Research Abstracts

NaOH treatment on oil palm frond (OPF) to improve its heavy metal sorption was investigated. OPF was treated with between 0.1 and 1.1 M of NaOH for up to 5 h. For the sorption study, 1.0 g of the sorbent was in contact with 250 ml of 100 mg/l Zn and Cu solutions. Response surface methodology (RSM) w

The effect that biofiltration had on the fouling behaviour of several commercial nanofiltration (NF) membranes used for drinking water treatment was investigated using a bench-scale set-up. A dual-media anthracite-sand biofilter was used to pretreat a humic acid-laden solution spiked with a solution

The work describes a study of the oxidation power of nitrogen-doped titanium dioxide (TiO2) suspensions for photocatalytic degradation of the herbicides RS-2-(4-chloro-o-tolyloxy)propionic acid (mecoprop) and (4-chloro-2methylphenoxy)acetic acid (MCPA) using various light sources. The nitrogen-doped

Biosorption of lead(II) ions onto Phaseolus vulgaris L. waste was investigated with the variation in the parameters of pH, contact time, biosorbent and lead(II) concentrations and temperatures. The nature of the possible biosorbent and metal ion interactions was examined by the FTIR technique. The l

The start-up of a pilot-scale membrane bioreactor equipped with submerged ultrafiltration membranes to treat municipal wastewater has been studied. Attention has been paid to determine membrane separation effects on biomass development in a reactor operated without inoculation. Moreover, the activat

In order to determine the suitability of an ultrafiltration membrane module (OmexellTM SFP2660) to different feed waters, the filtrate quality and the operation status of the module were studied comparatively when it was fed with raw seawater, coagulated seawater and cooling tower blowdown (CTB) res

This pilot train study compares the biofouling potential of two river waters that had been subjected to different pretreatment schemes conducting to equivalent microbial cells contents but different total and biodegradable organic carbon concentrations. Permeability and pressure drop of nanofiltrati

A thermal vapor compressor (TVC) that is to be adopted for use in a multi-effect desalination (MED) plant is designed with a high entraining performance and is appraised with respect to its stability robustness of operating in the double choking region under abrupt changes in the operating condition

Previously we reported on the selective simultaneous separation of the substrates and products of a transesterification reaction (vinyl butyrate, 1-butanol, butyl butyrate and butyric acid) through supported liquid membranes (SLMs) based on 1-n-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium cations combined with tetrafl

Decolorization of wastewater containing direct dye (Sirius Blue SBRR) by ozonization was studied in an attempt to abate pollution caused by textile dyeing houses and dye-producing plants. The decolorization process of the direct dye was carried out by bubbling ozone at the bottom of a bubble column