Many wastewater treatment plants in the USA, which were originally designed as secondary treatment systems with no or partial nitrification requirements, are facing increased flows, loads, and more stringent ammonia discharge limits. Plant expansion is often not cost-effective due to either high construction costs or lack of land. Under these circumstances, integrated fixed-film activated sludge (IFAS) systems using both suspended growth and biofilms that grow attached to a fixed plastic structured sheet media are found to be a viable solution for solving the challenges. Multiple plants have been retrofitted with such IFAS systems in the past few years. The system has proven to be efficient and reliable in achieving not only consistent nitrification, but also enhanced bio-chemical oxygen demand removal and sludge settling characteristics. This paper presents long-term practical experiences with the IFAS system design, operation and maintenance, and performance for three full-scale plants with distinct processes; that is, a trickling filter/solids contact process, a conventional plug flow activated sludge process and an extended aeration process.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wst.2014.397 | DOI Listing |
Environ Health Insights
January 2025
Department of Environmental Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Injibara University, Injibara, Ethiopia.
Background: Wastewater treatment is crucial to protecting public health and the environment by removing Biohazards. In Ethiopia, however, significant research gaps limit progress, especially regarding the efficiency of Biohazard removal in existing treatment facilities. This review evaluates the effectiveness of current treatment methods for Biohazard removal, highlights key challenges, and offers recommendations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEuro Surveill
January 2025
Department for Communicable Disease Prevention and Control, Chief Sanitary Inspectorate, Warsaw, Poland.
In October and December 2024, circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) was detected from two wastewater samples in Poland during routine environmental surveillance. The first isolate was characterised and matched previous cVDPV2 isolates detected in Spain in September, as well as in Germany, Finland, and the United Kingdom in November and December 2024. In response to the event, active surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) has been strengthened, and the frequency of environmental sample collection has been increased.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Res
January 2025
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457, P.R. China.
Herein, a biochar-supported zero-valent iron (ZVI) nanosheet catalyst (Fe@BC) for the activation of persulfate to degrade ciprofloxacin (CIP) was prepared using industrial kraft lignin and Fenton sludge as carbon and iron sources, respectively. Fe@BC showed considerably better CIP degradation efficiency (96.9% at 20 mg·L) than traditional catalysts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWater Res
December 2024
Deptartment of Biotechnology, Delft University of Technology, Van der Maasweg 9, Delft, HZ 2629, the Netherlands; Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Center for Microbial Communities, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.
Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS) are ubiquitous in biological wastewater treatment (WWT) technologies like activated sludge systems, biofilm reactors, and granular sludge systems. EPS recovery from sludge potentially offers a high-value material for the industry. It can be utilized as a coating in slow-release fertilizers, as a bio-stimulant, as a binding agent in building materials, for the production of flame retarding materials, and more.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAppl Biochem Biotechnol
January 2025
Department of Biotechnology-CBS, Metropolitan Autonomous University Iztapalapa, Av. Ferrocarril San Rafael Atlixco 186, 09310, Mexico City, Mexico.
The presence of antibiotics in wastewater discharges significantly affects the environment, mainly due to the generation of bacterial populations with multiple antibiotic resistances. The cometabolic capacity of nitrifying sludge to simultaneously remove ammonium (NH) and emerging organic contaminants (EOCs), including antibiotics, has been reported. In the present study, the removal capacity of 50 mg ampicillin (AMP)/L by nitrifying cultures associated with biosorption and biotransformation processes was evaluated in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) system.
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