Sharif Digital Repository

Landfill leachate is a highly contaminated liquid generated in municipal solid waste landfills. The application of sulfate radical-based advanced oxidation processes (SR-AOP) in landfill leachate treatments is emerging due to their ability to degrade both organic refractory matters and ammonia nitrogen. In this paper, application of peroxymonosulfate (PMS), activated by Fe2+ and UV was used as an economical and environmentally friendly approach for treatment of landfill leachate. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonia removals were measured as the two primary responses of landfill leachate to UV/PMS/Fe2+ treatment system. The main parameters (pH, PMS/Fe2+ mass ratio, Fe2+ dosage) affecting... 

In current study, a meta-analysis approach was used to identify and evaluate the impact of various factors on the performance of integrated systems of anaerobic digestion with microbial electrolysis cell. In this study, related articles on the topic were systematically identified and collected according to the considered criteria, and the effect size that refers to the value of the difference between variables mean (total chemical oxygen demand (TCOD) removal rate and CH4 yield) was estimated. According to the meta-analysis, fed-batch operation mode, the range of 20< temperature ≤30 °C, metal cathodes, the range of 500< anode surface area ≤5000 cm2, HRT (hydraulic retention time) >20 days,... 

In this research, titanium dioxide-phosphorus (TiO2-P) immobilized on silica phosphoric acid (SPA) was prepared by a simple modified sol–gel method with SPA as a precursor instead of phosphoric acid. TiO2-P thin film photocatalyst immobilized on SPA as a novel high-efficiency photocatalyst was investigated to remove naphthalene as a toxic compound from wastewater. The novel resulting photocatalyst were characterized by energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) and X-ray diffraction pattern revealed nano-photocatalyst TiO2-P with the average size of 15–20 nm. EDX analysis showed the presence of phosphorus elements in the crystalline structure of TiO2 and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy showed the energy... 

An upgraded integrated fixed-film activated sludge-oxic settling anoxic (IFAS-OSA) system is a new technology for reducing nutrients and excess sludge. The results showed that the average TN removal efficiency of the IFAS-OSA system was gradually increased up to 7.5%, while the PO4–3-P removal efficiency increased up-to 27%, compared with that of the IFAS system. The COD removal efficiency of the IFAS-OSA system was slightly increased up-to 5.4% and TSS removal efficiency increased up to 10.5% compared with the control system. Biomass yield coefficient (Yobs) in the IFAS and IFAS-OSA systems were 0.44 and 0.24 (gr MLSS/ gr COD). Hence, sludge production decreased by 45%. The average SVI was... 

The nanofibers prepared by electrospinning process have high potential for the removal of toxic matters from wastewaters. In the present study, the titanium dioxide and titanium dioxide/zinc oxide (TiO2/ZnO) nanofibers prepared by electrospinning technique were coated on the sewage sludge carbon (SSC) surface for adsorption of Ni(II), Cu(II), and COD from aqueous solutions and industrial wastewaters of Iran. The synthesized adsorbents were characterized using XRD, SEM and EDX analysis. The effect of adsorbent type, pH, adsorbent dosage, contact time and initial concentrations of Ni(II), Cu(II) and COD on the adsorption capacity of synthesized SSC/TiO2 and SSC/TiO2/ZnO nanofibrous adsorbents... 

In this study, two moving-bed biofilm reactors (MBBR1 and MBBR2) filled with different size of carrier media (Kaldnes K1 and Kaldnes K1 micro, respectively) were subjected to soluble (sugar and sodium acetate (Ac)) substrate and mixture of soluble and particulate (particulate potato starch (PS)) substrate in a very high organic loading rate (12 kgCOD/m3·d) at different temperatures (26 and 15°C, in MBBR1 and MBBR2, respectively). The effects of carrier type and substrate on biofilm structure and reactor performance have been studied. Starch was removed by adsorption at the biofilm surface and hydrolyzed which caused substrate gradient in MBBR1, however, hydrolyzed uniformly within biofilm in... 

