Publications by authors named "Aleksandra Szaja"
The present work aimed to evaluate whether the use of an innovative method such as hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) is suitable for the simultaneous removal of surfactants of different chemical natures (non-ionic, anionic and cationic) from actual car wash wastewater at different numbers of passes through the cavitation zone and different inlet pressures. An additional novelty was the use of multi-criteria decision support, which enabled the selection of optimal HC conditions that maximized the removal of each group of surfactants and chemical oxygen demand (COD) with minimal energy input. For the optimal HC variants, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR/ATR) as well as investigations of surface tension, zeta potential, specific conductivity, system viscosity and particle size were carried out.
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- The study investigated how adding food wastes like orange peels, orange pulp, and brewery spent grain affects nutrient levels and digestion efficiency in anaerobic digestion, using municipal sewage sludge as the main material.
- The inclusion of these co-substrates improved the nutrient balance, reducing heavy metal content and enhancing methane production, especially with orange pulp and brewery spent grain.
- However, combinations containing orange peels and brewery spent grain led to lower biogas and methane yields, with heavy metal accumulation, raising concerns about using the resulting digestates in agriculture due to high levels of copper, zinc, and mercury.
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- The study examined how hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) impacts the biodegradability of herbal waste in municipal wastewater that had undergone mechanical pre-treatment.
- HC was conducted at an optimal inlet pressure of 3.5 bar, resulting in a significant 70% increase in the BOD/COD ratio within the first 10 minutes, indicating improved biodegradability.
- Analytical techniques like fiber component analysis, FT-IR/ATR, TGA, and SEM confirmed that HC altered the chemical and structural characteristics of herbal waste, reducing components like hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin without creating harmful by-products for further biological treatment.
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- The study explores a method for using brewery spent grain (BSG) in combination with sewage sludge (SS) for better anaerobic digestion (AD) results.
- The BSG was pre-treated via hydrodynamic cavitation and paired with two different carriers, showing that the combination with municipal pre-settled wastewater (MPW) significantly increased biogas and methane production compared to using just sewage sludge alone.
- In contrast, the combination with mature landfill leachate (MLL) did not yield the same benefits, leading to the conclusion that using cavitated BSG with MPW is optimal for large-scale application.
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- The study investigates how introducing dried brewery spent grain (BSG) affects biogas production when mixed with sewage sludge (SS) in anaerobic digestion processes.
- Even though the addition of BSG did not significantly change the overall biogas yields compared to SS digested alone, it did lead to energy enhancements, particularly at longer hydraulic retention times (HRTs) of 20 days.
- The findings suggest that using BSG in co-digestion could be a cost-effective approach to improve energy efficiency in wastewater treatment and handle waste from breweries sustainably.
This study examined the influence of bioaugmentation on metal concentrations (aluminum, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, manganese, molybdenum, nickel and zinc) in anaerobically digested sewage sludge. To improve the digestion efficiency, bioaugmentation with a mixture of wild-living Archaea and Bacteria (MAB) from Yellowstone National Park, USA, was used. The total concentration of all metals was higher in the digestate than in the feedstock.
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