Increasing amount of micropollutants such as drugs, cosmetics and nutritional supplements detected in surface waters represents increasing risk to humans and to the whole environment. These hazardous materials deriving mostly from wastewaters often cannot be effectively removed by conventional water treatment technologies due to their persistence. Some of the innovative technologies use specific sorbents for their removal.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiofilm development in a fixed bed biofilm reactor system performing municipal wastewater treatment was monitored aiming at accumulating colonization and maximum biofilm mass data usable in engineering practice for process design purposes. Initially a 6 month experimental period was selected for investigations where the biofilm formation and the performance of the reactors were monitored. The results were analyzed by two methods: for simple, steady-state process design purposes the maximum biofilm mass on carriers versus influent load and a time constant of the biofilm growth were determined, whereas for design approaches using dynamic models a simple biofilm mass prediction model including attachment and detachment mechanisms was selected and fitted to the experimental data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActa Med Leg Soc (Liege)
March 1992
Morphol Igazsagugyi Orv Sz
October 1982