The present study aimed at investigating the biological treatment of nitrogen and phosphorus from the saline wastewater in various systems. In the end, moving bed biofilm reactor and anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic (AOA) were chosen as the best systems. In the present study, the investigations were carried out in two 24-h and 12-h retention times for three nitrogen concentrations, 200 mg/l, 300 mg/l, and 400 mg/l, two phosphorus concentrations, 14 mg/l and 20 mg/l, three Chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentrations, 800 mg/l, 1000 mg/l, and 1200 mg/l, and four salt concentrations, 10 g/l, 12 g/l, 17 g/l, and 20 g/l. The obtained results indicated that the COD removal percentage was high in a range... 

In this research, different coating methods of polyaniline (PANI) on the anode electrodes and their performance in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) were investigated. The performance of systems in a discontinuous state was studied using the high energy content dairy industry wastewater. The phase enrichment assessment was conducted under open circuit potential (OCP) and the performance of MFCs coated with PANI through three methods was evaluated via chemical oxygen demand (COD), polarization, power density, energy coulombic efficiency (ECE), coulombic efficiency (CE), and potential efficiency (PE) values. The results showed the maximum value for the power density of 28Wm-3, CE of 17%, and COD of... 

This study reports the fabrication of a new cathode electrode assembly using polyaniline (PANI) and graphene on a stainless steel mesh (SSM) as an alternative for the conventional expensive cathode of microbial electrolysis cells (MECs). With respect to the previous efforts to propose an efficient and cost-effective alternative for platinum (Pt) catalysts and cathode electrodes, the present study investigates the assessment of different catalysts to elucidate the potential of the modified SSM cathode electrode for larger-scale MECs. In the case of feeding dairy wastewater to the MEC, the maximum hydrogen production rate and COD removal were obtained by SSM/PANI/graphene cathode and had the... 

The present study shows the approach developed and employed to wastewater treatment utilizing the vermifiltration technique in a region with a population of approx. 280 people. The domestic sewage from the residential area accumulated in the septic tank was fed into the system designed based on the combination of the sand filter and the vermifilter with the optimum loading rate of 2m2 per day for 45 days. The pH, electrical conductivity, chemical oxygen demand, turbidity and nitrate concentration of wastewater were measured before and after vermitreatment for the mentioned period. The results demonstrated that the unique combination of the vermifiltration system with the sand filter was able... 

Lignocellulosic materials are recalcitrant to bioconversion, due to their rigid physiochemical structure. In this work, the effects of Fe2O3–TiO2 and NiO–TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) and FeCl3 and NiCl2 salts, on the anaerobic digestion (AD) of wheat straw have been investigated. For this purpose, metal oxide-TiO2 NPs were synthesized and fully characterized. Results showed that addition of 0.252 mg of NiO–TiO2/g total solids (TS) to batch assays resulted in increase of soluble chemical oxygen demand (COD) and 67% increase in volatile fatty acids (VFAs) concentration compared to control tests during the first 4 days of experiments. These results indicate that hydrolysis and acidogenesis rates... 

This research aimed to prepare a recoverable sonophotocatalyst, in which microfibrillated carboxymethyl cellulose (MFC) acted as the Zn-Cu-Mg-mixed metal hydroxide/graphitic carbon nitride (MMH/g-C3N4) carrier. The characteristics of bare and composite sonophotocatalysts were analyzed by the XRD, FT-IR, BET, DRS, PL and FE-SEM equipped with the EDX mapping. The performance of prepared composites (MMH/g-C3N4@MFC) with various weight ratios of the MMH/g-C3N4 was studied for the sonophotocatalytic degradation of sulfadiazine (SDZ) as the model emerging contaminant. 93% of SDZ was degraded using the most effective catalyst (MMH/g-C3N4@MFC3) with 15% weight ratio of the MMH/g-C3N4 under the... 

Microbial desalination cell (MDC) is a new bio-electrochemical technique which converts chemical energy into electrical energy, and at the same time desalinates water and treats wastewater. In this study, MDC performance and water biofouling conditions were tested as an efficient pretreatment desalination process of reverse osmosis (RO). The experiments were designed in a three-chamber reactor to compare the performance of batch and continuous fed modes, using bio-cathode and synthetic wastewater in four different hydraulic retention times and 17 and 35 g/L NaCl concentrations. According to the results, maximum salt removal of about 52.3% was obtained in the continuously fed MDC at 35 g/L... 

