Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Removal'

Shadows are ubiquitous in image and video, and their removal is of interest in both Computer Vision and Graphics. In this thesis, four methods for interactive shadow removal from single images are presented. Their improvements are made in user interaction, quality and robustness of shadow removal. We also show our state-of-the-art ground truth data set with variable scene categories for shadow removal and applications for shadow editing and its extension to video data processing.

Space or orbital debris are polluting the space environment and are a result of derelict satellites and rockets and the debris resulting from their explosions and collisions with one another. According to the ESA and NASA, there are more than 23,000 items in orbit that are bigger than 10 cm (4 inches) across, and hundreds of thousands of items between 1 cm and 10 cm (0.4 to 4 inches) across. Most debris is concentrated at an altitude of 500 miles {800km) in LEO, posing the highest risk. In 2014, the ISS had to move three times to avoid collision with space debris. Debris travels on average at 25,000 km (15,600 miles) per hour, so even an object of small mass has the potential to cripple a satellite or punch a hole in the International Space Station (ISS). Being hit by a 'sugar-cube' of space debris is the equivalent of standing next to an exploding hand-grenade. 5cm or larger debris as 5cm is the lower limit of today's tracking capability and 5cm or larger has the ability to cause catastrophic damage. Studies have concluded that debris in LEO will grow over time due to collisions between large objects. Spent rocket upper stages and unused satellites can produce more fragments. This project explores the various concepts and pursuits available today on tackling the space debris problem. The system proposed in this paper is a space-based laser system named SHARK. The mission will detect and remove debris classified as catastrophic to current and future missions. The emitted laser will vaporize a thin film of matter off the surface of debris. The resulting high-speed plasma would act like a rocket plume, nudging the debris downward to eventually burn up in Earth's atmosphere. The spacecraft will also have an onboard debris tracking and targeting system to work in conjunction with the laser.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2004.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-102). Also available in electronic version. Access restricted to campus users.

During algac blooms, coagulation is frequently unsuccessful resulting in poor flotation duc to complex algal character. 11iis thesis cxplorcs tlic link between algal character and conventional treatment and the potential for developing morc appropriatc algac trcatmcnt tcclinologics. Specifically, dissolvcd air flotation (DAF) that has bccn adaptcd by dosing cationic clicmicals to the saturator to modiry bubbic surfaccs, such that it docs not rcly on coagulation, is invcstigatcd. 1'his proccss is tcrmcd PosiDAF. Analysis of dissolved algogcnic organic mattcr (AOM) extracted from problcmatic species enabled investigation of the impact of morphology and AOM on coagulation- flocculation-flotation. Both increasing surface area and charge density of algae systcrns, werc rclatcd to increasing coagulant dcmand. Application of the appropriate coagulant dcmand ensured removal of all thrcc components - cclls, AOM and coagulant. Maintaining the zcta potential bct-%vccn -10 mV and +2 mV ensured optimum rcmoval was obtained. PosiDAF trials were conducted by dosing chemicals that had previously been shown to alter bubble charge, including co3gulant, surfactant and polymer, to the saturator. Coagulants were unsuitable for use in PosiDAF as they did not remain at the bubble surface. Highly hydrophobic, cationic surfactants were observed to remove cells according to a theoretical model, such that removal improved with increasing bubbic: particic ratio and with cell size. The polymer, polyDADNIAC, achieved greater removal cfficiencies than those predicted theoretically, attributed to an increase in the swept volume of the bubble. However, polyDADMAC was sensitive to changes in AOM composition. A chemical that combines attributes of both surfactant and polyDADMAC may overcome the barriers to PosiDAF implementation.

Thesis (B.S.)--California Polytechnic State University, 2009.
Project advisor: James Meagher. Title from PDF title page; viewed on Jan. 20, 2010. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on microfiche.

This study aims to examine the throughput of nanoparticles through a Cladophora cellulose based virus removal filter. The effect of Brownian motion and flow velocity on the retention of 5 nm gold nanoparticles, 12.8 nm dextran nanoparticles and 28 nm ΦX174 bacteriophages was examined through MATLAB simulations and filtration experiments. Modeling of Brownian motion at different flow velocities was performed in MATLAB by solving the Langevin equation for particle position and velocity for all three types of particles. The motion of all three particle types was shown to be constrained at local flow velocities of 1∙10-2 m/s or greater. The constraint was greatest for ΦX174 bacteriophages, followed by dextran particles and then gold particles as a result of particle diameter. To verify the effect experimentally, virus removal filters were prepared with a peak pore width of 23 nm. Filtration experiments were performed at different flux values where gold and dextran particles did not exhibit any difference in retention between fluxes. However, a significant amount of gold and dextran particles were removed by the filter despite being smaller than the measured pore size. A decrease in retention with filtrated volume was observed for both particle types. Filtration of ΦX174 bacteriophages exhibited a difference in retention at different fluxes, where all bacteriophages where removed at a higher flux. The results from both simulations and experiments suggest that the retentive mechanism in filtering is more complex than what can be described only by size exclusion sieving, Brownian diffusion and hydrodynamic constraint of particles.

Pharmaceuticals that are intended for human use are frequently detected in the aquatic environment. This is predominantly from the excretion of pharmaceuticals by patients, in their urine and faeces, which subsequently enter sewage treatment plants. Sewage treatment provides a final opportunity for pharmaceutical removal, prior to discharge into the environment, however, removal is often incomplete. Once in the environment, pharmaceuticals have the potential to cause effects on aquatic organisms. Sewage treatment plants, that are designed to meet statutory discharge consents for nutrients, are increasing in number. These plants, capable of biological nutrient removal, are understudied for the removal efficiencies of pharmaceuticals. This thesis presents research findings on the behaviour, fate and removal of selected pharmaceuticals in a bespoke laboratory rig, and in operational biological nutrient removal sewage treatment plants. Pharmaceuticals possessing a broad range of physical and chemical properties were selected for this research, they included: salicylic acid, caffeine, propranolol, diclofenac and carbamazepine. Sensitive chromatographic methods were developed to quantify the analytes in a laboratory sequencing batch reactor rig and in operational plants. Radiolabelled 14C isotopes of salicylic acid, caffeine, propranolol and diclofenac were dosed into the laboratory rig. The compounds exhibited different behaviours during a simulated sewage treatment process. Salicylic acid and caffeine produced the highest amount of biodegradation, with 25.2% and 14.5% of the radiolabel mineralised to 14CO2 in the rig. However, parent degradation is likely to have been higher, since neither compound could be detected in the effluent by specific chemical analysis. These findings were replicated in the operational sewage treatment plants, with > 97% removal of both pharmaceuticals, in all three plants investigated. Propranolol and diclofenac were less affected by biodegradation processes, and produced 3.7% and 0.2% mineralisation, respectively, in the laboratory rig. Furthermore, 33.8% of the radioactivity associated to 14C propranolol was detected in the rig solids. These compounds showed insignificant removal from two operational plants; 6.8% and 20.9% (propranolol) and -0.9% and -39.4% (diclofenac). Monitoring of operational plants showed that concentrations of propranolol were highest in the activated sludge tanks at all three sites. This supports the findings from the rig, that propranolol interacts with the sludge, which might be more significant in plants with lower sludge wastage rates, such as sequencing batch reactors. This could have implications for the terrestrial environment, and therefore, terrestrial risk assessments should be refined accordingly. Monitoring of the operational sewage treatment plants highlighted the widespread presence, and recalcitrant behaviour, of carbamazepine during biological sewage treatment. Future work should focus on investigating the mechanisms of removal, of this pharmaceutical in the laboratory sequencing batch reactor. This work highlighted the problems biological systems face in effectively removing recalcitrant pharmaceuticals. Advanced wastewater treatment should be considered, if complete removal is desired.

