Metal recovery in mobile phone waste: Characterization of metal composition and economic assessment through shredding and screening processes.

Recycling mobile phones, including their batteries, has become crucial for environmental sustainability, but traditional manual dismantling methods are time-consuming and inefficient. This study aims to improve the pre-processing of end-of-life mobile phones (EoL-MPs) through industrial shredding and sieving, minimizing manual labor. For the first time, a sample of 850 mobile phones in an interval of 20 years (2000-2020) was collected and analyzed before and after being processed.

Development of a flow-cell bioreactor for immobilized sulfidogenic sludge characterization using electrochemical HS microsensors.

The sulfate-reduction process plays a crucial role in the biological valorization of SO gases. However, a complete understanding of the sulfidogenic process in bioreactors is limited by the lack of technologies for characterizing the sulfate-reducing activity of immobilized biomass. In this work, we propose a flow-cell bioreactor (FCB) for characterizing sulfate-reducing biomass using HS microsensors to monitor HS production in real-time within a biofilm.

Feasible HS Sensing in Water with a Printed Amperometric Microsensor.

Concern over pollution has led to an increase in wastewater treatment systems, which require constant monitorization. In particular, hydrogen sulfide (HS) is a toxic gas, soluble in water, commonly found in industrial and urban effluents. For proper removal control, fast, durable, and easy-to-handle analytical systems, capable of on-line measurements, such as electrochemical sensors, are required.

A review: Biological technologies for nitrogen monoxide abatement.

Nitrogen oxides (NO), including nitrogen monoxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO), are among the most important global atmospheric pollutants because they have a negative impact on human respiratory health, animals, and the environment through the greenhouse effect and ozone layer destruction. NO compounds are predominantly generated by anthropogenic activities, which involve combustion processes such as energy production, transportation, and industrial activities. The most widely used alternatives for NO abatement on an industrial scale are selective catalytic and non-catalytic reductions; however, these alternatives have high costs when treating large air flows with low pollutant concentrations, and most of these methods generate residues that require further treatment.

Optimization of SO2 and NOx sequential wet absorption in a two-stage bioscrubber for elemental sulphur valorisation.

Flue gases contain SO and NO that can be treated together for elemental sulphur recovery in bioscrubbers, a technology that couples physical-chemical and biological processes for gaseous emissions treatment in a more economic manner than classical absorption. Sequential wet absorption of SO and NO from flue gas is thoroughly studied in this work in a two-stage bioscrubber towards elemental sulphur valorisation pursuing reuse of biological process effluents as absorbents. The optimal operating conditions required for SO and NO absorption in two consecutive spray absorbers were defined using NaOH-based absorbents.

A Minimally Invasive Microsensor Specially Designed for Simultaneous Dissolved Oxygen and pH Biofilm Profiling.

A novel sensing device for simultaneous dissolved oxygen (DO) and pH monitoring specially designed for biofilm profiling is presented in this work. This device enabled the recording of instantaneous DO and pH dynamic profiles within biofilms, improving the tools available for the study and the characterization of biological systems. The microsensor consisted of two parallel arrays of microelectrodes.

Dynamic characterization of external and internal mass transport in heterotrophic biofilms from microsensors measurements.

Knowledge of mass transport mechanisms in biofilm-based technologies such as biofilters is essential to improve bioreactors performance by preventing mass transport limitation. External and internal mass transport in biofilms was characterized in heterotrophic biofilms grown on a flat plate bioreactor. Mass transport resistance through the liquid-biofilm interphase and diffusion within biofilms were quantified by in situ measurements using microsensors with a high spatial resolution (<50 μm).

Biofilm dynamics characterization using a novel DO-MEA sensor: mass transport and biokinetics.

Biodegradation process modeling is an essential tool for the optimization of biotechnologies related to gaseous pollutant treatment. In these technologies, the predominant role of biofilm, particularly under conditions of no mass transfer limitations, results in a need to determine what processes are occurring within the same. By measuring the interior of the biofilms, an increased knowledge of mass transport and biodegradation processes may be attained.

Conversion of chemical scrubbers to biotrickling filters for VOCs and H2S treatment at low contact times.

The purpose of this work was to evaluate the technical and economical feasibility of converting three chemical scrubbers in series to biotrickling filters (BTFs) for the simultaneous removal of H2S and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The conversion of the full-scale scrubbers was based on previous conversion protocols. Conversion mainly required replacing the original carrier material and recycle pumps as well as modifying the controls and operation of the reactors.