The integrity of groundwater sources is constantly threatened by contaminant plumes generated by accidental gasoline leakages and leachates escaping landfills. These plumes are of concern due to their proven toxicity to living organisms. Aromatic and chlorinated hydrocarbons, volatile fatty acids, phenols, and ammonia have been found in these leachates. In addition, benzene, toluene, and xylenes (BTX) are major components of gasoline. The lack of oxygen in groundwater makes anaerobic bioremediation desired for the treatment of groundwater contaminated with BTX and chlorinated solvents. With the objective of finding microorganisms capable of BTX and cis-dichloroethylene (cis-DCE) degradation under anaerobic conditions for their use in permeable reactive barriers, different inocula were tested in batch experiments. Toluene was rapidly degraded by several inocula in the presence of alternative electron acceptors. Benzene and m-xylene were eliminated by few of the inocula tested after incubation periods ranging from 244 to 716 days. cis-DCE was highly recalcitrant as no degradation was observed over 440 days. Biological processes have been successfully applied for the treatment of landfill leachates as well. In an effort to provide an effective and economical alternative, an anaerobic-aerobic system was evaluated using a synthetic media simulating the organic and ammonia content of real leachates. The removal of the organic content reached 98% in an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor, and resulted in the formation of methane. During the aerobic process, in an innovative down-flow sponge reactor, ammonia was highly transformed to nitrite and nitrate. Complete nitrification was eventually achieved.The capacity of current wastewater treatment plants for removing nanoparticles has been questioned during the last years. Nanoparticles have been incorporated into numerous applications and their presence in wastewater seems to be inevitable. A laboratory-scale secondary treatment system was set-in to study the behavior of cerium and aluminum oxide nanoparticles during wastewater treatment. The nanoparticles were highly removed, suggesting that secondary treatment is suitable for their elimination. The removal of these nanoparticles was influenced by the pH and organic content of the wastewater. Aluminum nanoparticles proved to be toxic; however the performance of the system for eliminating the organic content was recovered over time.

Uranium contamination of groundwater from mining and milling operations is an environmental concern. Reductive precipitation of soluble and mobile hexavalent uranium (U(VI)) contamination to insoluble and immobile tetravalent uranium (U(IV)) constitutes the most promising remediation approach for uranium in groundwater. Previous research has shown that many microorganisms are able to catalyze this reaction in the presence of suitable electron-donors. The purpose of this work is to explore lowcost, effective alternatives for biologically catalyzed reductive precipitation of U(VI). Methanogenic granular sludge from anaerobic reactors treating industrial wastewaters was tested for its ability to support U(VI)-reduction. Due to their high microbial diversity, methanogenic granules displayed intrinsic activity towards U(VI)-reduction. Endogenous substrates from the slow decomposition of sludge biomass provided electron-equivalents to support efficient U(VI)-reduction without external electrondonors. Continuous columns with methanogenic granules also demonstrated sustained reduction for one year at high uranium loading rates. One column fed with ethanol, only enabled a short-term enhancement in the uranium removal efficiency, and no enhancement over the long term compared to the endogenous column. Nitrate, a common co-contaminant of uranium, remobilized previously deposited biogenic U(IV). U(VI) also caused inhibition to denitrification. An enrichment culture (EC) was developed from a zero-valent iron (Fe⁰)/sand packed-bed bioreactor. During 28 months, the EC enhanced U(VI)-reduction rates by Fe⁰ compared with abiotic Fe⁰ controls. Additional experiments indicated that the EC prevented the passivation of Fe⁰ surfaces through the use of cathodic H₂ for the reduction of Fe(III) in passivating corrosion mineral phases (e.g. magnetite) to Fe²⁺. This contributed to the formation of secondary minerals more enriched with Fe(II), which are known to be chemically reactive with U(VI). To determine the toxicity of U(VI) to different populations present in uranium contaminated sites, including methanogens, denitrifiers and uranium-reducers, experiments were carried out with anaerobic mixed cultures at increasing U(VI) concentrations. Significant inhibition to the presence of U(VI) was observed for methanogens and denitrifiers. On the other hand uranium-reducing microorganisms were tolerant to high U(VI) concentrations. The results of this dissertation indicate that direct microbial reduction of U(VI) and microbially enhanced reduction of U(VI) by Fe⁰ are promising approaches for uranium bioremediation.