Master of Arts
Department of Geography
Lisa M.B. Harrington
While environmental concerns have played a secondary role in dam removal rationales thus far, the Condit and Elwha removal projects could signal a change in governmental and public priorities in dam management in the United States (Born et al. 1998; Bednarek 2002). For this research, I compared two dam removal projects designed to restore native salmon runs in two rivers in Washington State: the Condit Dam on the White Salmon River and the Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams on the Elwha River. This thesis asks: given choices of preserving dams that produce clean electricity and the well-established lake-based habitats created by their reservoirs or re-establishing a free-flowing river to reestablish fish and wildlife populations, how are decisions made, and what does the process and outcome mean to local communities? Research interview data was used in combination with policy documents to answer three research questions: 1) What factors affect decision-makers’ and other stakeholders’ support for (or rejection of) dam removal? 2) How did stakeholders’ perceptions and opinions play a role in the decision-making process? and 3) What can we learn from problems and successes evident from the dam removal decision processes? The main factors influencing both the Condit Project and the Elwha Project were environmental (salmon restoration), political (meeting legislative requirements for fish passage), and economic (finding the least cost fish passage alternative). The primary motivation for both projects was salmon restoration via the provision of federally mandated fish passage. The possibility of regaining a valuable resource spurred Tribal, federal, and state agencies to advocate for the removal alternative. Dam owners in both cases desired the least cost option, resulting either in their consent to removal (Condit Project) or selling the dams and relinquishing responsibility to the federal government (Elwha Project). Both took over two decades to complete and were removed in 2011. Perceptions of the relative importance of removal/retention options and dissatisfaction with the decision-making process led to polarization of the communities affected by the dam removals and contributed to the 20+ year project timelines. In order to promote good will and understanding between decision makers and stakeholders, two lessons can be learned from the Condit and Elwha Projects: 1) actively seek to include both proponents and opponents in decision-making and 2) establish robust communication among stakeholders and decision makers. Additionally, preliminary evidence indicates that dam removal does result in movement of salmonids to river reaches that had been blocked by dams, and dam removal may also lead to unintended consequences related to local environmental quality and resource access, such as short term air quality concerns and longer term effects on groundwater availability.

Overcrowding of the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) region is a growing problem. Decades of treating this part of space like a scrap yard has caused it to become a hazardous environment for operating satellites. At present, the largest pieces of debris are being continuously tracked and satellite operators avoid them by maneuvering their spacecrafts out of the way. This approach is not possible for pieces that are smaller than 10 cm, since they are hard to detect and track as well as numerous. The exact number is not known but it is believed to be around 190 000. A number of different mitigation methods have been suggested. In this project the Laser Orbital Debris Removal (LODR) has been investigated and a basic simulation model has been developed. Though many aspects have been studied, only a few have been implemented in this first version of the simulation program. The thesis has uncovered some limiting factors of the models and data that have been used to describe the physical phenomena that relate to this problem. These factors, and other suggestions, are mentioned in chapter 5. Though the model is far from perfected, it shows the technical feasibility of the suggested method, as well as some of the problems that need to be solved before it can be implemented. The fact that it would be possible to build a ground based LODR system, in no way assures that it is likely to occur. The political aspects of such a facility are too problematic at this day in age. How should it be operated? Could we trust that it would not be used as a weapon? The questions are many and the answers are uncertain. For now, it seems best to focus on improving the understanding of the phenomena, the precision of the model and hope that there will come a time when this research will lead to an implementable solution.

