No description available.

No description available.

The aim of this research was to investigate the application and effects of pressure on an aerobic biological wastewater treatment process. For the purpose of the investigation two specially designed, identical, laboratory-scale rotating biological contactor (RBC) units were constructed. One of these was held in a steel pressure vessel while the reference unit was operated open to the atmosphere. The treatment capabilities of the pressurized unit, as compared to those of the reference unit, were determined for a variety of organic loadings at increasing pressures up to a limit of 6 bar. During the investigation, the substrate employed was a synthetic wastewater made up frequently in the laboratory. Most of the analytical work was carried out on composite druly samples of the feed wastewater and of the two effluents produced, both filtered and nonfiltered. In addition, sludge samples from both units were regularly tested for a variety of sludge parameters. The water quality parameters investigated were the 5-day Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5), the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Suspended Solids, pH, Temperature, Ammoniacal Nitrogen and Total Oxidized Nitrogen (TON). The yield of sludge produced and certain characteristics of sludge i.e. Specific Stirred Volume Index (SSVl). Specific Resistance to Filtration, were also obtained. The quantity of air required for the pressurized treatment unit was also investigated. The pressurized treatment unit has demonstrated the capability of operating with a high level of carbonaceous oxidation and nitrification at organic loadings of up to 13 g BOD5/ m2 of disc area per day. In comparison with the identical reference unit operated at atmospheric pressure, the pressurized unit demonstrated slightly improved BODs and COD removal efficiencies, a greatly improved level of nitrification and a substantially lower sludge production. All these characteristics improved with increasing pressure.Of particular importance the sludge yield coefficient was always significantly lower for the pressurized unit than for the reference unit and results such as 0.12 kg dry solids/ kg BOD5 removed at 6 bar pressure are highly signif1cant with regard to the requirements of the modern wastewater treatment industry. Additional investigations were carried out to determine the cost of a proposed full-scale pressurized treatment unit with a design based upon the findings of this investigation. These were compared with the costs of a conventional biological treatment process capable of treating an equivalent wastewater loading. The comparison between the pressurized unit and the selected processes were made for three populations (500, 1,000 and 3,000 persons). The sludge disposal costs of the pressurized unit were appreciably lower than those for the other processes. The results indicated that the cost of the pressurized unit (present value for a twenty-year period) and the costs of activated sludge and conventional RBC processes were found to be similar for the smaller populations. However a substantial saving could be obtained with the pressurized unit for the larger populations. In addition there is an indication that the land requirement of the pressurized treatment unit decreases appreciably as the flow rate increases.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Over the last decades, arsenic (As) contamination of soil-plant-water systems has become a major concern for Bangladesh and West Bengal, India. The geochemistry of the sediment depositional environment which subsequently, on sediment burial, give rise to elevated As in Holocene groundwater’s of Southeast Asia, may provide clues to unravelling the mechanistic basis and spatial heterogeneity of this phenomenon. The Sundarbans mangrove ecosystem, Bangladesh, is a modern analogue, and indeed forms a continuum with, the Holocene sediments of concern and thus studying As cycling in surface Sundarbans sediments. Similarly, rice paddy fields in many regions of the Bengal Basin form a continuum with Holocene sediments. Sediment cores were collected from a wide range of locations within the Sundarbans to study surface spatial, as well as down the profile (~1 m), As distribution and it’s association with other geochemical parameters. Pore and surface water, and Diffusive Gradients in Thin films (DGT) were sampled from 4 different interlocked sub-habitats over 0.29 km2: major river bank, main tributary, forest floor and minor tributary. Further experiments were conducted to observe As dynamics in mangrove surface sediments on application of mangrove detritus. Finally 3 interlinked experiments (field manuring, soil batch culture, greenhouse growth trials) were conducted to assess the effect of farm-yard manure (FYM) and rice straw, at a field application rate practised in Bangladesh (5 t/ha), on As mobilization in soil and subsequent assimilation by rice. As concentration in mangrove sediment down the profile was found to be more associated with elevated Fe and Mn than with organic matter (OM), with significant spatial variations among the locations. Sediment particle size was an important factor determining As retention and mobilization, which is also true for deeper Bengal Bay sediments. Proximity to mangrove vegetation and to water bodies was found to have significant effect on As dynamics. Porewaters from coarse textured, low OM riverbank sediment were high in As, but with only a small pool of As for resupply from the solid phase, showing similarities with grey aquifer sediments compared to fine textured and high OM content forest floor sediments. The As column dynamics study showed that As release into porewater was strongly associated with Fe release, indicating the strong association of the 2 elements, with OM playing a major role in their dissolution. The desorption studies also showed OM driving As mobilization within short time. Due to strong redox cycling very little evidence of As methylation was observed in biologically active mangrove porewaters. But we found 10-fold increase in dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) production compared to a non-amended control using the same sediments treated with mangrove detritus in the laboratory. OM amendments lead to considerable mobilization of As into both soil porewaters and standing surface waters in rice paddy. In a greenhouse rice cultivation experiment, flooding initially caused greatly enhanced As mobilization in porewater (< 24 d), but the effects of flooding on As mobilization decreased during later rice growth, particularly at grain fill. However, OM amendment did not cause significant As accumulation in grain and straw compared to control. It was noted in field trials and greenhouse studies that OM fertilization greatly enhanced As mobility to surface waters, which may have major implications for fate of As in paddy agronomic ecosystems.

A field study was carried out at Ardross forest, northern Scotland where heavy metal contaminated sewage sludge had been applied to a peaty podzol at rates of 500 (low) and 1000 (high) kg N ha-1 before tree (Sitka spruce) planting. Nitrogen mineralisation rates determined by field incubation of sealed cores ranged from 3.7 to 4.5 and 7.3 to 9.4 kg N h-1 over the growing season (May to September, 1991) in soils amended with low and high rates of sludge respectively. For the control soil, to which no sludge had been added, mineralisation rates ranged from 2.4 to 2.9 kg N ha-1. Mineralisation of residual sludge was estimated to be 0.56&'37 and 1.14&'37 in 1991, 8 years after sludge application at the low and high rates, respectively. Soils brought back to the laboratory and repacked according to the field profile enabled microcosm studies to be carried out to further investigate possible changes caused to N-cycling processes in coniferous forest soil due to application of heavy metal contaminated sewage sludge, and to consider possible mechanisms of any such changes. In the microcosm study, the two rates of application of sewage sludge increased N mineralisation. A linear relationship was apparent between N mineralisation and the rate of sludge application. Increased N mineralisation was associated with an increase in active fungal mycelium, biomass N and soil animal population densities. The availability of Cd, Cu, Mn, Pb and Zn was found to be related to the time of the year, with highest availability in Spring and Summer, and lowest availability in Winter. There was no evidence of any adverse effects in terms of heavy metals on the studied biological parameters and mineralisation rates in the field and microcosm studies. Total N, pH and moisture also increased due to sludge application.