This study was carried out to gain knowledge of the degradation processes in an anaerobic environment of pre-treated waste for different degrees of pre-treatment and the evolution of waste pre-treatment by forced aeration. Pre-sorted MSW (MSW) was pretreated by composting for 16 weeks in a laboratory scale using forced aeration. Oxygen concentrations were maintained at 15-18% of oxygen in air for the first 8 weeks and 10-15 % for the later 8 weeks. The ambient temperature was kept constantly between of 20-35 QC. Representative samples of waste from the reactor were collected every fortnight wherein analysis and full characterisation on the solid matter (C/N ratio, TS and VS, R17, Biogas) and on the eluate (BOO, COD, TOC, TKN, Conductivity, pH, NOx and NH3)) were conducted. The process showed a sharp increase in temperature in the first 6 weeks, ranging from 30- 70 QC indicating a period of high biological activity, a decrease from day 30 to day 50 from 70 to 30 QC and a consistent decrease throughout the later days of the process from 35-25 QC. The sharp increase in temperature signifies a period of maximum biological activity, where readily biodegradable material decomposes as well as some of the resistant materials pointing out the success and efficiency of the forced aeration process. For the first 25 days in an anaerobic environment, waste pre-treated for four weeks was the most active, indicated by a large volume of gas produced. For the MSW pre-treated for 8, 10, 12 and 16 the volume of gas produced remained basically similar throughout the length of the experiments. CH4 production in an anaerobic reactor shows an increasing trend for all degrees of stabilisation up to 6 weeks, after that the gas production and quality deceases and is comparable to the remaining degrees of treatment. A gradual decrease in concentration of key parameters (organics) analogous to the European limit in Europa (1998), were observed after 5 weeks pre-treatment. The study highlighted that the highest efficiency of pre-treatment is achieved in 6 to 8 weeks and, therefore it is not recommended to prolong the treatment any further. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.

This thesis focuses on soft sensor development based on fuzzy logic used for real time online monitoring of anaerobic digestion to improve methane output and for robust fermentation. Important process parameter indicators such as pH, biogas production, daily difference in pH and daily difference in biogas production were used to infer alkalinity, a reliable indicator of process stability. Additionally, a fuzzy logic and a rule-based controller were developed and tested with single stage anaerobic digesters operating with cow slurry and cellulose. Alkalinity predictions from the fuzzy logic algorithm were used by both controllers to regulate the organic loading rate that aimed to optimise the biogas process. The predictive performance of a software sensor determining alkalinity that was designed using fuzzy logic and subtractive clustering and was validated against multiple linear regression models that were developed (Partner N° 2, Rothamsted Research 2010) for the same purpose. More accurate alkalinity predictions were achieved by utilizing a fuzzy software sensor designed with less amount of data compared to a multiple linear regression model whose design was based on a larger database. Those models were utilised to control the organic loading rate of a twostage, semi-continuously fed stirred reactor system. Three 5l reactors without support media and three 5l reactors with different support media (burst cell reticulated polyurethane foam coarse, burst cell reticulated polyurethane foam medium and sponge) were operated with cow slurry for a period of seven weeks and twenty weeks respectively. Reactors with support media were proven to be more stable than the reactors without support media but did not exhibit higher gas productivity. Biomass support media were found to influence digester recovery positively by reducing the recovery period. Optimum process parameter ranges were identified for reactors with and without support media. Increased biogas production was found to occur when the loading rates were 3-3.5g VS/l/d and 4-5g VS/l/d respectively. Optimum pH ranges were identified between 7.1-7.3 and 6.9-7.2 for reactors with and without support media respectively, whereas all reactors became unstable at ph<6.9. Alkalinity levels for system stability appeared to be above 3500 mg/l of HCO3 - for reactors without media and 3480 mg/l of HCO3 - for reactors with support media. Biogas production was maximized when alkalinity was 3 between 3500-4500 mg/l of HCO3 - for reactors without support media and 3480- 4300 mg/l of HCO3 - for reactors with support media. Two fuzzy logic models predicting alkalinity based on the operation of the three 5l reactors with support media were developed (FIS I, FIS II). The FIS II design was based on a larger database than FIS I. FIS II performance when applied to the reactor where sponge was used as the support media was characterized by quite good MAE and bias values of 466.53 mg/l of HCO3- and an acceptable value for R2= 0.498. The NMSE was close to 0 with a value of 0.03 and a slightly higher FB= 0.154 than desired. The fuzzy system robustness was tested by adding NaHCO3 to the reactor with the burst cell reticulated polyurethane foam medium and by diluting the reactor where sponge was used as the support media with water. FIS I and FIS II were able to follow the system output closely in the first case, but not in the second. FIS II functionality as an alkalinity predictor was tested through the application on a 28l cylindrical reactor with sponge as the biomass support media treating cow manure. If data that was recorded when severe temperature fluctuations occurred (that highly impact digester performance), are excluded, FIS II performance can be characterized as good by having R2= 0.54 and MAE=Bias= 587 mg/l of HCO3-. Predicted alkalinity values followed observed alkalinity values closely during the days that followed NaHCO3 addition and water dilution. In a second experiment a rulebased and a Mamdani fuzzy logic controller were developed to regulate the organic loading rate based on alkalinity predictions from FIS II. They were tested through the operation of five 6.5l reactors with biomass support media treating cellulose. The performance indices of MAE=763.57 mg/l of HCO3-, Bias= 398.39 mg/l of HCO3-, R2= 0.38 and IA= 0.73 indicate a pretty good correlation between predicted and observed values. However, although both controllers managed to keep alkalinity within the desired levels suggested for stability (>3480 mg/l of HCO3-), the reactors did not reach a stable state suggesting that different loading rates should be applied for biogas systems treating cellulose.