The research in this thesis was conducted at the Hampton Road Sanitation District's biological nutrient removal pilot, located at the Chesapeake-Elizabeth WWTP in Virginia Beach, VA. The pilot is operated in an A/B process with a high-rate, carbon-diverting A-stage, followed by a biological nitrogen removal B-stage containing four intermittently aerated CSTRs, followed by an anammox polishing MBBR. The goal of this research was to successfully combine short-cut nitrogen removal with sidestream enhanced biological nutrient removal (EBPR) in the most efficient way possible, specifically aiming to decrease cost and energy requirements, divert the most amount of carbon possible before B-stage, and to achieve low effluent nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations. A RAS fermenter (SBPR) and an A-stage WAS fermenter that feeds VFA into the SBPR (the supernatant of the fermenter is called fermentate) were implemented in order to enhance biological phosphorus removal. About 8 months after the RAS and WAS fermenter implementation, there was a 28 day consecutive period of low B-stage effluent OP <1 mg/L, with an average of 0.5 ± 0.1 mg/L OP. Following this low effluent OP period, bio-P became more unstable and there was high nitrite accumulation in the B-stage effluent for 106 days with concentrations ranging from 1.1-5.9 mg/L NO2. The nitrite accumulation was not due to NOB out-selection, confirmed by AOB and NOB maximum activity tests. It was determined that the nitrite accumulation was due to partial denitrification of nitrate to nitrite by bacteria using internally stored carbon, because profiles and activity tests showed anoxic nitrite accumulation at the end of the aerobic process. Post-anoxic denitrification using internally stored carbon compounds has been observed in other EBPR systems (Vocks, Adam, Lesjean, Gnirss, and Kraume, 2005). Fermentate addition was then halted, and nitrite accumulation and bio-P activity ceased all together, linking the fermentate addition to both bio-P activity and nitrite accumulation. Fermentate was then controlled to dose at 60% of the sCOD/OP (fermentate sCOD g/day / total OP- fermentate + influent - g/day) of the first low effluent OP period. During this fermentate dosing period where the average sCOD/OP was 15.6 ± 3.0 g/g, no nitrite accumulation was observed, but another consecutive low effluent OP period was observed with an average of 0.6 ± 0.2 mg/L OP. Linear correlation analysis shows that the highest r2 values relating the low effluent OP periods and the COD loads to the SBPR for both periods were between VFA g/day vs OP effluent mg/L, at r2=0.18 for the first low effluent OP period and r2=0.65 for the second. There were also high tCOD r2 values for the second low effluent OP period showing that COD hydrolysis in the SBPR could have impacted bio-P activity. However, the VFA r2 value was higher than any tCOD r2 value, concluding that the fermentate dosing mainly worked to enhance biological phosphorus removal by increasing the VFA load in g VFA as acetate/day. Since no nitrite was observed in a period with a lower VFA/OP dose, then the probable VFA load needed to provide enough internal storage to produce nitrite accumulation by partial denitrification is between 5-9 (g VFA as acetate/ g total OP). If sidestream EBPR systems could be studied further to promote nitrite accumulation and bio-P activity to produce low effluent OP, then short-cut nitrogen removal and EBPR could be successfully combined in an efficient way.
Master of Science
It is important to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in wastewater treatment effluent in order to both protect the environment from eutrophication and to meet the increasingly stringent nutrient effluent discharge limits imposed by the EPA. Conventional biological nitrogen removal is achieved through nitrification and denitrification converting ammonia to nitrogen gas, where nitrogen gas is volatile and leaves the system naturally. Phosphorus removal can be achieved through either chemical addition or through biological phosphorus removal, where phosphorus is taken up in cells and removed from the system by the subsequent solids wasting of these cells. The combination of biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal can be improved to increase energy efficiency, reduce costs including aeration and chemical addition costs, increase system capacity and reduce tank sizes, and reduce biomass production, all while achieving low effluent N and P concentrations. Short-cut nitrogen removal can increase the efficiency of biological nitrogen removal. Deammonification, the combination of partial nitritation and anammox, has the potential to reduce wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) aeration costs by 63%, carbon requirements by 100%, and biomass production by 80% (Nifong, Nelson, Johnson, and B. Bott, 2013). Deammonification is the combination of partial nitritation and anammox. Anaerobic ammonia oxidation (anammox) is a useful class of bacteria that converts ammonia and nitrite straight to nitrogen gas in anaerobic conditions, which is a more direct pathway than the conventional nitrification-denitrification pathway. Anammox requires a nitrite supply, which can supplied by partial nitratation of ammonia to nitrite, performed by ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) aerobically in the deammonification process. In order for partial nitratation to work, there needs to be nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) out-selection so that the nitrite produced by AOB does not get oxidized to nitrate. Enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) is accomplished by the taking up and storing of orthophosphate (OP) by phosphorus accumulating organisms (PAOs). These organisms require an anaerobic carbon-storage phase followed by an aerobic growth phase where the internally stored carbon is used for growth. During the cell growth phase of PAOs in aerobic conditions, PAOs are able to take up more OP than they previously released in anaerobic conditions, creating a net OP removal from the system. There has been recent success in recycle activated sludge (McIlroy et al.) fermentation to enhance biological phosphorus removal, which works to promote hydrolysis, fermentation, and EBPR enhancement (Houweling, Dold, and Barnard, 2010). A portion of the RAS is introduced to an anaerobic zone before returning to the main process, allowing for extra VFA production and adsorption by PAOs. RAS fermentation solves the issue of carbon needed for EBPR in VFA/carbon limited systems without having to add too much additional carbon, creating a carbon efficient EBPR system. The research outlined in this study was done at the Hampton Road Sanitation District's (HRSD) pilot plant located within HRSD's Chesapeake-Elizabeth WWTP in Virginia Beach VA. The pilot is run in an A/B process that works in two separate steps: the A-stage is the first step that works to remove carbon by oxidation, and by adsorption so it can potentially be diverted, and the B-stage is the second step where biological nitrogen removal (BNR) is done. The BNR phase consists of an anaerobic selector followed by four completely stirred tank reactors (CSTRs) that are intermittently aerated to provide aerobic and anoxic phases. The pilot also has an anammox polishing step following B-stage. The nitrogen removal goal for this research was short-cut nitrogen removal via deammonification, by producing partial nitritation in B-stage and polishing with anammox. A B-stage RAS fermenter, along with an A-stage waste activated sludge (WAS) fermenter that feeds VFA into the RAS fermenter, was implemented to the existing pilot to enhance biological phosphorus removal. The overall goal of this study was to successfully combine short-cut nitrogen removal with sidestream EBPR to achieve low effluent N and P concentrations in the most energy and carbon efficient way possible. EBPR was achieved about eight months after the implementation of the RAS and WAS fermenter to the pilot. A period of B-stage effluent OP that was consistently below 1 mg/L OP was observed right before an unexpected period of high nitrite in the B-stage effluent. The high effluent nitrite lasted for 106 days and ranged from 1.1-5.9 mg/L of effluent nitrite during this time. The nitrite accumulation was unexpected because weekly maximum activity tests for AOB and NOB showed that NOB out-selection was not occurring. The first phase of this research investigates the cause of the nitrite accumulation. Based on profiles taken in the reactors in the aerobic and anoxic phases, and based on denitrification activity tests, it was determined that the nitrite accumulation was due to partial denitrification of nitrate to nitrite. Because this partial denitrification was happening in the reactor anoxic times where external should have been used up, it was determined that the source of the partial denitrification was from a bacteria using internally stored carbon during anoxic periods as the electron supply for partial denitrification. Research has showed that EBPR systems promote bacteria that are capable of storing carbon internally and keeping that carbon stored through an aerobic phase and then using that stored carbon for denitrification following an aerobic phase (Vocks et al., 2005), like observed in this research. The second phase of this research sought to link the nitrite accumulation and bio-P activity to the VFA added to the RAS fermenter. The VFA addition was decreased in phases, and with that a decrease in nitrite in the effluent was observed. The bio-P activity became more unstable after the nitrite accumulation occurred, but all bio-P activity ceased after VFA addition to the RAS fermenter ceased. It was concluded, unsurprisingly, that the VFA added to the RAS fermenter was the source of the internally stored carbon that caused the nitrite accumulation, and necessary for bio-P enhancement. The third phase of this research sought to recreate the low effluent OP period and the nitrite accumulation by controlling the VFA dose to the RAS fermenter. The average soluble chemical oxygen demand (sCOD) per OP (fermenter sCOD g/day / total OP-fermenter + influent- g/day) of the period of low effluent OP was calculated, and the dose from the WAS fermenter was controlled to meet 60% of the calculated value. The calculated dose was 13.6 gC/gP, but the actual average dose from controlling the load during this period was 15.6 ± 3.0 gC/gP. The average VFA/OP (g VFA as acetate/ g total OP) dose for the first low effluent OP period was 9.4 ± 3.6 g/g, and the average dose for the third phase of research was 5.5 ± 1.3 g/g. No nitrite accumulation occurred in this phase, but another consistent low effluent OP period did occur. From linear correlation analysis, the highest r2 values relating the low effluent OP periods and the COD loads to the RAS fermenter for both periods were between VFA g/day vs OP mg/L, at r2=0.18 for the first period and r2=0.65 for the second. This shows that effluent OP < 1 mg/L can be achieve at 5.5 or 9.4 (g VFA as acetate/ g total OP). Since no nitrite was observed in phase 3, than the probable VFA load needed to provide enough internal storage to produce nitrite accumulation by partial denitrification is probably between 5.5-9.4 (g VFA as acetate/ g total OP). This research was significant because the link between nitrite accumulation and bio-P enhancement with sidestream RAS and WAS fermentation was confirmed. Partial denitrification of nitrate to nitrite could be used as an alternative source of nitrite for anammox, instead of NOB out-selection and partial nitritation of ammonia to nitrite by AOB, in combined EBPR and short-cut nitrogen removal systems. If sidestream EBPR systems could be used to promote nitrite accumulation and bio-P activity to produce low effluent OP and nitrogen removal efficiently than short-cut nitrogen removal and EBPR could be successfully combined in an efficient way. Future work needs to be done on the organism that is capable of nitrite accumulation and if that organism can be enhanced in conjunction with EBPR organisms to promote both nitrite accumulation and low effluent OP simultaneously.

For many surface waters, phosphorus (P) leaching is a serious problem that should be minimized to prevent eutrophication. In Sweden there is a demand for physical and technical development of high-performance P removal techniques to reduce phosphorus leaching from on-site wastewater treatment systems to the Baltic Sea. However, although these systems are designed to reduce eutrophication there are also other environmental impacts to be considered when implementing them in on-site systems; energy use and global warming potential are two examples. This study has investigated several bed filter materials (reactive media and natural soils) for their total environmental impact (in commercial applications) as well as for the predominating chemical phosphorus removal mechanisms. The use of life cycle assessment revealed that several reactive bed filters are relatively energy-consuming due to the material manufacturing process. Characterization of phosphorus compounds in used reactive media provided evidence for calcium phosphate precipitation as the predominating P removal mechanism in alkaline filter materials. However, in soil treatment systems with noncalcareous soils, batch experiments and extractions suggested that aluminium compounds were important for P removal. According to mass balance calculations that compared accumulated P with the estimated P load in a soil treatment system, the long term P removal capacity was very low; only 6.4 % of the applied phosphorus had been removed during 16 years of operation.

