This contribution deals with a novel anaerobic-anoxic reactor for biological nutrient removal (BNR) from wastewater, termed AnoxAn. In the AnoxAn reactor, the anaerobic and anoxic zones for phosphate removal and denitrification are integrated in a single continuous upflow sludge blanket reactor, aiming at high compactness and efficiency. Its application is envisaged in those cases where retrofi...

A bench-scale soil reactor was used to study methane oxidation and EPS production under tropical conditions. The study of pertinent environmental factors affecting EPS production was carried out by batch cultivation of methanotrophs. These factors included variations in temperature (20 degrees C to 45 degrees C), soil water content (5% to 33%), and the supply ratios of methane/oxygen. The bench...

Benzyl chloride is economically one of the most important starting materials for a large number of industrial syntheses. Far too much money is now spent to buy and import this valuable product. The production of benzyl chloride has been recognized as one of our national projects and budgeted by the National Iranian Petrochemical Organization in order to economize on the country’s foreign exchan...

Conventional petroleum-derived plastics are recalcitrant to biodegradation and can be problematic as they accumulate in the environment. In contrast, it may be possible to add novel, biodegradable bioplastics to anaerobic digesters at municipal water resource recovery facilities along with primary sludge to produce more biomethane. In this study, thermal and chemical bioplastic pretreatments we...

Research on achieving Class A material through thermophilic digestion at 55 C (131 F) in a continuously fed, single reactor configuration was performed at the Districts= Joint Water Pollution Control Plant (JWPCP) in Carson. Bench-scale (8.0 l) work showed that sufficient thermophilies for seeding purposes exist in mesophilic cultures at 35 C (96 F). After stable bench-scale thermophilic operat...

The carcinogenic potential of chlorine disinfection by-products and recent changes in water quality regulations have led to a greater emphasis on alternative disinfection mechanisms. In this study, the efficacy of bench-scale and pilot-scale titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) photocatalytic disinfection was explored using four bacteriophages (MS2, PRD1, phi-X174, and fr). The optimized bench-scale exper...

In this study, we investigated the efficiency of dissolved methane (D-CH(4)) collection by degasification from the effluent of a bench-scale upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor treating synthetic wastewater. A hollow-fiber degassing membrane module was used for degasification. This module was connected to the liquid outlet of the UASB reactor. After chemical oxygen demand (COD) remov...

A computational fluid dynamic (CFD) study of methanol (MeOH) to dimethyl ether (DME) process in an adiabatic fixed-bed reactor is presented. One of the methods of industrial DME production is the catalytic dehydration of MeOH. Kinetic model was derived based on Bercic rate. The parameters of this equation for a specific catalyst were tuned by solving a one-dimensional homogenous model using MAT...

This study examines the use of a moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) as a tertiary treatment step for ammonia removal in high temperature (35-45°C) effluents, and quantifies different phenotypes of ammonia and nitrite oxidizing bacteria responsible for nitrification at elevated temperatures. Bench scale reactors operating at 35 and 40°C were able to successfully remove greater than 90% of the inf...

An economical bioreactor designed for evaluating the biogas potential of particulate biomass is described. The bioreactor uses a simple stirring apparatus, called the Bordeaux stirrer, to enable gas-tight mixing of fermentation cultures. The apparatus consists of a low-rpm motor connected to a bent steel stir rod, which is placed in a length of flexible plastic tubing inserted through a rubber ...