A novel approach for resource recovery includes forward osmosis (FO) as a concentration step in municipal wastewater treatment. The current study investigates different pre-treatment strategies including biological treatment with a moving-bed bioreactor (MBBR) at different loading rates and particle removal by filtration and sedimentation. Membrane performance and recovery potential for energy and nutrients were investigated in laboratory-scale FO experiments in batch mode using pre-treated municipal wastewater as feed and 35 g/L NaCl as a draw solution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeawater, as an alternative magnesium source, has the potential to improve the overall economics and environmental footprint of struvite production compared to the use of pure magnesium salts. However, the dilution effect and the presence of other ions in seawater can reduce the phosphorus recovery potential and the simultaneous precipitation of other compounds may reduce the quality of the produced struvite. This work presents a comparative study of seawater and MgCl by performing a series of thermodynamic equilibrium modeling and crystallization experiments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere could be several options a water treatment plant (WTP) can select from, if an improvement in treated water quality (WQ) is desired. This paper outlines a methodology to test a variety of approaches to accomplish pre-set goals as regards WQ, while adopting a triple bottom line approach. This approach, in a nutshell, takes into consideration economic, environmental and social aspects in decision-making.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF2,4-Dihydroxybenzoic acid (2,4-DHBA) is found frequently as a pollutant in natural waters and represents a threat to water quality because it is a precursor to the formation of quinones which are highly toxic. The degradation of 2,4-DHBA using the vacuum UV photolysis of water has been investigated. Irradiation was carried out in an annular photoreactor equipped with a Xe-excimer lamp situated in the centre and emitting at 172 nm.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHydrogen peroxide evolution during the vacuum-ultraviolet (V-UV, 172 nm) photolysis of water is considerably affected by the presence of oxalic acid (employed as a model water pollutant) and striking differences are observed in the absence and in the presence of dioxygen.
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