The impending change of processes at SSAB Oxelösund due to the HYBRIT project, where the blast furnace and LD converter are to be replaced with an EAF will have a significant impact on the manufacturing of steel in Oxelösund. One issue that will arise is the nitrogen content in the steel. Sources claim that the nitrogen content in steel from an EAF route is substantially larger, 60-70 ppm, than in steel from a blast furnace and LD converter route, which have a nitrogen content of around 25 ppm. Therefore, the nitrogen removal capabilities of SSAB Oxelösund’s vacuum tank degasser were to be examined. Industrial trials were performed where the amount of slag during vacuum treatment was lowered. The intention was that half the amount of slag removed prior to vacuum treatment and later completely slag free. This was performed in an attempt to increase the effective reaction area, where nitrogen removal occurs. Due to some practical problems with the steel mill, the industrial trial were unfortunately cut short. Consequently, only trials with half the amount of slag were performed and compared to existing process data for standard praxis. Also, nitrogen removal calculations based on the industrial data were performed. A parameter representing the overall reaction rate, which is dependent on effective reaction area was obtained, validated and subsequently applied to a future case scenario. The results indicate that the reduction in slag amount does have the desired effect, increasing the said area and increasing the rate of nitrogen removal. However, the sample size is not nearly sufficient enough to determine this definitively. The conclusions reached were that the facility does have the possibility to decrease the increased nitrogen content down to reasonable levels, around 20-30 ppm. Albeit, an increase in vacuum treatment time is probably required. Another conclusion was that surface active elements, such as oxygen and sulphur greatly reduce the nitrogen removal. Therefore, efforts should be taken to remove these elements prior to vacuum treatment. In addition, it was established that the effective reaction area is of great importance for a successful nitrogen removal. Therefore, actions to maximise this area should be taken. Finally, it was stated that further research is necessary in order to fully understand nitrogen contamination prevention- and removal techniques
Förändringar till följd av HYBRIT projektet kommer påverka SSAB Oxelösunds stålverk. Masugn och LD konverter skall ersättas med ljusbågsugns teknologi. Ett problem till följd av detta är kvävehalter i stålet. Enligt litteraturen är kvävehalterna betydligt högre i stål tappat från en ljusbågsugn. Med kvävehalter runt 60-70 ppm jämfört med stål tappat från en LD konverter som har kvävehalter kring 25 ppm. Därför krävdes en undersökning kring kvävereningpotentialen för SSAB Oxelösunds vakuum tank avgasare. Industriella experiment med minskad slaggmängd jämfört med standard praxis blev utförda. Detta utfördes med tanken att minskad slaggmängd skulle ge en större effektiv reaktionsarea. Intentionen var att utföra försök först med halverad slaggmängd följt av slaggfria försök. Dock, på grund av produktions praktiska problem vid verket blev försöken avbrutna. Som en följd av detta blev bara försök med halverad slaggmängd utförda och jämförda med processdata från standard praxis. Kvävereningsberäkningar på historisk processdata utfördes. En parameter som representerade genomsnittlig reaktionshastighet, vilken beror på den effektiva reaktionsarea blev erhållen, validerad och senare applicerad på ett hypotetiskt framtida scenario. Resultaten indikerar att minskad slaggmängd har en positiv inverkan på den effektiva reaktions arean och till följd av detta även en positiv inverkan på kväverening. Dock är för få försök utförda för att kunna fastställa detta. De slutsatser som dras är att vakuum anläggningen vid SSAB Oxelösund har möjligheten att, med förlängd vakuumbehandlingstid, rena de ökade kvävehalter till nivåer runt 20-30 ppm. Ytterligare slutsatser var att ytaktiva element, såsom syre och svavel, i stålet har en stor negativ påverkan för kväverening. Samt att den effektiva reaktionsarean är av stor betydelse för kväverening. Därför bör ansträngningar tas för att minska koncentrationen av ytaktiva element samt att försöka göra den effektiva reaktionsarean så stor som möjligt. Slutligen fastställdes det att ytterligare studier är nödvändiga för att öka kunskapen kring förebyggande tekniker och reningstekniker för kväveföroreningar i stål.

This thesis aims to improve our understanding of how riverine ecosystems respond to dam removal. Riverine and particularly riparian ecosystems are among the most variable and important features of all landscapes. They connect landscape elements both longitudinally and laterally, and are governed by processes such as flooding, erosion and deposition that create dynamic, diverse and heterogeneous habitats. In fact, riparian zones are among the world’s most species-rich habitats. Worldwide there are millions of dams that fragment stream and river systems, regulate flows and degrade ecosystems. Dams impact freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecosystems and threaten biodiversity by disrupting organism movements and energy flows in the landscape. An important upstream effect of dams is inundation of habitats and development of new shorelines around impounded areas. Effects downstream of dams are mainly caused by changed hydrological regimes and retention of organic and inorganic materials in reservoirs, leading to reduced transport and dispersal of for example seeds to reaches downstream. The removal of dams create expectations that biota will eventually recover. We have studied a number of dam removal projects in Sweden. Our experimental results showed that following dam removal, newly exposed soils in former impoundments were rapidly colonized by pre-removal species. Their species richness increased slightly with time and their species composition indicated a slow change towards that in the reference site. In addition, the vegetation in formerly impounded areas showed a direction of change from lentic riparian plants (high proportion of aquatics) towards lotic ones, consisting of native perennials typical of free-flowing streams. We also found that the apprehensions that former impoundments would turn into pools of mud did not come true; in fact, a process towards more pristine channel morphology was observed. After removal there was erosion and downstream transport of sediment. We found only minor effects on macroinvertebrate communities. For example, a few species decreased over the years, suggesting that dam removal in itself might cause a temporary disturbance. This highlights the importance of long-term studies after dam removal, and also the importance of comparisons with pre-removal conditions and stretches unaffected by dams. Thorough documentation of executed dam removal projects and distribution of the results and experiences are tremendously important in the planning process of future decommissioning projects. Also, our experiences have taught us that in order to attain a successful dam removal it is important to involve stakeholders such as non-governmental organizations and local inhabitants in the process.

Membrane processes are increasingly used in water treatment. Experiments were performed using stirred cell equipment, polymeric membranes and synthetic surface water containing natural organics, inorganic colloids and their aggregates, and cations. All processes could remove a significant amount of natural organics. Pretreatment with ferric chloride was required to achieve significant organic removal with MF and high MWCO UF. Additionally, fouling mechanisms for the three processes were investigated. Crucial parameters were aggregate characteristics (fractal structure, stability, organic-colloid interactions), solubility of organics and calcium, and hydrodynamics. In MF, fouling by pore plugging was most severe. Variations in solution chemistry changed the aggregation state of the colloids and/or natural organic matter and dramatically affected rejection and fouling behaviour. UF membrane fouling was mainly influenced by pore adsorption and could improve natural organics rejection significantly. Coagulant addition shifted fouling mechanism from pore adsorption to cake formation. Aggregate structure was most significant for flux decline. In NF, rejection of natural organics involved both size and charge exclusion. Fouling was caused by precipitation of a calcium-organic complex. Fouling could be avoided by pretreatment with metal salt coagulants. Thorough chemical characterisation of the organics used demonstrated that only size and aromaticity can be related to fouling. The study is concluded with a process comparison based on a water quality parameter and a cost comparison. Treatment cost of microfiltration with chemical pretreatment was similar to that of nanofiltration at a comparable natural organics rejection.

