European Union&amp / #8217 / s Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive forms a comprehensive framework for industries mentioned in the Annex 1 of the Directive concentrating on the reduction of the environmental impacts of the industrial activities which can be implemented by the BREF Documents that provide guidelines for each sector. Among those industries, textile is a water and energy intensive one. In the present study, gains in terms of energy and water consumptions were assessed in a denim producing textile mill following the adaptation of related BAT measures. In this respect, installation of flow meters, use of semi-counter current rinsing applications / minimization of wash waters in the water softening plant, reuse of concentrate stream from reverse osmosis plant and compressor cooling waters resulted in reduction from 6,000 to 4,850 tone/day of total water consumption in the period of January&amp / #8217 / 05-December&amp / #8217 / 07. Consequently, specific water consumption in the mill was decreased from 78 to 55 L/kg textile by 29:5% which is close to lower limit of the range suggested in BREF Textile Document (i.e. 50-100 L/kg fabric). Use of waste heat from finishing wastewater streams in heating up the washing waters, heat-insulation and maintenance applications in addition to BAT measures taken for water minimization reduced specific energy consumption from 0.0100 to 0.0091 Gcal/kg textile resulting in 9% reduction in the period of January&amp / #8217 / 05-December&amp / #8217 / 07, although, energy consumption was increased from 786 to 804 Gcal/day. This achieved level of specific energy consumption was in the reference range mentioned in BREF Textile Document (i.e. 8-20 kWh/kg fabric).

Availability of data on accidents and chemical inventories, together with assessment and analysis tools is a prerequisite for integrated control of industrial accidents. Although Turkey has a developing industry, legislative measures for control of industrial accidents are lacking, past accidents are not systematically enlisted and industrial facilities and hazardous substances thereof are not properly registered. While some accident data is available in international databases, they are incomplete and erroneous. In the present study, a decision support system has been developed for collection and analysis of past accident information, assessment of current accident potentials of industrial establishments and modeling of probable accidents to reveal risks possessed thereby. The system supports web based multilingual and multi-user environment,and aims contribution of all interested parties in a collaborative manner. Information on technological accidents can be systematically archived together with reference data and visual materials. Initial data covering a time period of 30 years has been provided. The system is capable of storing hazard classifications and physico-chemical properties of substances, and providing standardized data for calculations. It can determine major-accident potential of industrial facilities as dictated by the 96/82/EC Directive of the EU and update relevant information automatically as required. An easy to use accident model for rapid assessment of off-site consequences of industrial accidents is also featured. Developed system allows integrated management of data on industrial accidents and provides decision support tools for assessing current and future accident potential,which can be used for national as well as the EU needs.

In the present study, the recovery of the indigo dyeing rinsing wastewater originating from a denim textile mill to the degree of reuse quality, which generally requires nanofiltration (NF), was investigated. In order to control flux decline and hence to maintain an efficient NF / coagulation, microfiltration (MF) and sequential MF plus ultrafiltration (UF) pretreatment process alternatives were tested. All pretreatment alternatives were optimized to reduce chemical oxygen demand (COD) and color load to NF. Coagulation process was investigated using the coagulants, aluminum sulfate (Al2(SO4)3.18H2O) and ferric chloride (FeCl3.6H2O) by running a series of jar tests. The results showed that coagulation process did not provide an effective and efficient pretreatment due to high dose of coagulant requirement. MF tests run by using 0.45, 2.5 and, 8 &micro / m membranes indicated that MF through 0.45 &micro / m pore-sized membrane is the best process providing 64% color and 29% COD removals, leading to a color value of 2493 Pt-Co and COD of 892 mg /L in the permeate. Application of sequential MF+UF filtration provided a significant benefit over single MF in terms of rejections and also permeate flux. UF applied after MF provided additional 62% color and 4% COD removals leading to 960 Pt-Co color and 856 mg/L COD. NF tests conducted using pretreated wastewater via single MF and sequential MF+UF indicated that single MF is the best pretreatment to NF and this treatment scheme provided 99% color, 97% COD and 80 % conductivity removals and satisfied reuse criteria.

