Publications by authors named "Robert Bair"

Developing advanced onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS) requires accurate and consistent water quality monitoring to evaluate treatment efficiency and ensure regulatory compliance. However, off-line parameters such as chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), and () require sample collection and time-consuming laboratory analyses that do not provide real-time information of system performance or component failure. While real-time COD analyzers have emerged in recent years, they are not economically viable for onsite systems due to cost and chemical consumables.

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Article Synopsis
  • Achieving safe sanitation in rural or densely populated areas can be challenging due to the high costs and space needed for traditional sewer systems; nonsewered sanitation (NSS) options, like the NEWgenerator, offer a potential solution with effective wastewater treatment capabilities.
  • The NEWgenerator combines anaerobic processes and nutrient recovery technology, providing adequate waste treatment for over 100 users, but its overall environmental sustainability and financial viability require further analysis.
  • Cost analysis shows that while using grid electricity results in lower upfront costs and higher greenhouse gas emissions, switching to solar energy increases costs slightly but significantly reduces GHG emissions; locations such as China and India offer promising cost reductions for
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Globally, there is a dire need for a new class of advanced non-sewered sanitation systems (NSSS) to provide onsite wastewater treatment that is capable of meeting stringent discharge or reuse criteria. These systems need to be simple to operate and maintain, reliable, and resilient to unreliable electrical service. The NEWgenerator (NG) is a compact, automated, solar-powered wastewater treatment system comprised of three major treatment processes: anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR), nutrient capture system (NCS) with ion exchange and carbon sorption, and electrochlorination (EC).

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A lab-scale (6.2 L) anaerobic membrane bioreactor combined with a tubular, cross-flow, PVDF ultrafiltration membrane was developed and operated to assess the long-term fouling behavior of a cyclically operated anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR). The AnMBR was operated at 35 ± 1 °C for 200 days with a synthetic influent of 501 mg·L COD to mimic municipal wastewater.

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Anaerobic digestion of food waste (FW) is typically limited to large reactors due to high hydraulic retention times (HRTs). Technologies such as anaerobic membrane reactors (AnMBRs) can perform anaerobic digestion at lower HRTs while maintaining high chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies. This study evaluated the effect of HRT and organic loading rate (OLR) on the stability and performance of a side-stream AnMBR in treating diluted fresh food waste (FW).

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Water reuse is believed to be a sustainable solution to overcome the scarcity of freshwater. Aerobic and anaerobic membrane bioreactors are becoming an effective technology for wastewater treatment and reuse. Aerobic membrane bioreactors show good nutrient removal, whereas those that are anaerobic have nutrient-rich effluent, enabling the direct agricultural use of the effluent.

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The aim of this work was to study the growth and nutrient removal efficiency of a mixed microalgal culture with and without the addition of low concentrations (0.5, 1, and 5 g L of total liquid volume in the reactor) of natural zeolite. A control test in which only zeolite was added into a similar membrane photobioreactor was also conducted.

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The potential improvement of biomethanation of food waste (FW) by adding dung of herbivore (giraffe, llama, koala), carnivore (tiger), and omnivore (sloth bear) animals to anaerobic sludge (AnS) was investigated. Adding 30% giraffe, sloth bear or koala dung to the AnS inoculum yielded, respectively, a 11.17 (±4.

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Slums are challenging locations for sanitation technologies. High population densities, a lack of water and electricity infrastructure, and space constraints combine to ensure that many traditional waste treatment technologies fail when implemented in this context. This paper proposes the use of anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs) for slum sanitation.

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AlgaeSim, a dynamic multiple-systems (C, N, P) mass balance model, was developed to explore the potential for algae biomass production from wastewater by coupling two photobioreactors into the main treatment train at a municipal wastewater resource recovery facility (WRRF) in Tampa, Florida. The scoping model examined the synergy between algae cultivation and wastewater treatment through algal growth and substrate removal kinetics, as well as through macroeconomic analyses of biomass conversion to bioproducts. Sensitivity analyses showed that biomass production is strongly dependent on Monod variables and harvesting regime, with sensitivity changing with growth phase.

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