The aqueous chemistry of the reduction of selenious species by sodium dithionite, sodium sulfide, stannous chloride and sulfur dioxide/sulfite was studied. The resultant precipitates were characterized using different techniques, including scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. In the case of sodium dithionite, the research showed that, at initial pH below 1.7 and dithionite stoichiometric excess above three, less than 0.5 ug/L remained in solution less than a minute after the addition of the reagent. However, it was found that the precipitate, mainly composed of red amorphous selenium, was not stable in the presence of the dithionite decomposition by-products and partially redissolved after several hours. In the case of the reaction involving selenious acid and sulfide ions, the results showed that, below a pH of approximately 7.0, the precipitation reaction was complete in less than 10 minutes at a sulfide to selenium ratio above 1.8 with less than 5 ug/L of soluble selenium remaining in solution. The precipitate was deduced to be a Se-S solid solution consisting of ring molecules of the following SenS8−n formula. However, above pH 7 the removal of selenium was incomplete due to formation of a stable colloidal suspension. In the case of industrial solutions, high dissolved sulfur dioxide content (> 5g/L) decreases the effectiveness of the precipitation reaction. Concerning the removal of Se(IV) by tin(II), at an initial pH below 1.3 and molar ratios above two, less than 5 ug/L of selenium(IV) remained in solution after reduction. The reaction products, were determined to be composed of approximately equal amounts of tin selenide and tin dioxide with a small amount of selenium(IV) being adsorbed on the latter. Finally, it was found that Se(IV) can be reduced quantitatively at ambient temperature via a combination of sulfite reduction and ultra-acidification to a colloidal form that can be determined using turbidimetry. The developed technique was shown to be equally effective with real Se(IV)-bearing industrial solutions generated in a zinc concentrate roasting operation hence making the method particularly useful as on-line process monitoring and control tool.
La chimie aqueuse des réactions de réduction entre les ions sélénieux et le dithionite de sodium, le sulfure de sodium et les ions stanneux ont été étudiées. Les précipités résultant de cette réaction ont été caractérisés par différentes techniques comme la microscopie électronique à balayage, la diffraction à rayons X et la spectrométrie de photoélectrons induits par rayons X. Dans le cas du dithionite de sodium, ce projet a démontré que, pour un pH initial inférieur à 1.7 et un ratio stœchiométrique de dithionite supérieur à trois, moins de 0.5 ug/L de sélénium(IV) restait en solution moins d'une minute après l'addition du réactif. Par contre, le précipité, formé en majorité de sélénium rouge amorphe, n'était pas stable en présence des composés issus de la réaction de décomposition du dithionite et était partiellement re-dissous après quelques heures. Dans le cas de la réaction entre l'acide sélénieux et le sulfure de sodium, les résultats indiquaient que pour un ratio molaire sulfur/sélénium plus grand que 1.8 et un pH sous 7.0 la réaction de précipitation était complète et moins de 5 ug/L de sélénium (IV) restait en solution. Aucune précipitation n'a été constatée pour un pH plus élevé que 9.5 et la réaction était incomplète pour un pH entre 7 et 9.5. Le précipité semblait être composé d'une solution solide Se-S formé de molécules circulaires répondant à la formule SenS8−n. Par contre, pour un pH plus élevé que 7, la précipitation du sélénium était incomplète à cause de la formation d'un précipité de sélénium colloïdal. De plus, dans le cas des solutions industrielles, de hautes concentrations de dioxyde de souffre dissous (> 5g/L) diminuait l'efficacité de la réaction de précipitation.En ce qui concerne la réaction entre le sélénium(IV) et l'étain, pour un pH initial sous 1.3 et un ratio molaire étain/sélénium plus grand que deux, moins de 5 ug/L de sélénium restait en solution après la réaction. Les analyses ont révélé que le précipité était composé de parts approximativement égales de séléniure d'étain et de dioxyde d'étain et que ce dernier pouvait adsorber une petite quantité d'ions sélénieux. Finalement, ce projet a démontré que le sélénium(IV) peut être réduit, à la température ambiante, par une solution ultra-acide riche en sulfites. Une fois le sélénium précipité sous forme colloïdale, la concentration originale de celui-ci peut ensuite être déterminée par turbidimétrie. Par ailleurs, cette méthode est aussi efficace sur des solutions industrielles contenant du sélénium(IV) et peut donc être appliquée pour l'analyse en temps réel de cet élément.

Wetlands have long played a significant role as natural purification systems, and have been effectively used to treat domestic, agricultural and industrial wastewater. However, very little is known about the biochemical processes involved, and the use of constructed treatment wetlands in the removal of petroleum aromatic hydrocarbons from produced and/or processed water. Wastewaters from the oil industry contain aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (ortho, meta and para isomers), which are highly soluble, neurotoxic and cause cancer. The components of the hydrocarbon and the processes of its transformation, metabolism and degradation are complex, the mechanisms of treatment within constructed wetlands are not yet entirely known. This has limited the effective application of this sustainable technology in the oil and gas industries. Sound knowledge of hydrocarbon treatment processes in the various constructed wetlands is needed to make guided judgments about the probable effects of a given suite of impacts. Moreover, most of the traditional treatment technologies used by the oil industry such as hydrocyclones, coalescence, flotation, centrifuges and various separators are not efficient concerning the removal of dissolved organic components including aromatics in the dissolved water phase. Twelve experimental wetlands have been designed and constructed at The King’s Buildings campus (The University of Edinburgh, Scotland) using different compositions. Selected wetlands were planted with Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud (common reeds). The wetlands were operated in batch-flow mode to avoid pumping costs. Six wetlands were located indoors, and six corresponding wetlands were placed outdoors to allow for a direct comparison of controlled and uncontrolled environmental conditions. The experimental wetlands were designed to optimize the chemical, physical and microbiological processes naturally occurring within wetlands. The outdoor rig simulates natural weather conditions while the indoor rig operates under controlled environmental conditions such as regulated temperature, humidity and light. Benzene was used as an example of a low molecular weight petroleum hydrocarbon within the inflow of selected wetlands. This chemical is part of the aromatic hydrocarbon group known as BTEX (acronym for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene), and was used as a pollutant together with tap water spiked also with essential nutrients. The study period was from spring 2005 to autumn 2007. The research focused on the advancing of the understanding of biochemical processes and the application of constructed wetlands for hydrocarbon removal. The study investigated the seasonal internal interactions of benzene with other individual water quality variables in the constructed wetlands. Variables and boundary conditions (e.g. temperature, macrophytes and aggregates) impacting on the design, operation and treatment performance; and the efficiency of different wetland set-ups in removing benzene, chemical oxygen demand (COD), five-day @ 20°C N-Allylthiourea biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) and major nutrients were monitored. Findings indicate that the constructed wetlands successfully remove benzene (inflow concentration of 1 g/l) and other water quality variables from simulated hydrocarbon contaminated wastewater streams with better indoor (controlled environment) than outdoor treatment performances. The benzene removal efficiency was high (97-100%) during the first year of operation and without visible seasonal variations. Seasonal variability in benzene removal was apparent after spring 2006, the highest and lowest benzene removal efficiencies occurred in spring and winter, respectively. In 2006, for example, benzene removal in spring was 44.4% higher than in winter. However, no seasonal variability was detected in the effluent ammonia-nitrogen (NH4-N), nitratenitrogen (NO3-N) and ortho-phosphorus-phosphate (PO4 3--P) concentrations. Their outflow concentrations increased or decreased with corresponding changes of the influent nutrient supply. In addition, benzene treatment led to trends of decreasing effluent pH and redox potential (redox) values but increasing effluent dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations. Approximately 8 g (added to the influent every second week) of the well balanced slow-releasing N-P-K Miracle-Gro fertilizer was sufficient to treat 1000 mg/l benzene. Results based on linear regression indicated that the seasonal benzene removal efficiency was negatively correlated and closely linked to the seasonal effluent DO and NO3-N concentrations, while positively correlated and closely linked to the seasonal effluent pH and redox values. Temperature, effluent NH4-N and PO4 3--P concentrations were weakly linked to seasonal benzene removal efficiencies. During the entire running period, the seasonal benzene removal efficiency reached up to 90%, while the effluent DO, NO3-N, pH and redox values ranged between 0.8 and 2.3 mg/l, 0.56 and 3.68 mg/l, 7.03 and 7.17, and 178.2 and 268.93 mV, respectively. Novel techniques and tools such as Artificial Neural Network (self-organizing map (SOM)), Multivariable regression and hierarchical cluster analysis were applied to predict benzene, COD and BOD, and to demonstrate an alternative method of analyzing water quality performance indicators. The results suggest that cost-effective and easily to measure online variables such as DO, EC, redox, T and pH efficiently predicted effluent benzene concentrations by applying artificial neural network and multivariable regression model. The performances of these models are encouraging and support their potential for future use as promising tools for real time optimization, monitoring and prediction of benzene removal in constructed wetlands. These also improved understanding of the physical and biochemical processes within vertical-flow constructed wetlands, particularly of the role of the different constituents of the constructed wetlands in removal of hydrocarbon. These techniques also helped to provide answers to original research questions such as: What does the job? Physical design, filter media, macrophytes or micro-organisms? The overall outcome of this research is a significant contribution to the development of constructed wetland technology for petroleum industry and other related industrial application.

