Iranian Journal of

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AR-SA MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Background and Objectives: Aerobic sludge granulation is an advanced phenomenonin which its mechanisms have not been understood. Granulation can be a promising and novel biological wastewater treatment technology to eliminate organic and inorganic materials in future. High salinity is a parameter which leads to plasmolisatian and reduction of the cell activity. This could be a problem for biological treatment of the saline wastewater. Aerobic granule was formed and investigated during this study.
Materials and Methods: This study is an intervention study on the treatment of wastewater with 500-10000 mg/L concentration of NaCl by sequencing batch reactor. Asynthesized wastewater including nutrient required for microorganism's growth was prepared. Input and output pH and EC were measured. Range of pH and DO varied between 7-8, and 2-5 mg/L, respectively. SEM technology was used to identify graduals properties.
Results: In terms of color, granules divided into two groups of light brown and black. Granule ranged in 3-7mm with the sediment velocity of 0.9-1.35 m/s and density of 32-60 g/L.Properties of granules were varied. Filamentous bacteria and fungi were dominant in some granules. However non filamentous bacteria were dominant in others. EDX analysis indicated the presence of Ca and PO₄.
Conclusion: Granules with non filamentous bacterial were compact and settled faster. Presence of different concentrations of salinity leaded to plasmolysis of the bacterial cells and increased concentrations of EPS  in the system as a result  of which granulation accelerated.

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Background and Objectives: Furfural with a chemical formula of C5H4O2 is a toxic and hazardous substance for human and environment. Furfural and its derivatives such as furfuryl alcohol, alone or in combination with phenol, acetone or urea are used mainly in the production of resin. The second major application of furfural is in the production of solvents such furan and tetrafuran frequently used as a selective solvent in the production, treatment, and refining lubricants from petroleum products. A few studies have recently been done in terms of removal or recovery of furfural. Due to advantages of biological methods, the uses of theses environmentally friendly methods are being investigated in this study.
Materials and Methods: We used cyclic biological reactor (CBR) and Fusarium culmorum granules to biologically degrade different concentration of furfural and equivalent of COD under different operating conditions. The analysis was based on the measurement of furfural degradation efficiency during operational period using spectrophotometer and measuring influent and effluent COD variations using a closed reflux method.
Results: cyclic biological reactor was operated in various flow rate (Q) of furfural-containing wastewater for a different period. For all of the flow rate used, furfural degradation and COD removal efficiency was over 99 and 90 percent respectively. Fusarium culmorum granules were also exposed to different concentrations of furfural at different incubation temperatures showing high furfural removal capacity. Conclusion: Under different operating conditions of biological systems, high removal efficiency of furfural was observed, but CBR in comparison with Fusarium culmorum granules reached the optimum and desired removal efficiency in shorter time. Therefore, these systems can be developed and replaced with chemical methods to treat furfural containing wastewater.

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Background and Aim: In this study, the removal of dye blue reactive-171 by combination of advanced oxidation processes UV/H₂O₂ and SBAR has been investigated. Methods: The efficiency of chemical and biological system was first investigated separately. In chemical system, the kind, power, initial dye concentration and hydrogen parasitize and in biological system, hydraulic detention time, aeration rate, initial dye concentration and the percent removal of dye and COD were investigated. In order to investigate the hybrid system, after determination of the optimum conditions and the capabilities of each system, the removed chemical system effluent from residual hydroxide peroxide, was entered into the biological reactor. Results: In the chemicals process, 100 ppm dye using 150 Watt-UV-C lamp and 0.1 mM hydrogen peroxide at pH= 9 was completely removed in 25 minutes. COD removal was 86.7 percent at the end of the experiment (135 min). Biological system with adsorption mechanism has shown 44 percent dye removal with initial COD of 50 mg/L that indicated the system inability in biodegradation and breaking down of the dye molecule. In comparison to separate chemical and biological processes, hybrid system has shown better dye removal efficiency. The results indicated that in addition to the complete dye removal achievement, 81% of COD in the first hybrid system and 52% of COD in the second hybrid system was removed, respectively. Conclusion: According to the results, because of complexity of dye structure, biological system was not able to remove the dye as efficient as hybrid system of advanced oxidation processes UV/H₂O₂ with SBAR.