Guidelines for surfactant selection to treat petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated soils

The present study determined the most effective surfactants to remediate gasoline and diesel-contaminated soil integrating information from soil texture and soil organic matter. Different ranges for aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons (> C6-C8, > C8-C10, > C10-C12, > C12-C16, > C16-C21, and > C21-C35) in gasoline and diesel fuel were analyzed. This type of analysis has been investigated infrequently. Three types of soils (silty clay, silt loam, and loamy sand) and four surfactants (non-ionic: Brij 35 and Tween 80; anionic: SDBS and SDS) were used. The results indicated that the largest hydrocarbon desorption was 56% for silty clay soil (SDS), 59% for silt loam soil (SDBS), and 69% for loamy sand soil (SDS). Soils with large amounts of small particles showed the worst desorption efficiencies. Anionic surfactants removed more hydrocarbons than non-ionic surfactants. It was notable that preferential desorption on different hydrocarbon ranges was observed since aliphatic hydrocarbons and large ranges were the most recalcitrant compounds of gasoline and diesel fuel components. Unlike soil texture, natural organic matter concentration caused minor changes in the hydrocarbon removal rates. Based on these results, this study might be useful as a tool to select the most cost-effective surfactant knowing the soil texture and the size and chemical structure of the hydrocarbons present in a contaminated site.

Influence of different anoxic time exposures on active biomass, protozoa and filamentous bacteria in activated sludge

Medium-sized wastewater treatment plants are considered too small to implement anaerobic digestion technologies and too large for extensive treatments. A promising option as a sewage sludge reduction method is the inclusion of anoxic time exposures. In the present study, three different anoxic time exposures of 12, 6 and 4 hours have been studied to reduce sewage sludge production. The best anoxic time exposure was observed under anoxic/oxic cycles of 6 hours, which reduced 29.63% of the biomass production compared with the oxic control conditions. The sludge under different anoxic time exposures, even with a lower active biomass concentration than the oxic control conditions, showed a much higher metabolic activity than the oxic control conditions. Microbiological results suggested that both protozoa density and abundance of filamentous bacteria decrease under anoxic time exposures compared to oxic control conditions. The anoxic time exposures 6/6 showed the highest reduction in both protozoa density, 37.5%, and abundance of filamentous bacteria, 41.1%, in comparison to the oxic control conditions. The groups of crawling ciliates, carnivorous ciliates and filamentous bacteria were highly influenced by the anoxic time exposures. Protozoa density and abundance of filamentous bacteria have been shown as promising bioindicators of biomass production reduction.

Influence of an oxic settling anoxic system on biomass yield, protozoa and filamentous bacteria

An oxic settling anoxic system coupled with an activated sludge process has been studied to reduce sewage sludge production. The reduction of sludge yield, excess sludge production and active biomass yield were 51.7%, 52.9% and 67.1%, respectively, compared with the control system. The oxic reactor of the oxic settling anoxic system, even with a lower active biomass concentration than the oxic reactor of control system, showed a higher metabolic activity in their active biomass. Diversity and crawling ciliates group have been shown as promising bioindicators of active biomass yield reduction. The identification of floc-forming bacteria in the control system suggested that oxic settling anoxic system will improve settling properties compared to a Conventional Activated Sludge process.

Biomass stabilization in the anaerobic digestion of wastewater sludges

Sludge stabilization processes include both volatile solid destruction and biomass stabilization. Traditionally, both processes have been considered together, in such a way that, when volatile solid destruction is achieved, the biomass is considered stabilized. In this study, volatile solids reduction and biomass stabilization in the anaerobic digestion of primary, secondary and mixed sludges from municipal wastewater treatment plants were researched in batch cultures by measurements of suspended solids and suspended lipid-phosphate. The estimated kinetic constants were higher in all sludge types tested for the biomass stabilization process, indicating that volatile solids destruction and biomass stabilization are not parallel processes, since the latter one is reached before the former.

Anaerobic digestion of dairy wastewater by inverse fluidization: the inverse fluidized bed and the inverse turbulent bed reactors

This paper describes the application of the inverse fluidization technology to the anaerobic digestion of dairy wastewater. Two reactors were investigated: the inverse fluidized bed reactor and the inverse turbulent reactor. In these reactors, a granular floating solid is expanded by a down-flow current of effluent or an up-flow current of gas, respectively. The carrier particles (Extendospheres) were chosen for their large specific surface area (20,000 m2m(-3)) and their low energy requirements for fluidization (gas velocity of 1.5 mm s(-1), 5.4 m h(-1)). Organic load was increased stepwise by reducing hydraulic retention time from more than 60 days to 3 days, while maintaining constant the feed COD concentration. Both reactors achieved more than 90% of COD removal, at an organic loading rate of 10-12 kgCOD m(-3) d(-1), respectively. The performances observed were similar or even higher than that of other previously tested fluidized bed technologies treating the same wastewater. It was found that the main advantages of this system are: low energy requirement, because of the low fluidization velocities required; there is no need of a settling device, because solids accumulate at the bottom of the reactor, so they can be easily drawn out and particles with high-biomass content can be easily recovered. Lipid phosphate concentration has been revealed as a good method for biomass estimation in biofilms since it only includes living biomass.