The deposition of paraffin wax solids in pipelines and risers represents a continuing challenge to flow assurance in offshore installations. Wax deposits reduce product throughput, requiring increased energy expenditure to re-establish flow levels. In severe cases, wax deposits can completely block a pipeline. Preventative solutions to the problem such as pipeline insulation, active heating of pipes or chemical dosing with wax inhibitors are not always economically viable, so mechanical removal using a device known as a 'pig' remains an economical solution to the problem of wax removal. A pig is a cylindrical tool that is driven through the pipe by the flow of product, scraping deposits from the pipe wall as it travels. Despite the importance of pipeline pigging to the oil and gas industry, the effectiveness of pigs in removing wax is poorly understood and it is this problem that is addressed by this thesis. One of the first necessities in undertaking this work has been to define the mechanical properties of wax deposits. This has required critical analysis of published material on the subject of wax deposition along with practical experimentation to create representative models of wax deposits that require mechanical removal from pipelines. Previously, studies of wax removal using pigs have assumed the mechanics of the process to be adequately represented by uniaxial compression or simple shear load models. In this work wax removal is analysed using the orthogonal cutting model. This provides a more accurate description of the process as it includes the effect of material after yielding (the chip) on the net wax removal force. Experiments were designed to allow testing of the validity of the orthogonal cutting theory to the pigging process under a variety of conditions. An original contribution from this work is through experimental and theoretical results that are given context through comparison with established metal cutting theory. Through experimentation a specific cutting energy is obtained for wax removal. The results of the wax cutting experiments have identified particular differences between wax cutting and metal cutting regarding the homogeneity of chip formation. These observations have important implications in predicting wax removal forces using mechanical removal tools. Although the affect of removed wax chips on pigging forces has been neglected in theory, it is well known in practice. The fluid used to drive cleaning pigs is often used to produce a jet radiating centrally from the front of the pig intended to blast wax chips away from the pig body, avoiding formation of a 'plug' of wax ahead of the pig. In this study a novel variation of this process in the form of an annular bypass jet is experimentally studied. A semi-empirical model of wax removal using an annular bypass jet has been developed and empirical constants obtained to allow prediction of removal rates for different waxes under various conditions. The new model introduced here allows balancing of pig velocity with wax removal velocity so that a non-contacting wax removal system is obtainable. The bypass-jetting model has been validated using a full-scale trial of the process by industrial sponsors.

A well-established technique to probe the single-particle structure over a wide range of nuclei is the one-nucleon removal reactions in inverse kinematics using radioactive ion beams. This thesis presents inclusive measurements of one-nucleon removal from 57Ni by a carbon (C) target. The interest in studying 57Ni, a nuclide with only one nucleon (neutron) above the N = Z = 28 double shell closure, arises from the conflicting results regarding its single-particle nature that were extracted in several experiments. Moreover, this thesis discusses the first results of a new experimental technique used to identify the quasi-free (p,2p) and (p,pn) scattering processes in inverse kinematics, when the 57Ni ions react with the protons of a polyolefin (CH2) target, by the coincident detection of the two recoiling fast nucleons and the heavy outgoing fragment. In both reactions the measurement of the transverse momentum distribution of the projectilelike fragments, after the removal of one nucleon, provides information on the orbital angular momentum of the removed particle. The one-nucleon removal reactions with the C target induce mainly peripheral collisions, providing information only on the asymptotic part of the singlc.-particle wave function, while the quasi-free scattering reactions can also probe more deeply bound nucleons providing an insight into the interior of the nucleus. The experiment was performed in May 2005 at GSI, Darmstadt, Germany using the LAND/ALADIN setup (future R3B setup). The cocktail beam of the radioactive species under study was produced by the in-flight fragmentation of a rv 600 MeV/nucleon 58Ni primary beam on a thick beryllium (Be) target and was selected and unambiguously identified on an event-by-event basis by the FRS separator. The 57Ni fragments present in the ~ocktail beam reacted with the secondary target located at the LAND/ ALADIN setup with an energy of rv 510 MeV/nucleon. A large part of this thesis is also devoted to presenting new calibration and reconstruction techniques integrated in the (under development) common analysis framework land02, which is used for on-line monitoring and off-line analysis of past and future experiments performed at the LAND/ ALADIN setup.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2010.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-143).
One of the long-standing challenges in photography is motion blur. Blur artifacts are generated from relative motion between a camera and a scene during exposure. While blur can be reduced by using a shorter exposure, this comes at an unavoidable trade-off with increased noise. Therefore, it is desirable to remove blur computationally. To remove blur, we need to (i) estimate how the image is blurred (i.e. the blur kernel or the point-spread function) and (ii) restore a natural looking image through deconvolution. Blur kernel estimation is challenging because the algorithm needs to distinguish the correct imageblur pair from incorrect ones that can also adequately explain the blurred image. Deconvolution is also difficult because the algorithm needs to restore high frequency image contents attenuated by blur. In this dissertation, we address a few aspects of these challenges. We introduce an insight that a blur kernel can be estimated by analyzing edges in a blurred photograph. Edge profiles in a blurred image encode projections of the blur kernel, from which we can recover the blur using the inverse Radon transform. This method is computationally attractive and is well suited to images with many edges. Blurred edge profiles can also serve as additional cues for existing kernel estimation algorithms. We introduce a method to integrate this information into a maximum-a-posteriori kernel estimation framework, and show its benefits. Deconvolution algorithms restore information attenuated by blur using an image prior that exploits a heavy-tailed gradient profile of natural images. We show, however, that such a sparse prior does not accurately model textures, thereby degrading texture renditions in restored images. To address this issue, we introduce a content-aware image prior that adapts its characteristics to local textures. The adapted image prior improves the quality of textures in restored 6 images. Sometimes even the content-aware image prior may be insufficient for restoring rich textures. This issue can be addressed by matching the restored image's gradient distribution to its original image's gradient distribution, which is estimated directly from the blurred image. This new image deconvolution technique called iterative distribution reweighting (IDR) improves the visual realism of reconstructed images. Subject motion can also cause blur. Removing subject motion blur is especially challenging because the blur is often spatially variant. In this dissertation, we address a restricted class of subject motion blur: the subject moves at a constant velocity locally. We design a new computational camera that improves the local motion estimation and, at the same time, reduces the image information loss due to blur.
by Taeg Sang Cho.
Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, 1985.
MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND SCIENCE.
Bibliography: leaves 255-264.
by Howard Bernstein.
Ph.D.

Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2016.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (page 47).
We present algorithms for motion planning that can tolerate collisions. Because finding a path of minimum cover is prohibitively expensive, we investigate algorithms that work well in practice and find solutions close to the true minimum cover solution. We introduce the notion of removal importance for obstacles and the family of iterative obstacle removing RRTs (IOR-RRTs). This family of algorithms operate similarly to the RRT but iteratively tolerate more collisions in trying to identify a path. One member of the family that performs well is the search informed IOR-RRT. This search technique first performs bidirectional collision-free search to find a clear path if possible. In failure, it iteratively selects an obstacle for removal using its removal importance. We measure the performance of our algorithms on a multi-link robot operating in both environments with feasible paths and those where collisions must be allowed.
by Amruth Venkatraman.
M. Eng.

