Over the past decade much information has been published on the analysis of organics extracted from treated water. Certain of these organics have been shown to be by-products of the chlorination disinfection process and to possess harmful effects at high concentrations. This has resulted in increased interest in alternative disinfection processes, particularly ozonation. The data on organics ha...

Treatment of municipal wastewater results worldwide in the production of large amounts of sewage sludge. The major part of the dry matter content of this sludge consists of nontoxic organic compounds, in general a combination of primary sludge and secondary (microbiological) sludge. The sludge also contains a substantial amount of inorganic material and a small amount of toxic components. There...

Raw surface and ground waters used for drinking purposes can vary markedly in their chemical and biological composition. Inorganic content (such as salt, bicarbonate, clay and metal ions), organic content (natural organic matter and anthropogenic compounds, including pollutants) and micro-organisms present in raw water are key drivers for treatment processes that provide for safe and aesthetica...

Fast pyrolysis of rice husk was performed in a spout-fluid bed to produce water-soluble organics. The effects of mineral bed materials (red brick, calcite, limestone, and dolomite) on yield and quality of organics were evaluated with the help of principal component analysis (PCA). Compared to quartz sand, red brick, limestone, and dolomite increased the yield of the water-soluble organics by 6-...

The activated sludge process is commonly used to treat wastewater by aerobic oxidation of organic pollutants into carbon dioxide and water. However, several nonoxidative mechanisms can also contribute to removal of organics. Sorption onto activated sludge can remove a large fraction of the colloidal and particulate wastewater organics. Intracellular storage of, e.g., polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA)...

Over the past 115 years the invention of a compression ignition engine by Rudolph Diesel in the 1890s has contributed significantly to the productivity of many nations, owing to the widespread use of larger diesel powered equipment in most industrial activities. The down-side in terms of occupational health has been the exposure of a large number of workers to the complex mixture of toxic, gase...

A method to estimate the content of selenium in organics was introduced based on reversed phase-high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC).The maximum absorption peak of piazselenol was at 330 nm and the optimized temperature and pH value were 40 degrees C and 2.8, respectively. The minimum detection concentration of selenium(IV) was 0.06 microg/mL and the measurable range was 0.12-12.0 m...

Quantification of risks to the ecosystem is necessary for cost-effective remediation strategies. Contaminant endpoints need to be established that consider the bioavailability of toxicants in soil. The challenge is to develop methods that assign risk to the bioavailable toxic contaminants, thereby protecting ecosystems, while balancing remediation costs. Our objective was to evaluate changes in...

The deep oxidation of toxic organics and chemical warfare (CW) agent simulants using Pd/C and dioxygen or hydrogen peroxide at 80−90°C was recently demonstrated by Sen et al. This process offers a chemical means of destroying CW materials in a manner traditionally achievable only by incineration. Our investigations of the common simulant dimethyl methylphosponate (DMMP) have shown mineralizatio...