Unravelling the performance of UV/HO on the removal of pharmaceuticals in real industrial, hospital, grey and urban wastewaters.

This study provides an integrated assessment of UV/HO treatment of different real wastewater matrices: two urban wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) secondary effluents, greywater, hospital, and pharmaceutical industrial effluents. It considers micropollutant removal (up to 30 pharmaceuticals and 13 transformation products at environmental concentrations), energy efficiency and effluent toxicity. The complexity of the wastewater matrix negatively affected the UV fluence in the photo-reactor, scavenged hydroxyl radicals and hindered a proper HO utilization thus reducing the treatment efficiency.

The use of organic wastes at different degrees of maturity as carbon sources for denitrification of landfill leachate.

In this study different garden refuses were investigated to ascertain their efficiency to act as carbon sources in a denitrification system. Six different garden refuse materials were studied: commercial and domestic garden refuse raw (CGR RAW, DGR RAW), immaturely composted domestic and commercial garden refuse (DGR 10 and CGR 10 respectively), commercial garden refuse composted by Dome Aeration Technology and by "turned windrow" technology (DAT and TW). Different concentrations of synthetic nitrate solution were used to assess the efficiency of each substrate.

Biotreatment of Cr(VI) contaminated waters by sulphate reducing bacteria fed with ethanol.

Biological treatment of Cr(VI) contaminated waters was performed in fixed bed reactors inoculated with SRB (sulphate-reducing bacteria) growing on ethanol. Treatment efficiency was evaluated by checking chemical abatement of Cr(VI) and by ecotoxicological tests using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. A preliminary comparison between ethanol and lactate was performed, denoting that using ethanol, the same values of final sulphate abatement were obtained.

Biotreatment and bioassessment of heavy metal removal by sulphate reducing bacteria in fixed bed reactors.

In this work a batch-optimised mixture (w/w %: 6% leaves, 9% compost, 3% Fe(0), 30% silica sand, 30% perlite, 22% limestone) was investigated in a continuous fixed bed column reactor for the treatment of synthetic acid-mine drainage (AMD). A column reactor was inoculated with sulphate-reducing bacteria and fed with a solution containing sulphate and heavy metals (As(V), Cd, Cr(VI), Cu and Zn). At steady state, sulphate abatement was 50+/-10%, while metals were totally removed.