Thesis (MSc)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South Africa is one of the world's major coal producers, resulting in the second highest foreign exchange earner for South Africa. However, the mining industry contributes negatively to (ground) water pollution, due to the formation of acid mine drainage (AMD). AMD originates from the bacterial oxidation (Thiobacillus ferrooxidans) of pyrite (FeS) and contains high levels of sulphate and metals. Sulphate rich waters can be treated applying the biological sulphate removal technology. This study concentrated on biologically removing sulphate from synthetic feed- and mine water, using the single-stage completely-mixed reactor system. The advantage of using this reactor system is that except for removing sulphate from about 2000 to less than 200 mg/t', it can also partly biologically remove the formed sulphides. It was established that both ethanol and sugar can be used, as the carbon and energy source, however ethanol is more cost effective than sugar. Ethanol dosage and Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT) studies were undertaken to investigate at what concentration, the highest sulphate and sulphide removal rates were achieved. It was found that the highest sulphate reduction rates were obtained when using 1mf ethanol/f feed and that the removal rates were dependent on the HRT: the lower the HRT, the higher the sulphate reduction rate. The highest sulphide oxidation rate was achieved at the HRT of 6 h. It was, furthermore shown that the single stage completely-mixed reactor system could successfully be used to remove sulphate from Schoongezicht mine effluent, not only removing the sulphate, but also most of the metals, thereby increasing the mine effluent pH from 2.5 to 7. The conclusion of this study was that a completely-mixed reactor system, as described in this thesis, can successfully be applied to treating acid mine drainage using ethanol (1 m.e etanol/f feed water) as the carbon and energy source at a hydraulic retention time as low as 4 hours. This technology has great potential for pilot- and full-scale treatment of sulphate rich effluents such as acid mine drainage.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Suid Afrika is een van die vemaamste steenkool produseerders in die wereld, terwyl die uitvoer van steenkool die land se tweede hoogste verdiener is van buitelandse valuta. Ongelukkig dra hierdie industrie ook by tot die besoedeling van (grond) water, veral vanwee die vorrning van suur myn afloop. Bakteriese oksidasie (deur Thiobacillus ferrooxidansy van piried (FeS) is hoofsaaklik verandwoordelik vir die vorrning van suur myn afloop bevattende hoe konsentrasies van sulfaat en metale. . Die toepassing van biologiese sulfaatverwyderingsprosesse vir die behandeling van sulfaatryke waters is vroeer gedemonstreer. Die doel van hierdie studie was om 'n enkel-stadium reaktor met volledige vermenging te evalueer en te optimiseer om toegepas te word vir die biologiese verwydering van sulfaat vanuit sinteties bereide, sowel as mynwater. Hierdie reaktor is in staat om sulfaat te verwyder vanaf vlakke van ~ 2000 tot minder as 200 mg/P. 'n Verdere voordeel gepaard met die gebruik van hierdie reaktor is dat die sulfied wat gevorm word tydens sulfaatreduksie, gedeeltelik verwyder word deur die oksidasie daarvan na So. Die resultate wat behaal is in hierdie studie het aangedui dat beide etanol en suiker gebruik kan word as die koolstof en energiebron, terwyl etanol meer koste-effektief aangewend kon word. In teenstelling was metanol nie 'n geskikte koolstofbron vir sulfaatverwydering nie. Eksperimente is daarvolgens uitgevoer om toestande van optimum etanoldosering en hidroliese retensietyd (HRT) vir maksimum sulfaat- en sulfiedverwydering te bepaaJ. Die hoogste reduksie tempo's was verkry met 'n toediening van 1 mP etanol/f invloei, en die effektiwiteit van verwydering was afhanklik van HRT. Hoe laer die HRT, hoe hoer die tempo van sulfaatverwydering. Die beste sulfaatverwyderingstempo was behaal teen 'n HRT van 6 uur. Die resultate het verder aangetoon dat die enkel-stadium reaktor met volledige vermenging in staat was om sulfaat effektief te verwyder, en die pH te verhoog vanaf na 2.5 tot 7, in mynuitvloeisels van 'n plaaslike steenkoolmyn. Die gevolgtrekking uit hierdie werk is dat 'n volledig-gemengde reaktorstelsel, soos beskryf in die huidige studie, geskik is vir die suksesvolle behandeling van suur mynafloopwater met die gebruik van etanol (l mflP toevoerwater) as koolstof- en energiebron by 'n hidrouliese retensietyd tot so laag as 4 uur. Die tegnologie het groot toepassingspotensiaal vir volskaalse behandeling van sulfaatryke afloopwaters soos by. suur mynafloop.

Thesis (MSc)--Stellenbosch University, 2003.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A laboratory-scale model was used to simulate biological sulfate removal. The focus of the research was microbial community response, such as the relative abundance of functional groups to changes in influent medium composition. Specific oligonucleotide probes were obtained that recognised sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) within the biofilm community. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) and BIOLOG™ Ecoplate analyses were used to study the SRB community when provided with sodium lactate, sucrose or ethanol as carbon sources in complex Postgate C broth. These two analyses, as well as conventional methods, were applied to follow succession patterns in the laboratory scale reactors, and to determine the possible presence and relative abundance of microorganisms other than bacteria under sulfate reducing conditions. T-RFLP and BIOLOG™ Ecoplate analyses indicated a few dominant organisms in the community and a slight decline after a shift to another carbon source. Fluorescent hybridization showed higher numbers of SRB relative to the total microbial community than conventional culturing techniques. Furthermore, microscopic observations showed that not only SRB and other bacteria, but also yeast and filamentous fungi were integrated in a biofilm under sulfate reducing conditions. These microscopic observations were verified with fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) and yeast Live I Dead viability probes.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Biologiese sulfaat-verwydering is met behulp van "n laboratoriumskaalmodel gesimuleer. Die doel van die navorsing was om die respons van "n mikrobiese gemeenskap met byvoorbeeld die relatiewe hoeveelheid van funksionele groepe op veranderinge in invloeiende medium samestelling te bestudeer. Spesifieke oligonukleotiedpeilers wat sulfaatreduserende bakterieë (SRB) in "n biofilmgemeenskap kan opspoor is gebruik. Die SRB gemeenskap is bestudeer met behulp van terminale-restriksiefragmentlengtepolimorfisme (TRFLP) en BIOLOGTM Ecoplate analise waar natriumlaktaat, sukrose of etanol as koolstofbronne toegevoeg is. Hierdie twee tipes analise en konvensionele metodes is aangewend om suksessiepatrone in die laboratoriumskaalreaktor te volg en die moontlike teenwoordigheid en relatiewe hoeveelheid van organismes, uitsluitende bakterieë, onder sulfaatreduserende kondisies te bepaal. Analise van T-RFLP en BIOLOGTM Ecoplate het aangedui dat In paar dominante organismes in die gemeenskap teenwoordig was, wat effens afgeneem het na verskuiwing na 'n ander koolstofbron. Fluoresserende hibridisasie het hoër getalle van SRB relatief tot die totale mikrobiese gemeenskap aangedui as konvensionele kultuur tegnieke. Mikroskopiese analises het verder getoon dat benewens SRB en ander bakterieë ook giste en filamentagtige swamme onder sulfaatreduserende kondisies in "n biofilm geïntegreer was. Hierdie mikroskopiese waarneminge is bevestig deur fluoresserende in situ hibridisasie (FISH) en gis Lewe / Dood lewensvatbaarheid peilers.

