Iranian Journal of

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Backgrounds and Objectives: Untreated leachate is discharging into the environment in the many countries of worldwide. Leachate treatment methods have not been unified so far due to variable composition of leachate. Moreover, the uncontrolled management of leachate, cause many environmental dissociates. The aims of this study apply the Fenton process to decrease the pollutants of Kerman leachate.
Materials and Methods: Rawleachatewas obtained fromcompactor vehicles used for the collection of Kerman city solid waste, before final disposal. In order to removal of biodegradable organic compounds, a rector was built based on characteristics of landfill Kerman city and raw leachate underwent anaerobic treatment in this pilot. In the next stage, treated leachate in the pilot, was affected by Fenton process. The optimized parameters in Fenton process including pH, reaction time and dosage of H2O2 and Fe2+ were also studied.
Results: The results showed that TSS, BOD5 and COD decrease to 62*, 96*and 89*, respectively, after 60 days treatment in the pilot. BOD5/COD ratio also decreased from 0.6 to 0.2 in anaerobic treated leachate. In optimum condition (pH=3, reaction time=75 min, Fe2+=1400 mg/L and H2O2 = 2500 mg/L) maximum COD removal was 78 * by Fenton process. BOD5/COD ratio increased from 0.2 to 0.51 which showed an increase in biodegradability of leachate as a result of Fenton process.
Conclusion: anaerobic biologically treatment followed by Fenton processes could be assumed as an efficient process that could improved the leachate quality. Biological treatment to reduce leachate pollution alone was not enough. The most important Fenton process advantage is reduction of refractory and toxic leachate compounds and increasing leachate.s biodegradability.

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Background and Objectives: Heavy metal pollution has always been a major cause contamination of environment and considered as a major concern for food health. Rice is the most popular food among Iranians and presence of heavy metals in trace level in rice has received special attention because they are directly related to health.The aim of this research was to investigate the concentration of Pb, Cd, Cr, Ni in rice prevalent in the market of Iran.
Materials and Methods: 20 of the most widely consumed brands of Iranian rice were purchased from local market in Iran. 3 samples of each brand were collected and certain volumes of each sample were digested with acid. Heavy metal contents in the digested samples were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry.
Results :The results showed that mean concentration Pb , Cr , Ni in rice samples respectively was 0.387 , 0.683, 0.019 ( mg/kg )
Conclusion: Notably the Ni and Cr content in the rice samples was found to be below the food sanitary standards in India rice . In the other hand 50% samples content Pb was found to be upper the food sanitary (Pb: 0.3 mg/kg). The result indicated that weekly intake of heavy metal by rice was below the provisional tolerable weekly intake recommended by WHO/FAO. However, risk assessments needs considerable attention and better prevention this low pollution.

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Background and Objectives: Microbial fuel cells are the electrochemical exchangers that convert the microbial reduced power, generated via the metabolism of organic substrate, to electrical energy. The aim of this study is to find out the rate of produced electricity and also treatment rate of simulated wastewater of food industries using dual chamber microbial fuel cell (MFC) without mediator and catalyst.
Materials and Methods: MFC used in this study was consisted of two compartments including anaerobic anode chamber containing simulated food industries wastewater as synthetic substrate and aerobic cathode chamber containing phosphate buffer, respectively. These two chambers were separated by proton exchange membrane made of Nafion. Produced voltage and current intensity were measured using a digital ohm meter and the amount of electricity was calculated by Ohm's law. Effluent from the anode compartment was tested for COD, BOD5, NH3, P, TSS, VSS, SO42- and alkalinity  in accordance with the Standard Methods. 
Results: In this study, maximum current intensity and power production at anode surface in the OLR of 0.79 Kg/m3.d were measured as 1.71 mA and 140 mW/m2, respectively. The maximum voltage of 0.422 V was obtained in the OLR of 0.36 Kg/m3.d. The greatest columbic efficiency of the system was 15% in the OLR of 0.18 Kg/m3.d. Maximum removal efficiency of COD, BOD5, NH3, P, TSS, VSS, SO42- and alkalinity, were obtained 78, 72, 66, 7, 56, 49, 26 and 40%, respectively.
Conclusion: The findings showed that the MFC can be used as a new technology to produce electricity from renewable organic materials and for  the treatment of different municipal and industrial wastewaters such as food industries.

