Iranian Journal of

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Backgrounds and Objectives : Nitrogen compounds in wastewater are mainly in four types of organic, am- monia, nitrite and nitrate. Total nitrogen concentration in municipal wastewater is usually within 25 to 45 mg/L as nitrogen. The most important problem with nitrogen is its oxygen demand and human health effect.
Materials and Methods: Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (ABR) is a system in which baffles are used to direct  wastewater flow. During 9 months study, a 15 liter modified ABR (104*30*15 cm) with eight baffled com- partments was used for nitrification-denitrification processes. In the seventh compartment, the wastewater was aerated to oxidize ammonia to nitrite and nitrate.
Results : Denitrification was done in the first four compartments with removal efficiency from 60 to 84 per- cent for nitrite and nitrate, respectively. During the shock loading study (4 times of the last influent), a sharp decrease in nitrogen removal rate was observed which was then returned to the previous efficiency after 11 days. Artificial neural network was used to evaluate and process the data in which the observed error in 10 patterns was less than 15 percent.
Conclusion : Anaerobic baffled reactor with an influent of up to 200 mg/L has capability to remove total  nitrogen concentration to less than the standard level of Iranian Department of Environment of 50 mg/L as nitrate and 10 mg/L as nitrogen.

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Background and Objectives: Wet air oxidation (WAO) is One of the advanced oxidation process which reduce organic matter concentration from industrial wastewater, toxic and non biodegradable substances and, solid waste leachate,etc. In this study the efficiency of wet air oxidation method in leachate treatment generating from Esfahan Composting factory was Evaluated.
Material and Methods: The experiment was carried out by adding 1.5 Lit of pretreated leachate sample the steel reactor with the volume of 3L. The reactor then underwent10 bar pressure at different temperature (100, 200 and 300 °C) and various retention time (30, 60 and 90 min). Leachate sample in 18 stages from composting factory in Isfahan in the volume of 20 Lit was taken and the WAO method, was used for pre-treatments. Removal efficiency of COD, BOD, NH4-N, NO3 and TSS were examined.
Results: The results showed that the removal efficiency was more than 35% for COD, 38% for BOD, and 85% for TSS within one hour of reaction. The Maximum removal efficiency obtained in this study were 53.3% for NH4-N and 73.9 % forNO3-N.
Conclusion: the results indicate that the reaction temperatures are the most important factors affecting degradation of organic matter. COD and BOD5 removal efficiency by WAO process increased as the time of reaction went up. In addition, BOD5/COD ratios of the effluents, which are generally regarded as an important index of biodegradability of leachate sample, were determined and improved grately as it reached to 84%. TheWAO process presented in this paper is considered an efficient process for pretreatment of leachate, as the COD, BOD5 and NO3 reduction observed in leachate samples.

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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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Background and objectives: Formaldehyde is one of the compounds widely used in various industries hence, its discharge into the effluent is unavoidable. Exposure to formaldehyde has a significant health effects. To prevent these issues, treatment of wastewater containing formaldehyde is necessary. The purpose of this study was to determine the performance of aerobic sequencing batch reactor (SBR) in removing formaldehyde from wastewater. Methods: We used a SBR having a total volume of 6.15 liters and an effective volume of 4 liters. The formaldehyde and COD removal efficiency of SBR was evaluated by applying loading rate of 0.031 to 0.156 kgCOD/m3.h. Four cycles of 6, 8, 10, and 12 hours were considered to investigate retention time effect onto the reactor efficiency. Results: Acclimation of microorganism with formaldehyde was achieved after about 30 days. We found that a retention time lower than an hour is not enough for achieving an acceptable efficiency. The maximum removal efficiency (90.52% for COD and 95.32% for formaldehyde) was observed at organic loading rate of 0.031 kg COD/m3.h and 12 hour retention time. The removal efficiency decreased to 46.44% for COD and 69.12%, for formaldehyde with increasing the organic loading rate to 0.156 kg COD/m3.h. The maximum concentration of MLSS was measured 2863 mg / L at organic loading rate of 0.091 kg COD/m3.h. Conclusion: The results showed that SBR could be applied as a practical, effective, and reliable technology for treatment of wastewater containing formaldehyde.

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Background & Objectives: In this study, treatability of wastewater from a laundry unit was investigated by applying electrocoagulation method in which two pairs of aluminum and iron electrodes were utilized. Electrocoagulation is a noble treatment method suitable for different kinds of wastewater which has been given a considerable attentions by researchers recently. Applying direct current to two or several suitable metallic electrode in a batch reactor containing effluent would result in flocks of metal hydroxide. Materials & Methods: We studied the effect of different operational parameters such as pH, electrodes distance, intensity of electrical current, and type of electrodes on the treatment efficiencies. Results: Aluminum electrodes showed better effects on the treatment efficiencies in nitrate and COD removal. Maximum phosphate removal (99.93%)took place at pH=7 using Al electrodes. Whereas, in the case of iron electrode, maximum nitrate and COD removal efficiencies were about 97.60 and 80% at pH=9 and pH=6 respectively. Operational cost analysis showed that the corresponding costs of Al application as an electrode is different from that of iron electrode application. Conclusion: Although application of both iron and aluminum electrodes lead to obtaining considerable removal phosphate, nitrate and COD, iron electrodes could result in reasonable removals to meet Environmental Standards with lower operational costs.