PROBLEM: Expanding knowledge of how the brain responds to various exercise types may allow for investigation and development of individualized methods of concussion management. PURPOSE: Identify differences in cerebral oxygenation recovery following bouts of maximal anaerobic, resistance and aerobic exercise. METHODS: Twenty-eight active adults were recruited, each partaking in two sessions. At the first, anthropometric measures and leg press 1-RM were determined. During the second session, cerebral oxygenation and ventilatory gas exchange variables were recorded while participants completed maximal anaerobic, resistance, and aerobic tests, and for 15-minutes of recovery. RESULTS: Anaerobic (637.41s ± 330.42s) and aerobic (689.29s ± 311.05s) exercise resulted in longer durations of time to return to baseline compared to resistance (363.07s ± 366.34s). CONCLUSION: Anaerobic and aerobic exercise taking longer than resistance to return to baseline indicates prolonged activity. Expecting equivalent outcomes as concussion management tools from differing exercise methods may be misguided and requires additional research. / February 2017

Metalworking fluids (MWFs) are petroleum emulsions employed for metal machining processes as coolants and lubricants. To date, they have been irreplaceable in modern heavy and manufacturing industries, with annual usage exceeding two billion litres worldwide. However, the large amount of MWFs, the highly concentrated complex recalcitrant and toxic petroleum components contained in them continue to cause significant concern in terms of sustainable routes of end-of-life treatment and disposal. Compared with other treatment methods, the anaerobic treatment method has significant advantages, such as the low capital, operating and maintenance costs and energy recovery. This latter factor has the potential benefit of generating bio-energy from waste organic matter whilst aerobic route leads to CO₂ emission. However, the bio-toxicity of MWFs is a huge challenge in terms of employing bio-treatment of waste MWFs. In this study, the anaerobic biodegradability of a typical MWF was investigated employing an activated sludge experimental system. Furthermore, the toxic effects of the MWF on the anaerobic ecosystem, particularly on methanogen species, were investigated using bio-molecular analytical methods and a biosensor. In order to overcome its toxicity, the indigenous anaerobic bacteria isolated from spent MWFs were employed in the treatment of the MWF since they were assumed to be acclimated to the conditions. The major findings include: (1) approximately 80&percnt; of the MWF (5,000mgCOD/L) was found to be anaerobically biodegradable, with around 35&percnt; of the biodegraded COD could be converted to methane; (2) the MWF appeared to be toxic to the anaerobic ecosystem, especially to methanogen species; and (3) however, treatment employing the anaerobic bacteria successfully reduced the toxicity of the MWF and enhanced the methane production in the process.