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MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Background and Objectives: leachate from municipal solid waste landfill is a strong sewage having hazardous toxic substances. It should be treated by choosing a simple, economical, and eco-friendly method. The aim of this study is reduction of COD from the Qom City landfill leachate using electrocoagulation process.  
Materials and Methods: The experimental study was carried out at bench scale using a batch reactor during 2010.  We used a Plexiglas reactor having 0.7 liter capacity, containing nine plate aluminum electrodes connected to a DC power supply (10-60V, 1-5A). Samples were collected in the middle of cell at regular (every 10 minutes) time intervals. The concentration of COD was determined using a COD analyzer. The effects of different parameters including current density (52.08, 69.44 mA/cm²), electrolyte time (10, 20,30,40,50 and 60 min), and voltage range (10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 volt) were investigated.
Results: For a voltage of 60 V and electrolysis time 60 min, the COD removal efficiency was increased from 48.7% for 52.08 mA/cm² to 77.4% for 69.44 mA/cm². The highest TSS removal efficiency was obtained at the largest current input when the voltage and electrolysis time were kept at 60V and 60 min respectively.
Conclusion: The results showed that the highest COD removal efficiency (77.4%) was obtained when the current density was 69.44 Ma/cm² and the voltage and electrolysis time were kept at 60V and 60 min respectively. Power consumption for this removal level was measured to be 431.26 kWh per kg COD removal. The results obtained revealed that the electrocoagulation technology is an effective treatment process for landfill leachate.

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MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Background and Objectives: Synthetic dyes represent one of the largest groups of pollutants in wastewater of dying industries. Discharging these wastewaters into receiving streams not only affects the aesthetic but also reduces photosynthetic activity. Electrochemical advanced oxidation processes such as Electro-Fenton process are low operational and have high mineralization degree of pollutants. In this study, we investigated affective factors in this process to determine the optimum conditions for dye and COD removal from aqueous solutions containing Reactive Blue 19 dye.
Materials and Methods: Synthetic samples containing Reactive Blue 19 dye were prepared by dissolving dye powder in double distilled water. and the the solution prepared was transferred into pilot electrochemical cell having two anode and cathode electrode made of iron and carbon. Electro-Fenton process was began by adding of Fe²⁺ ions and establishing electrical potential difference. After testing and at specified time intervals, each sample was collected from the pilot cell, and process performance was evaluated through measuring dye concentration and COD.
Results: Based on the results obtained, optimum conditions of Electro-Fenton process for dye and COD removal was determined. Accordingly, potential difference of 20 volt for dye concentration up to 100 mg/L and potential difference of 30 volt for dye concentration of more than 200 mg/L, reaction time 60 minutes, 0.5 mg/L of Fe²⁺ concentration and suitable pH for the maximum dye removal efficiency equaled 4 respectively. Under such conditions, the dye and COD removal was 100 and 95% respectively.
Conclusion: Based on the results obtained, it was revealed that Electro-Fenton process has significant ability in not only dye removal but also in COD removal. Accordingly, it was found that the effective parameters in Electro-Fenton process for removal Reactive Blue19 dye are electric potential difference, concentration of iron ions and electrolysis time.