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Background and Objective: Most of the dyes used in the textile industries can be toxic and carcinogenic. One of the suitable technologies to remove them is advanced oxidation processes. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the positive effect of adding oxidant Na₂S₂O₈ to the photocatalytic process using TiO₂ nano-particles immobilized on concrete and UV radiation for removal of Direct Blue71 dye. Materials and Methods: Concrete was covered by 40 g/m² of TiO₂ nanoparticles using SSP method. After selecting suitable oxidant concentration and optimum pH, initial dye concentration, UV irradiation intensity, and time, the efficiency and rate of dye removal and breaking amounts of benzene rings and COD variation were investigated in two systems of UV/TiO₂ and UV/TiO₂/Na₂S₂O₈. Results: In UV/TiO₂ system, 50.48 percent dye removal was observed at initial dye concentration of 100 ppm, pH 9, and 90 Watt UV lamp after 55 minutes and for UV/TiO₂/Na₂S₂O₈ system, initial dye concentration of 200 ppm, pH 6.9, and 0.24 g/L oxidant under the same abovementioned conditions resulted in 88.65 percent dye removal. Conclusion: Oxidant addition increased the dye removal efficiency and decreased total time for complete decolorization indicating the positive effect of oxidant on photocatalytic process in dye removal.

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Background and Objectives: Bakery’s yeast industry wastewater contains various pollutants and is generally characterized with high chemical oxygen demand (COD), dark color, high-nitrogen and sulfate and non-biodegradable organic pollutants. Having persistent soluble colored compounds (called melanoidins), effluent from yeast industry is a major source of water and soil pollution. The aim of this study was to evaluate advanced oxidation efficiency using Fenton process for COD and color removal from bakery’s yeast wastewater. Materials and Methods: This was an experimental- laboratory scale study. In this study, the effect of time and Fenton concentrations were tested for COD and color removal from bakery’s yeast wastewater. The sample used for this study was yeast effluent from Separator 2 with initial concentrations of COD and color of 5300 mg/L and 6950 pt-co respectively. In order to obtain the optimum operating conditions of the process, Taguchi analysis method was used. Experiments were carried out in five stages of the time in the range of 15, 30, 45, 60 and 75 min with various concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (e.g., 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08, and 0.1 molar) and concentrations of Fe²⁺ (e.g., 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, 0.04, and 0.05 molar) at pH = 3. Jar test method was used to determine the best operating conditions including: reaction time, dosages of hydrogen peroxide and Fe²⁺. Results: According to Taguchi method and SN-ratio analysis, the best H₂O₂/Fe²⁺ dosages were 0.08/0.04 molar at pH 3 and in reaction time of 30 min for removal of COD and color. For these conditions, the maximum COD and color removal efficiencies were 63 and 69 percent respectively. Based on the results, with increasing reaction time, there was no perceptible change in the removal efficiency. Conclusion: It can be concluded that Fenton’s oxidation method can be used successfully, as an alternative option to the design and choice of color and COD removal from strength industrial wastewaters e.g., bakery’s yeast industry.

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Background & Objectives: Excessive discharge of hazardous materials such as nitrogenous and organic compounds into the environment has negative impacts on the health of the aquatic environment. The main objective of this research was focused on evaluating the feasibility of using modified SBR reactor for the removal of nitrogenous compounds and chemical oxygen demand (COD). Materials & Methods: The experiments were performed using an up-flow continuous reactor with intermittent effluent. At first, four different cycles including aeration, settling, and decant (3, 4, 6, and 8 h) were designed for the performance of the reactor. Then, the efficiency of each cycle was determined for different concentrations of COD (250-1500 mg/L) and ammonia (40-100 mg/L). Results: Data demonstrated that all cycles had very good performances for the removal of COD. The average COD removal efficiencies of phases 1 through 4 were 91.7, 91.5, 92, and 92.7% respectively. The average NH^₄₊ removal efficiencies of phase 3 and 4 were 92.7 and 95.8% respectively. Conclusion: The performance of phase 4 (with the cycle of 8 h) for the removal of nitrogen compound and COD was particularly high. The combination of anoxic and aerobic cycles in the reactor and providing nitrate as an electron receptor had the best performance for the removal of nitrogen from wastewater. Therefore, the continuous up-flow reactor was a good alternative to batch reactor in removing nitrogen compound and COD simultaneously.