Challenges surrounding energy have gained increased attention, which is not least reflected in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Energy issues have also become a pressing matter for most countries in the last decades. The reasons for this are not only related to the effects of the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) from fossil fuels and their impact in climate change, but also span through other issues such as security of energy supply with geopolitical considerations and competitiveness of industry. To address these issues, a collection of public policies ranging from the international to local levels have been implemented. Sweden has historically had lower energy prices than its European counterparts, which has resulted in its industry having a relatively higher share of electricity in the total energy use by industry. The share of electricity accounts for 35% of total energy use in Swedish industry. This has led to efficiency measures being overlooked by industry, and the pulp and paper industry is by far the biggest energy user, with a share of 51% of the total energy use by industry. The variation of energy prices, and particularly electricity prices have obvious implications on the competitiveness of this sector. Production of biogas in pulp and paper mills has been gaining attention, and is now the target of an increasing number of scientific studies. The interest for this industry is not only related to security of energy supply and the environmental performance of the biogas itself, but there are also considerations regarding the biogas plant as an alternative to treat the large flows of wastewaters and other waste stream in this sector. There is an estimated biogas production potential of 1 TWh within this industry in Sweden, which accounts for 60% of the current biogas production in the country. Pulp and paper mills commonly rely on aerated biological treatment to deal with waste streams with high organic content This biological process has a high energy demand, and the integration of an anaerobic treatment, along with the use of the biogas for heat and electricity can yield a net positive energy recovery for the combined plant. This project analyses the current energy and material performance of an anaerobic biological treatment combined with an aerobic biological treatment in a recycled board mill. The anaerobic treatment is performed upstream of the aerobic one and removes most of the chemical oxygen demand of the wastewater. Energy and material balances for the plant are presented, and a comparison of the wastewater treatment plant running before and after the start-up of the biogas plant is made. The plant operation with the anaerobic digestion has shown an increased energy use of 9.4% coupled to an increased flow of wastewater of 7.7%. The average biogas production is 72 Nm³/h, which accounts for 440 kWh and is currently being flared. The introduction of AD has largely decrease the organic load in the aerobic treatment, by nearly 50%. This project ends with an optimisation model implemented with the optimisation tool reMIND to investigate potential optimisation strategies for the operation of the combined plant. The model has shown to be adequate to describe electricity use with mean error below 10%. For the biogas production, the mean error was of 16%.

Economic utilisation of biogas arising from sewage sludge is hampered by the need to remove siloxanes, which damage gas engines upon combustion. This thesis applies on-line Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to measure siloxanes in biogas upstream and downstream of the activated carbon vessels designed to adsorb siloxanes. On-line analysis provides accurate measurement of siloxane concentrations with a detection limit below the siloxane limits set by engine manufacturers, high data intensity and timely identification of breakthrough. Cost savings of up to £0.007 kWh- 1 may be realised compared to existing grab sampling. Using on-line analysis, the performance of full-scale and bench-scale carbon vessels were measured. Full-scale carbon contactors are typically operated at Reynold’s numbers close to the boundary between the laminar and transitional regimes (Re = 40 - 55). This thesis demonstrates, at full- and bench-scale, that increasing the Reynold’s number to site the adsorption process in the transitional regime increases media capacity, by 36% in dry gas and by 400% at 80% humidity. It is postulated that the change in gas velocity profile which occurs as Reynold’s number increases reduces the resistance to siloxane transport caused by gas and water films around the carbon particles, and therefore increases the rate of the overall adsorption process. In the laminar regime (Re = 31) increasing humidity from zero to 80% led to the classical stepwise reduction in adsorption capacity observed by other researchers, caused by the increasing thickness of the water film, but in the transitional regime (Re = 73) increasing humidity had no effect as no significant water film develops. It is therefore recommended that siloxane adsorption vessels should be designed to operate at Reynold’s numbers above 55. By choosing a high aspect ratio (tall and thin) both Reynold’s number and contact time can be optimised.