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Background and Objective: Humic substances in drinking water react with chlorine and form carcinogenic compounds. Humic acid is a principal component of humic substances and its separation from surface waters is crucial. Adsorption process is among different methods for separation of humic acid from surface waters and because of its simple and economical nature it has attracted considerable attention. The aim of this research was to examine performance of silicon nanoparticles in adsorption of humic acid in water. Materials and Methods: Experimental study was conducted on both synthetic and real water samples collected from Zarrineh Rood River, Tabriz before its entrance to water treatment process. We used instantaneous sampling method.The chemical quality of crude sample and its humic acid was determined and then the influence of pH, absorbent amount, and time on the removal of humic acid was evaluated. Therefore, the optimal conditions for each of these parameters were determined. In order to get better insight into the process of adsorption, the adsorption kinetic and equilibrium isotherm were studied. We measured humic acid concentration and TOC using spectrophotometer (Shimadzu /UV-1800, Japan) at a wavelength of 254 nm and TOC analyzer (Shimadzu model TOC-VCSH) measured. SPSS software and regression were used for data analysis. Results: At pH=4, retention time of 10 minutes, adsorbent amount of 0.25 g/L, we found that the highest percentage of humic acid adsorption was 88.4 and 81.8 for synthetic and real solutions respectively. The finding revealed that the removal of humic acid follows Freundlich isotherm ( =0.8172) and the second order kinetic model ( =0.9936). Conclusion: Removal in both real and synthetic solutions was less due to the reaction of influencing factors. However, considering the high percentage of humic acid removal under optimal conditions and its comparison with other methods, the removal of humic acid using SiO2 can be considered as an efficient method.

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Background and Objectives: As a green fuel and environmentally friendly energy, biodiesel has recently attracted much attention and efforts are ongoing to optimizing biodiesel production from microalgae’s. The aim of this study was to determine the appropriate method of dewatering and drying biomass and selecting a suitable organic solvent for extraction lipids from biomass. Materials and Methods: After culturing Nannochloropsis Oculata in Gillard F/2 medium and reaching at the end of the stationary growth phase, algal biomass was separated from aqueous by centrifuge and drying in three methods: fore, air-dried and lyophilized. Lipid extractions of each sample was performed using soxhlet apparatus and three solvents including diethyl ether, n-hexane and n-pentane. At each stage, the quantity and quality of the extracted lipids was determined by gas chromatography. Results: In all three drying methods, palmitic acid and palmitoleic acid were significantly the main fatty acid composition of microalgae. The fatty acid composition of palmitic acid extracted by diethyl ether was significantly more than the other two solvents. Maximum production of triglyceride was observed in air dried and lyophilized (using diethyl ether solvent) microalgae as 75.03 and 76.72 % of fatty acid respectively. Conclusion: The use of lyophilized method for dewatering and drying of biomass and diethyl ether as solvent for the extraction of lipids from biomass yielded more compared with other methods studied in this paper and would be more efficient in research works related to the production of biodiesel from microalgae’s lipid.

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Background and Objective: Phenol and phenol derivatives in industrial wastewater are among the pollutants with priorities. The high cost and low efficiency of some routine treatment processes of industrial wastewater has limited their use. One of the new methods under consideration is, nowadays, adsorption using carbon nanotubes. This study was conducted in order to evaluate the application of alumina-coated multiwall carbon nanotubes in eliminating phenol from synthetic wastewater. Materials and Methods: This study was performed in laboratory at batch scale. Multi-wall carbon nanotubes were coated with Alumina. The concentration of phenol was determined by spectrophotometer through photometry. The effect of pH changes, dosage of adsorbent, contact time, the initial concentration of phenol, temperature, and the concentrations of different salts on the efficiency of absorption was evaluated. Then, the absorption results were described using the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms and the synthetics of absorption. Results: It was found that absorption efficiency increased significantly by decreasing the initial concentration of phenol and pH and by increasing the carbon nanotube dosage, temperature, and contact time. On the other hand, the maximum elimination of phenol from the solution (98.86%) occurred at 4 mg/l phenol concentration, under acidic conditions (pH=3), at adsorbent dosage of 0.05 g/l, at temperature of 45°C, and contact time of 10 min. Evaluation of the regressions isotherms showed that the process follows the Langmuir model and second-degree synthetic absorption. Conclusion: The high efficacy (98%) of the adsorption process in this study showed that alumina-coated multiwall carbon nanotubes have a good capability in eliminating phenol and can be used as an appropriate and new method for eliminating phenol and its derivatives from wastewater.