The oxidation-precipitation method was used for the synthesis of Fe3O4/AC. The characterization of the catalyst was accomplished by XRD, FT-IR, FE-SEM, BET, and VSM techniques. The obtained results indicated that magnetite nanoparticles were successfully prepared with cubic spinel structures and uniform distribution on the surface of activated carbon by the oxidation-precipitation method. The effect of operating parameters was evaluated to determine the optimum operating condition for the electro-Fenton (EF) removal of catechol as a phenolic pollutant model. At the optimum operating conditions (pH 3, Fe3O4/AC: 0.9 g L−1, Catechol: 8.0 × 10−4mol L−1 at I: 120 mA), the catechol and COD removal... 

The nanofibers prepared by electrospinning process have high potential for the removal of toxic matters from wastewaters. In the present study, the titanium dioxide and titanium dioxide/zinc oxide (TiO2/ZnO) nanofibers prepared by electrospinning technique were coated on the sewage sludge carbon (SSC) surface for adsorption of Ni(II), Cu(II), and COD from aqueous solutions and industrial wastewaters of Iran. The synthesized adsorbents were characterized using XRD, SEM and EDX analysis. The effect of adsorbent type, pH, adsorbent dosage, contact time and initial concentrations of Ni(II), Cu(II) and COD on the adsorption capacity of synthesized SSC/TiO2 and SSC/TiO2/ZnO nanofibrous adsorbents... 

FeVO4/CeO2 was applied in the electro-Fenton (EF) degradation of Methyl Orange (MO) as a model of wastewater pollution. The results of the characterization techniques indicate that FeVO4 with triclinic structure and face-centered cubic fluorite CeO2 maintained their structures during the nanocomposite synthesis. The effect of applied current intensity, initial pollutant concentration, initial pH, and catalyst weight was investigated. The MO removal reached 96.31% and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal 70% for 60 min of the reaction. The presence of CeO2 in the nanocomposite plays a key role in H2O2 electro-generation as a significant factor in the electro-Fenton (EF) system. The metal... 

The nanocomposite of zero-valent iron and delafossite CuFeO2 supported on reduced graphene oxide was synthesized for the first time to evaluate its performance as the heterogeneous catalyst toward electro-Fenton (EF) removal of catechol. X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform-infrared, scanning electron microscopy and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) were used to characterize the nanocomposite. It was found that the rhombohedral structure of CuFeO2 remained stable during the nanocomposite preparation. The BET surface area of the nanocomposite increased about 102 times in comparison with bare CuFeO2. The influence of the operating parameters was investigated. The optimum operating conditions were... 

Abstract: The magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles were synthesized and supported on the reduced graphene oxide. The characterization of the catalyst was performed by FT-IR, VSM, SEM, XRD, and BET techniques. The obtained results indicated that the in situ synthesis of Fe3O4 using coprecipitation method caused the homogenous formation of magnetite nanoparticles on the surface of reduced graphene oxide (average particle size ~ 71.032 nm) with high stability and catalytic activity toward electro-Fenton removal of Reactive Red 195. The effect of various factors (current intensity, initial pollutant concentration, catalyst weight, and pH) was evaluated by response surface methodology using central... 

CuFeO2/CeO2 as a novel synergistic catalyst for EF removal of organic pollutants was synthesized. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd  

Nutrient pollution has become a global environmental issue. Innovative biological nutrient removal (BNR) processes are needed to overcome the drawbacks of conventional technologies. This study evaluates the potential of a hybrid 5-stage Bardenpho - moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) process for organic carbon and nutrient removal from municipal wastewater at different hydraulic retention time (HRT) and nitrate recycle ratio (R). Response surface methodology (RSM) based on a central composite design (CCD) of thirteen experiments was applied to optimize the nitrogen and phosphorus conversion of the treatment system. High removal efficiencies of about 98.20%, 92.54%, 94.70% and 96.50% for total...