Title of the work: Effect of aerobic and anaerobic activities load on soldier Goals: The aim of this work is to find out and to compare the effect of aerobic activities load during 12 minutes of modified running in the aerobic zone, anaerobic activity load during 4x 10 m and 10x 10m and the results of measuring without any physical load in a research group of soldiers on the ability of assembling the sub-machine gun type 58. The partial goal of this work is to find out the effect of speed focused training soldiers on the anaerobic activity load in comparison with the soldiers of long-distance focused training. The research group: The research group is made by 14 students of Military Physical Education at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport in Prague. Methods: During the data collecting there were used the methods of descriptive analysis. By the comparative technique we tried to investigate the statistical importance of the effect of aerobic and anaerobic activities load on the ability of assembling the sub-machine gun type 58. Some measuring were used to check the soldiers during 12 minutes running and to find out the resting heart rate by using of sporttestr. The results: The recorded data can show us a big effect of anaerobic lactate activity load on the human mobility. All the 14 testing...

Este projeto de pesquisa visou à investigação do desempenho do reator UASB (10 L de volume) no tratamento da vinhaça quando submetido a aumento progressivo da carga orgânica em condições termofílicas. A carga orgânica afluente média foi de 2,79 gDQO/L.dia (desvio de 1,5 gDQO/L.dia) e média efluente bruto de 1,24 gDQO/L.dia (desvio de 0,93 gDQO/L.dia). A operação atingiu o limite de carregamento de 6,5 gDQO/L.dia, limitado pela produção excessiva de ácidos voláteis totais que atingiram concentrações da ordem de 1.200 mgHac/L, tóxicas para biomassa metanogênica. A adaptação do lodo mesofílico às condições termofílicas ocorreu no período de 55 dias, que pode ser considerado um período curto. A operação com ácidos orgânicos para enriquecimento do lodo não se mostrou eficaz, com acúmulo desses ácidos para a COV de 10 gDQO/L.dia. A operação com etanol mostrou-se eficaz para a recuperação do lodo, com COV de 8,0 gDQO/L.dia, obtendo-se eficiência máxima de remoção de DQO de 80%. As eficiências máximas na operação foram durante a adaptação do lodo, com COV de 1,20 gDQO/L.dia (92,0%) e durante a operação do sistema, com COV de 3,50 gDQO/L.dia (83,0%). O TDH médio desenvolvido neste trabalho foi de 1,34 dias. Este dado levantou questionamentos a respeito de um TDH ótimo utilizado para este tipo de tratamento, devido a grande variação de TDHs encontrados na literatura em trabalhos correlatos (entre 1,0 e 6,5 dias). / This research project had the objective to investigate the performance of the UASB reactor (10 L of volume) in the vinasse treatment submitted to progressive organic loadings under thermophilic conditions. The organic matter upload average was 2,79 gDQO/L.day (standard deviation of 1,5 gDQO/L.day) and the full organic matter average was 1,24 gDQO/L.dia (standard deviation of 0,93 gDQO/L.day). The operation reached the organic limit loading in 6,5 gCOD/L.day, limited by the excessive production of total volatile acids that reached concentrations beyond 1.200 mgHac/L, toxic to metanogenic biomass. Adaptation of mesophilic sludge to thermophilic conditions occurred in a period of 55 days, what can be considered a short period. The operation with organic acids for sludge enrichment did not seem to be efficient, accumulating these acids in a 10 gCOD/L.day. The operation with ethanol seemed to be efficient for sludge recuperation, of 8,0 gCOD/L.day, reaching maximum COD reduction efficiencies of 80%. The maximum operation efficiency was during sludge adaptation with 1,20 gCOD/L.day (92,0%) and during operation system, with 3,50 gCOD/L.day (83%). The HDT average developed in this research was 1,34 days. These data bring questions about the HDT optimum for this kind of anaerobic treatment, in correlation with significant variation of HDT used in another studies in the literature (between 1,0 and 6,5 days of HDT).