Performance-based landfill design approach is a relatively new design approach adopted recently in solid waste management and applied in USA, European Union countries and some developing-economy countries like South Africa. This approach rejects the strict design criteria and accommodates a design that selects the most appropriate design components of a landfill (final cover, bottom liner, and leachate collection system) and their design details to result in the best overall performance with respect to performance criteria (groundwater contamination and stability) considering the system variables (climatic conditions of the site, site hydrogeology, and size of the landfill). These design components, performance criteria and design variables involved in decision process make performance-based landfill design a complex environmental problem. Decision support systems (DSS) are among the most promising approaches to confront this complexity. The fact that different tools can be integrated under different architectures confers DSSs ability to confront complex problems, and capability to support decision-making processes. In this thesis study, a DSS to aid in the selection of design components considering the design variables and performance criteria for performance-based landfill design was developed. System simulation models and calculation modules were integrated under a unique DSS architecture. A decision support framework composed of preliminary design and detailed design phases were developed. The decision of appropriate design components leading to desired performance was made based on stability issues and vulnerability of groundwater, using knowledge gathered from DSS. Capabilities and use of the developed DSS were demonstrated by one real and one hypothetical landfill case studies.

A risk assessment study is conducted in a denim manufacturing plant in Turkey. The study is carried out within the framework of a project on adopting the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive of the European Union. The scope of the assessment is fire or explosion risk with regards to hazardous chemicals present in the plant. The receptor of the study is defined as &ldquo / people&rdquo / which include the employees in the plant, employees of nearby plants and people in residential around the mill. A semi-quantitative risk assessment is carried out using checklist, a risk matrix and risk evaluation forms. The highest risks in the plant are identified as dust explosions, natural gas jet fires, natural gas explosions. Also, it is identified that due to several causes, in case of a fire or explosion the scale of an accident may enlarge instantaneously. The main warehouse is determined to carry the highest risk value in the plant. Mathematical modelling studies are conducted to calculate the hazard radius for dust explosions and natural gas fire and explosion. According to the results of mathematical modelling, the highest consequences could lead to destruction of buildings or severe injuries/fatalities of people within large hazard radius up to 700 m. The risk present at the manufacturing mill is communicated to the facility management throughout the study. Several suggestions are proposed to the facility management and some of them are already implemented.

The Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive from the European Union strives to achieve a high level of environmental protection by preventing or reducing the pollution emanating from industrial installations directly at the source. The Directive implies that the emission limit values should be set in accordance with each industry&rsquo / s Best Available Techniques (BAT). In the present study, water recovery and wastewater treatability alternatives developed beforehand were evaluated towards the evaluation of BATs for the management of wastewaters from a denim textile mill. For this purpose, an assessment that translates the key environmental aspects into a quantitative measure of environmental performance and also financial analysis were performed for each of the alternatives. The alternatives considered for water recovery from dyeing wastewaters were nanofiltration (NF) with coagulation and/or microfiltration (MF) pretreatment, ozonation or peroxone and Fenton oxidation. On the other hand, for the end-of-pipe treatment of the mill&rsquo / s mixed wastewater / ozonation, Fenton oxidation, membrane bioreactor (MBR) and activated sludge process followed by membrane filtration technologies were evaluated. The results have indicated that membrane filtration process providing 70 % water recovery with the least environmental impacts is the BAT for water recovery. On the other side, MBR technology has appeared as the BAT for the end-of-pipe treatment of the mill&rsquo / s mixed wastewater. A technical and financial comparison of these two BAT alternatives revealed that water recovery via membrane filtration from dyeing wastewaters is selected as the BAT for the water and wastewater management in the mill.

Ultrasonic sludge disintegration &ndash / the most commonly used mechanical pretreatment method- enables the occurrence of cavitation bubbles to extract intracellular material from the cell into aqueous phase. However, there is a lack of information on the volatile solids loading on the anaerobic digestion process performance of ultrasonically treated sludge. In this thesis work, the effect of sonication on disintegration of waste activated sludge (WAS) and an important parameter digester F/M (food to microorganism) ratio on ultrasonically treated WAS were investigated. First, preliminary studies were conducted. It was obtained that when the sonication power and time increased, soluble COD in the supernatant increased as well. Then, batch anaerobic digestion tests were conducted. Effect of F/M ratio in the digesters by using sonicated sludges at different powers was analyzed. For the sludge sonicated at high power, the methane content increased up to 55.1 % at F/M ratio of 10 compared to untreated sludge. On the other hand, methane generation rate slowed down with the increase in F/M ratio. Moreover, 10 % and 15 % increase in the destruction of MLVSS and total COD content was observed for sonicated sludges compared to the untreated sludges, respectively. In summary, both the sonication as a pretreatment method and the increase in digester F/M ratio increased the biogas production and the solids reduction during anaerobic digestion prosess. These results may have important implications for the operation of full scale systems in terms of system efficiency and operation.

