International E-publication: Publish Projects, Dissertation, Theses, Books, Souvenir, Conference Proceeding with ISBN.  International E-Bulletin: Information/News regarding: Academics and Research

Tracing Carbon Footprint in the Wastewater Treatment Plant

Author Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Applied Engineering and Urban Planning, University of Palestine, 1075, PALESTINE

Int. Res. J. Environment Sci., Volume 4, Issue (12), Pages 8-16, December,22 (2015)

Abstract

The greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) can all be produced in wastewater treatment operations. Major progress has been encountered for estimating (N2O) and (CH4) emissions from wastewater treatment plants, yet, limited number of studies considered CO2. One problem with the mass balance technique in the Activated Sludge lies in satisfactorily measuring waste activated sludge volumes and in obtaining representative samples for analysis. A traditional mass balance approach for analyzing the performance of the activated sludge secondary clarifier does not account for variations in sludge depth and suspended solids concentrations within different layers. In turn, a gap in knowledge is present in closing the Carbon mass balance within the Activated Sludge system. In this essence, the main focus of this research is to quantify the carbon dioxide emissions from the Aeration Tank in the biological treatment. This will be achieved by generating a full-scale of accurate measures to precisely simulate the SC behavior aiming at determining the fate of the CO2 through the Activated Sludge system. Results from this research attained a reasonable carbon balance closure of 95%.

References

  1. Hofman J., Hofman-Caris R., Nederlof M., Frijns J., Van Loosdrecht, M., Water and energy as inseparable twins for sustainable solutions, Journal of Water Science and Technology,63, 88-9 (2011)
  2. Mairi J., Lyimo T. and Njau K., Performance of subsurface flow constructed wetland for domestic wastewater treatment, Tanzania Journal of Science, 38(2), 66-79 (2012)
  3. Durai G. and M. Rajasimman, Biological Treatment of Tannery Wastewater-A Review, Journal of Environmental Science and Technology,4, 1-17 (2011)
  4. Majewsky M., Farlin J., Bayerle M. and Galle T., A case study on the accuracy of mass balances for xenobiotics in full scale wastewater treatment plants, Environmental Science Process Impacts,15(4), 730–738 (2013)
  5. Lim J., Sankarrao B., Oh T., Kim M., Kang O., Kim J. and Yoo C., Estimation of nitrous oxide emissions (GHG) from wastewater treatment plants using closedloop mass balance and date reconciliation, Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering,29(9), 1123-1128 (2012)
  6. Law Y., Ye L., Pan Y. and Yuan Z., Nitrous oxide emissions from wastewater treatment plant processes, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 5, 1265-1277 (2012)
  7. Bakiri Z. and Nacef S., A Simple Model for Secondary Clarifier: Application to Wastewater Treatment Plant, Journal of Desalination and Water Treatment,51(7-9),1571-1576 (2013)
  8. Geissen S.u., Untersuchungen zur Überschussschlammproduktion biologischer Abwasser-reinigungssysteme (Investigations on the excess sludge production of biological wastewater treatment systems), Dissertation, S. 31-34, TU-Clausthal-Germany, (1990)