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Volume 8, Number 3
June/July 2009
NEWS
Preparing for a Drier Landscape
Corporate responsibility report urges companies to evaluate water-related risks due to climate change
Two environmental organizations, Ceres (Boston) and the Pacific Institute (Oakland, Calf.), produced a report earlier this year that examines impending risks to companies and investors as a result of water scarcity and global climate change. The report, Water Scarcity & Climate Change: Growing Risks for Business and investors, found there will be far-reaching impacts to businesses as a result of reduced water supplies and diminished water qualities, especially to companies with operations in countries that are particularly susceptible to water shortages. Based on a number of alarming global trends, which most notably include rising water demand and decreasing supplies, companies are advised to increasingly focus their efforts on analyzing potential water-scarcity impact to their operations.
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2007 Author/Subject Index
2006 Author/Subject Index
2005 Author/Subject Index
View Sample Issue | Frozen Smoke Smokes Out the Competition
Scientists say hydrophobic silica aerogels are an ideal filter medium for removing oil from wastewater
For many years, wastewater treatment plants only have had a few ways to remove dissolved and emulsified oils from wastewater, namely through the use of activated carbon absorption or membrane filtration. But scientists in Arizona and New Jersey say they have found another possible way to remove these oils through the use of hydrophobic silica aerogels also known as “frozen smoke.” The scientists discovered during the course of experiments involving aerogels and oily wastewater that the aerogels adsorbed and absorbed up to seven times their weight and had a 90 to 99% removal efficiency. They also displayed extremely low energy consumption during the oil-removal process.
A Swimming Solution
Scientists use floating vegetated mats to treat fishery wastewater and produce biomass
Scientists at the U.S. Agricultural Research Service and the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (Tifton) are researching how floating vegetated mats could be used to treat wastewater from fish production ponds. The hope is that the vegetation will remove enough nutrients, such as phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium, from the wastewater that the water can be safely reintroduced to the production ponds and the nutrients also can be used to produce biomass.
PROBLEM SOLVERS
Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor Offers More Efficiency And Supplies Biogas for Wastewater Treatment Plant
When Ken’s Foods (Marlborough,Mass.) built its Marlborough manufacturing facility, it designed its accompanying wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) to accept only a maximum daily flow of 380 m3/d (100,000 gal/d) because of limited space.
As production increased over time, so did the daily flow of wastewater, and the WWTP began to experience excessive total suspended solids (TSS) loading from the anaerobic reactor to the sequencing batch aerobic reactor. The plant soon was in danger of no longer meeting Marlborough’s limits for release of effluent (380 m3/d [100,000 gal/d]) and TSS concentration (600 mg/L).
ADI Systems (Fredericton, New Brunswick) performed a systems analysis and determined that the problem in TSS loading lay with the anaerobic reactor. In July 2008, Ken’s Foods became the first WWTP in North America to convert its anaerobic reactor to an anaerobic membrane bioreactor developed by ADI in cooperation with Kubota Corp. (Osaka, Japan).
FEATURES
Quenching the Thirst in China
Ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis help fill industry’s high demand for process water
Angela Yeung, Robert Chu, Steven Rosenberg, and Thomas Tong
In Northern China’s coastal and interior regions, water demand is high, with growing industry and population needs. The iron and steel industry in China produces 40% of the world’s steel. Water reuse and seawater desalination with integrated membrane operations (ultrafiltration [UF] with reverse osmosis [RO], or UF + RO) are being adopted to meet these water demands.
While literature strongly suggests the viability of UF as RO pretreatment for high-turbidity water, most studies are conducted for financial considerations or pilot-trial demonstrations. More operational details of commercial installations are required to support the case for UF membranes as a reliable pretreatment for industrial wastewater and for RO desalination.
BRIEFS
Quick updates on news of interest to the industrial wastewater management professional.
WEFTEC™ 09 PREVIEW
Attendees of the largest water quality event in North America can expect to find many informative technical sessions at WEFTEC™ 09. Here is a partial list of technical sessions that may interest Industrial Wastewater readers. (Schedule based on information available at press time.)
©2009 Water Environment Federation. All rights reserved.
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