A conceptual site model (CSM) is simply a description of the environmental conditions at a contaminated site and surrounding area, which provides all interested parties with a vision of the site. CSM mainly identifies the source-pathway&amp / #8208 / receptor linkage to guide for effective site characterization, risk assessment and remedial investigations. Development of CSM is complicated because it is &lsquo / case specific&rsquo / and there is no single route to follow during decision making concerning the contaminated site. Moreover, type and extent of information needed varies according to size and level of contamination and site heterogeneity. The objective of this study is to develop a decision support tool that guides the site assessors during identification of possible decision routes that can be encountered / the procedure to be followed / and the information and data to be collected at each stage. This tool also introduces interactions between CSM andsampling strategies designed for various purposes. Developed decision support tool adapts to each specific contaminated site. Furthermore, a detailed review of sampling strategies is presented as a guidance for site assessors. The decision support tool is equipped with standardized tools used for CSM development, i.e. information/data collection forms, illustrative tools and exposure pathway diagram. Information on site, geology, hydrogeology, contamination source, contaminants and receptors is collected via CSM form. Illustrative tools may vary from very simple site sketches to very complex 3D drawings depending on the needs of the specific contamination cases. Exposure pathway diagram (EPD) is used to identify all transport mechanisms and potential exposure pathways. EPD is embedded into a user&amp / #8208 / friendly decision assistance tool based on Microsoft Excel and Visual Basic for Applications. The applicability and utility of the decision support tool was tested using two case studies. Case study applications indicated that the developed methodology satisfies the objectives aimed in this study.

Evaluation of contaminated sites based on human health and environmental hazards is an essential task for the proper management of the contaminated sites. A large number of contaminated sites have been waiting for remediation all over the World. However, contaminated site remediation is generally a difficult, time consuming and very expensive process. Ranking systems for contaminated sites are useful tools to determine the remedial priority and to manage the available remediation budget in the most efficient way before the costly remedial actions are taken. To be able to have a reliable ranking result, accurate and sufficient amount of data on the nature of contamination and site characteristics are needed, which are usually not available at the early identification phases of contaminated sites, and the available data is mostly limited and vague in nature. If the available data are inaccurate or vague, the corresponding remedial ranking results can be questionable, as well. Most of the current ranking methodologies overlook the vagueness in the parameter values. The main objective of this study is to develop a remedial priority ranking system for contaminated sites by taking vagueness in parameter values into account. Within this context, development of the new Remedial Priority Ranking System, RPRS, aims to define and evaluate the current and possible environmental risks by using sufficiently comprehensive readily available parameters describing the fate and transport of contaminants in the environment and considering vagueness in those parameter values. The consideration of vagueness in parameter values was included in remedial prioritization of contaminated sites by means of fuzzy set theory. A fuzzy expert system was built up for the evaluation of contaminated sites and it was developed in Microsoft Office Excel 2007 platform, with the intention of making the evaluation fast and user friendly. Hypothetical and real case study applications are presented to test ease of use and validity of the results of the developed methodology. Results of case study applications revealed that the developed RPRS can serve as an alternative method for remedial priority ranking of contaminated sites.

A certain amount of water is required for a mine site located in Turgutlu in Western Turkey to be used in mining processes. The purpose of this study is to assess the impacts associated with meeting water supply requirements for the mine. Scope of the study involves determination of the alternative water resources, the assessment of impacts associated with each resource and the selection of the most feasible alternative in the aspect of environmental and technical effects. Three alternatives suggested to supply mine process water are surface water, groundwater and reuse of waste water of Turgutlu town after treatment. A low flow analysis of Gediz River was conducted for the evaluation of the surface water. For the groundwater alternative, Turgutlu-Salihli aquifer model was established using MODFLOW 2009.1 software and the impacts on groundwater resources were evaluated. The evaluation of the last alternative, reuse of waste water of Turgutlu after treatment, was based upon the amount of waste water generated and treatment needed. Results of the alternatives show that each alternative is applicable to supply the required water to the mine site. However, the storage of the Gediz River water in a v small dam in wet seasons to be used later in dry seasons and the reuse of waste water of Turgutlu after treatment are the alternatives with least impacts on existing water users and related ecosystems.