Sharif Digital Repository

The objective of this research work was to obtain a microorganism capable of decolorizing treated distillery wastewater (TDW). 21 isolated and procured microorganisms were screened for their percentage decolorization. The screening strategy was performed using three different culture media in two main steps. The primary screening was carried out in two stages. In the first stage 10 microorganisms had a lower than 25% decolorization of TDW (with 25% TDW concentration). In the second stage 8 microorganisms had more than a 48% decolorization of TDW. In the secondary screening all 3 different culture media, the effect of TDW concentration, pH and nitrogen source were studied. A fungus identified... 

Mazut as a source content of various hydrocarbons is hard to be degraded and its cracking could turn mazut into useful materials. Nevertheless degradation of mazut by routine methods is too expensive but application of indigenous microorganisms as biocatalysts could be effective and important to lower the costs and expand its consumption. Mazut biodegradation can be improved using various strategies; Therefore in this study newly isolated strain Enterobacter cloacae BBRC 10061 was used in a method of gradual addition of mazut into medium and its results were compared with simple addition method. To investigate degradation of mazut by BBRC 10061, influence of increase of mazut concentration... 

In water treatment processes, because of complicated and nonlinear relationships between a number of physical, chemical and operational parameters, using analytical models with the ability to capture underlying relationships using examples of the desired input-output mapping is quite suitable. Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) has been increasingly applied in the area of environmental and water resources engineering. The main advantage of Artificial Neural Networks over physical-based models is that they are data-driven. The purpose of this research is to study the performance of pressure filters on turbidity removal from water according to several parameters such as turbidity, filtration... 

The Jajrood River watershed is on of the main drinking water resurces of Tehran, the capital city of Iran. In addition it provides many recreational usages. However, a variety of microbial pollutions is commonly perecived in the Jajrood River, among them a high concentration of coliform group bacteria that has caused strong concerns. In this article, different aspects of microbial pollution as well as the main microbial pollution sources in the region are discussed. Coliform group bacterial die-off rates have been evaluated as the key parameters that govern bacterial fate in the watershed and were estimated using both laboratory and field data investigations. The high values of the bacterial... 

The selective plugging effect of hydrophobic bacteria cell on secondary oil recovery performance was investigated. Water and aqua solution of purified Acinetobacter strain RAG-1 were injected into an oil-saturated heterogeneous micromodel porous media. Pure water injection expelled oil by 41%, while bacterial solution injection resulted in higher oil recovery efficiency (59%). In the simulation section, a smaller part of the heterogeneous geometry was applied as a computational domain. A numerical model was developed using coupled Cahn-Hilliard phase-field method and Navier-Stokes equations, solved by a finite element solver. In the non-plugging model, approximately 50% of the matrix oil was... 

Chlorobenzoic acids (CBAs) are recalcitrant and toxic materials which enter the environment directly using pesticides and herbicides, or indirectly through the biodegradation of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) compounds. In the conducted study, biodegradation of 4-chlrobenzoic acid was investigated by Lysinibacillus macrolides DSM54T, which had previously been isolated from PCB-polluted soils. Environmental factors including pH, temperature, 4-CBA concentration and inoculation percentage were optimized using response surface methodology (RSM). 58 experiments were designed according to Historical Data, because of the arbitrary selection of experiments, and the combined effects of the... 

The current study was undertaken to compare four analytical methods including drop collapse, oil spreading, surface tension (SFT) measurements, and blood agar lysis tests for detection of biosurfactant-producing bacteria. Among 32 biosurfactant-producing bacteria isolated from Ahvaz oil fields, in south of Iran, 16 isolates (50%) exhibited highest biosurfactant production. Eleven isolates (MASH.1 to MASH.11) demonstrated a reduction in surface tension from 65 mN/m to less than 41 mN/m. The results showed that about 91% of these highly biosurfactant producers had the same response levels of "++++" and "+++" in the case of both SFT and oil spreading methods. Among these, seven isolates had the... 

A simple biofilm model based on a model suggested by Soda et al. [S. Soda, E. Heinzle, M. Fujita, Modeling and simulation of competition between two microorganisms for a single inhibitory substrate in a biofilm reactor, Biotechnol. Bioeng. 66 (1999) 258-264] was used to simulate the competition between two microorganisms for space and a single inhibitory substrate in a biofilm reactor. Different growth kinetics were used to describe the growth of two microorganisms A and B which utilize the inhibitory substrate and the effect of biofilm thickness on microorganism concentration in biofilm was discussed. It was assumed that the biofilm has a uniform thickness and is composed of N segments (N =... 

Mazut as a source content of various hydrocarbons is hard to be degraded and its cracking could turn mazut into useful materials. Nevertheless degradation of mazut by routine methods is too expensive but application of indigenous microorganisms as biocatalysts could be effective and important to lower the costs and expand its consumption. Mazut biodegradation can be improved using various strategies; Therefore in this study newly isolated strain Enterobacter cloacae BBRC 10061 was used in a method of gradual addition of mazut into medium and its results were compared with simple addition method. To investigate degradation of mazut by BBRC 10061, influence of increase of mazut concentration... 

Chlorella vulgaris was cultivated in a hybrid (two-stage) system. The effect of the transferring time from nutrient-replete phase with a low light intensity (photobioreactor) to the nutrient deprivation phase (open pond) with a higher light intensity, as well as the effect of initial cell concentration in the deprivation phase, on the growth rate and lipid content of the microalgae was investigated. The microalgae were transferred to the nutrient deprived medium at different intervals with various initial cell concentrations. Transferring the cultivated medium of the 4th day with the initial cell concentration of 66 mg L−1 into the deprivation phase resulted in a highest lipid productivity... 

There is a need to find cheaper and simpler techniques for rural water filtration system in developing countries. Using a filter made of blocks for the water treatment enables one to make vertical filters. It is expected that the amount of land utilized would decrease by more than 70 % if vertical filters were used. The operation and washing would be simpler than using horizontal sand filters as filters made of blocks would be used instead. The feasibility study focused on finding adequate materials, compositions and methods of making a block with enough resistance to water pressure, sufficient porosity for water transformation, and using inexpensive, readily available materials. A pilot... 

An enhancement in heat transfer due to nanofluids is essentially required in various thermal systems. Hybrid nanofluids possess high thermal conductivity and, have ability to embellish and enhance the thermal strength of common fluids. Our concern in this paper is to examine the innovative attributes of hybrid nanofluids like Manganese zinc ferrite (MnZnFe2O4) and Nickel zinc ferrite (NiZnFe2O4) in the bio-convective flow of motile gyrotactic microorganisms subject to Darcy Forchheimer medium. The effect of activation energy has also been taken into account. Mathematical treatment is carried out via MATLAB software. The use of MnZnFe2O4 - NiZnFe2O4/H2O exhibits improved thermal... 

The thermophilic bacterium Nocardia otitidiscaviarum strain TSH1, originally isolated in our laboratory from a petroindustrial wastewater contaminated soil in Iran, grows at 50 °C on a broad range of hydrocarbons. Transformation of naphthalene by strain TSH1 which is able to use this two ring-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) as a sole source of carbon and energy was investigated. The metabolic pathway was elucidated by identifying metabolites, biotransformation studies and monitoring enzyme activities in cell-free extracts. The identification of metabolites suggests that strain TSH1 initiates its attack on naphthalene by dioxygenation at its C-1 and C-2 positions to give...