemical oxygen demand (COD) solubilization and NH(3)-N release. The crystallization of intra-aggregate moisture was claimed to damage cell membranes so to release intracellular substances to surroundings. The F/T treatment with sufficient curing is advised to effectively condition biological sludge as the feedstock of the following anaerobic digestion process.

Extracellular biological organic matters in sewage sludge during mesophilic digestion at reduced hydraulic retention time.

To operate an anaerobic digester at low hydraulic retention time (HRT) is welcome in practice. This study characterized the extracellular biological organic matter (EBOM) and supernatant organics for a sewage sludge digested in a lab-scale mesophilic digester (5 l) running at an HRT of 20, 15 or 10 d. The hydrophilic and hydrophobic acid fractions were the principal components in the sludge EBOM. The hydrolysis rates for hydrophobic acid fraction related EBOM at 10 d HRT and that of hydrophilic fraction related proteins in supernatant at 20 d HRT limited the anaerobic processes. Improved hydrolysis of soluble hydrophilic fraction assisted improving digester performance at 20 d HRT. To shorten digestion HRT, efficiency of hydrophobic acid fraction hydrolysis has to be practiced.

Electricity generation in a microbial fuel cell with a microbially catalyzed cathode.

A microbial fuel cell using aerobic microorganisms as the cathodic catalysts is described. By using anaerobic sludge in the anode and aerobic sludge in the cathode as inocula, the microbial fuel cell could be started up after a short lag time of 9 days, generating a stable voltage of 0.324 V (R (ex) = 500 Omega). At an aeration rate of 300 ml min(-1) in the cathode, a maximum volumetric power density of up to 24.7 W m(-3) (117.2 A m(-3)) was reached. This research demonstrates an economic system for recovering electrical energy from organic compounds.

[Biological wastewater treatment and simultaneous generating electricity from organic wastewater by microbial fuel cell].

An air-cathode microbial fuel cell (ACMFC) was successfully started up using anaerobic activated sludge as inoculums, generating a voltage of 0.24V after inoculations for 110 h. When using acetate and glucose as substrate, voltage of 0.38V and 0.41V (based on external resistance of 1000 omega) is obtained; meanwhile, the maximum power density reaches 146.56 mW/m2 and 192.04 mW/m2 respectively, suggesting that organic wastewater can be used to produce electricity. Removal efficiency of 99% (acetate) and 87% (glucose) is achieved simultaneously, demonstrating that ACMFC can treat organic wastewater. Electron recovery efficiency as low as 10% for both acetate and glucose is observed mainly due to aerobic respiration of microorganisms caused by diffusion of oxygen molecular from the cathode, leading to electron loss. MFCs are capable of converting chemical energy presented in organic wastewater into electricity energy with accomplishments of wastewater treatments simultaneously, which possibly captures considerable benefits in terms of environments and economics.

[Electrode configuration as a factor affecting electricity generation in air-cathode microbial fuel cell].

In air-cathode microbial fuel cell (ACMFC), oxygen diffused into the reactor from cathode without PEM can be reduced as electron acceptor via aerobic respiration by facultative microorganisms, resulting in either a decreasing of power generation or electron loss. In this study, ACMFC1 and ACMFC2 with different electrode configuration were compared to examine power density and electron recovery from glucose. The results showed that ACMFC1 generated a maximum power density of 3 070mW/m3 with internal resistance of 302.141 and anode potential of -323mV; while maximum power density of 9 800mW/m3 for ACMFC2 was obtained with internal resistance of 107.79omega and anode potential of -442mV. ACMFC2 could sustain generating electricity for nearly 220 h (ERE of 30.1%), comparing with ACMFC1 of less than 50 h (ERE of 9.78%) under batch operation. Therefore, an improved design for electrode configuration of ACMFC can be performed to generate higher power with low internal resistance, meanwhile, achieve increasing electron recovery simultaneously.