This master thesis project was carried out as a part of the chlorate research conducted at the Process RD&I department for bleaching chemicals at AkzoNobel Pulp and Performance Chemicals AB in Bohus. During the project already implemented filter cloths as well as new types of filters were studied and compared by experimental trials. The results were then examined in an attempt to evaluate existing filtration systems as well as investigate if there are other, better alternatives. The impurities found in a chlorate plant account for an efficiency loss in the process and a reduction of impurities would hence result in an energy reduction and a cleaner product. The trials were conducted at one of AkzoNobel’s chlorate plants. Six filters were studied and evaluated by measuring turbidity of the electrolyte and pressure over the filter during the experiments. Samples of the electrolyte were analyzed to obtain the metal content, and thereby the impurity content, of the electrolyte. The structures of the filters were studied by optical microscopy. The results from the trials show that all filter types except one, a needle felt filter, seem to be suitable for chlorate electrolyte filtration (including the filter types already used in the plants). The other filters all reach turbidity values below 0.1 FNU immediately or within 90 minutes of filtration, which is considered good enough. The results from the metal content analysis show a similar trend where the metal concentrations decrease to levels below the detection limits immediately or within 90 minutes of filtration. Apart from the lab trials performed some measurements were made on the existing filtration equipment in the chlorate plant. The measurements show varying results, partly similar to those achieved during the lab filter trials but also results showing a higher turbidity value and metal content, indicating that full scale operation are more complicated than lab scale operation. The lab trial results obtained with the filter types already used in the plants show that lower impurity content is possible to achieve. However, this would require closer monitoring of the filtration systems in the plants. Apart from the filtration trials, an attempt to determine the sizes of the particles present in the electrolyte using laser diffraction was performed. However, too little was known of the chlorate electrolyte’s optical data for the measurements to be reliable. Further work is needed before a method for size determination of the particles in a chlorate electrolyte can be achieved. Also, an Optical Filtration Test was tried on the electrolyte but was not sensitive enough for utilization on electrolyte with low (below 1 FNU) turbidity values.  The project concluded that a switch to another filtration system is unmotivated, unless a change in the product requirements would occur. Since the impurities have proven to affect the efficiency of the process, it is recommended to make an effort into utilizing the filtration system to its full extent.

Gasification is considered as one of the most attractive conversion technologies, because the product gas from the process serves as a building block for several industrial applications. However, the use of biomass as a fuel in the gasification process offers a carbon neutral fuel that will alleviate the continuing use of fossil fuels sources. This study was done to evaluate the possible applications of syngas originating from biomass gasification, as a follow up to the earlier biomass gasification research of the HighBio project. The syngas from the gasification process is generally produced in a gasifier. An overview of the different type of gasifiers for biomass gasification that include updraft, downdraft, crossdraft, entrained-flow and plasma gasifiers was presented. The syngas can be utilized in the generation of power, heat, fuels and chemicals. A detailed overview of the promising applications of the syngas in Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, hydrogen production, ammonia synthesis, hydroformylation of olefins, and syngas fermentation was also given. However, for these applications, a high degree of treatment and conditioning of the syngas is required. The treatment is usually carried out to remove undesirable impurities, while the conditioning of the gas is done to get the right H₂ to CO ratio for further applications of the syngas. Raw syngas from gasification processes can contains also impurities such as solid particulates, inorganic and organic impurities, which have to be removed. However, CO₂ is one of the major by-products in a gasification process. The removal of CO₂ is desirable in order to reduce the CO₂ emissions or to meet the downstream process requirement in relation to size and costs. Absorption processes are the most developed techniques in the separation of CO₂ in the industries. However, other techniques such as adsorption, membrane separation, and chemical-looping combustion have recently gained interest. Moreover, two MFI-types zeolite membranes (ZSM5-I and ZSM5-II) were tested in the separation of CO₂ from CO₂/N₂ mixtures in a laboratory scale experiments. Separation factor, gas permeability and CO₂ permeate flux were the parameters used to determine the membrane performance. The highest membrane performances of the feed gas compositions were achieved with low CO₂ gas composition, and at the low temperature separation experiments. However, in order to achieve high recovery and purity of CO₂, the separation experiment of the HighBio CO₂/N₂ feed composition using the ZSM5 zeolite membrane was evaluated at low temperature and constant feed and permeate pressures of 6 bar and 1 bar respectively. Based on the analysis, it is suggested that 6 successive membrane modules should be employed. Further investigations that incorporate other product gas compositions from biomass gasification, as well as the study of other type of inorganic membranes more suitable to CO₂/N₂ separation processes are highly recommended. The economic analysis of the multi-stage ZSM5 zeolite membrane separation could be also another interesting study.

Although boron is an essential micronutrient for some plants, animals and humans, the range between deficiency and excess is narrow. The effects of excess boron on plants includes the reduction of root cell division, retarded shoot and root growth, inhibition of photosynthesis, deposition of lignin and suberin and decrease in leaf chlorophyll. A report by the World Health Organization (WHO) suggests a safe maximum level of boron daily intake of 13 mg/d an excessive level of boron can be toxic to and can causes serious diseases. There are several methods applied for boron removal from aqueous solutions and seawater. Among these methods, ion exchange, which is the most extensively method. Ion-exchange and adsorption are widely used techniques to remove metals and other solutes from aqueous solutions. This includes the removal of boron from reverse osmosis (RO) permeate in the process of seawater desalination. The use of boron-selective ion exchange resins based on macroporous polystyrene matrices with the active group N-methyl-D-glucamine (NMG) seems to still have the highest importance for the elimination of boron. Kinetics of adsorption or IEX is in many cases strongly influenced by diffusion resistance in particles of adsorbent. This resistance can be decreased by using smaller particles. Sorbents can be used as very fine particles which results in increase of the surface area and the process rate, considerably. Hybrid adsorption membrane filtration has gained the interest lately as it can be used for the removal of very small quantities of harmful substances from water. This thesis deals used hybrid system on both lab and pilot scale where a pilot plant was designed for the removal of boron. Boron separation combines two phenomena: i) sorption with fine sorbent particles and ii) membrane separation of B-loaded macromolecules/particles. The hybrid system includes two separation loops. Loop 1: Binding of boron (B) on Amberlite IRA743 resin (S), which is subsequently followed by separation of this (BS) complex from the water by means of semi-permeable microfiltration membrane. Here, pure water (W) is the main product whereas the complex (BS) passes to the second stage of separation. The effects of different parameters on boron removal using Amberlite IRA743 resin were investigated in this thesis. These parameters are, resin particle size, solution pH, temperature, contact time, initial boron concentration, resin concentration and the existence of different salts and ions like NaCl, Na2SO4 and MgCl2. The removal increased with increasing pH, temperature, contact time and resin dosage while it decreased with increasing initial boron concentration and resin particle size. For the microfiltration stage, three Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) with different pore size have been used in this thesis. The effects of operational parameters like membrane pore size, transmembrane pressure, resin concentration and pH on permeate flux for hybrid adsorption-microfiltration were studied. The permeate flux increased with increasing the transmembrane pressure and pH but it decreased with increasing the resin concentration. The regeneration of loaded resin with boron was investigated. Hydrochloric acid (HCl) and sulfuric acid (H2SO4) at different concentrations have been used for the elution of boron from the saturated resin and then washing with sodium hydroxide (NaOH). There was an improvement in the boron removal after cycles of regeneration. The integrated adsorption-microfiltration was applied for boron removal from water and encouraging results were achieved.

Economic utilisation of biogas arising from sewage sludge is hampered by the need to remove siloxanes, which damage gas engines upon combustion. This thesis applies on-line Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to measure siloxanes in biogas upstream and downstream of the activated carbon vessels designed to adsorb siloxanes. On-line analysis provides accurate measurement of siloxane concentrations with a detection limit below the siloxane limits set by engine manufacturers, high data intensity and timely identification of breakthrough. Cost savings of up to £0.007 kWh- 1 may be realised compared to existing grab sampling. Using on-line analysis, the performance of full-scale and bench-scale carbon vessels were measured. Full-scale carbon contactors are typically operated at Reynold’s numbers close to the boundary between the laminar and transitional regimes (Re = 40 - 55). This thesis demonstrates, at full- and bench-scale, that increasing the Reynold’s number to site the adsorption process in the transitional regime increases media capacity, by 36% in dry gas and by 400% at 80% humidity. It is postulated that the change in gas velocity profile which occurs as Reynold’s number increases reduces the resistance to siloxane transport caused by gas and water films around the carbon particles, and therefore increases the rate of the overall adsorption process. In the laminar regime (Re = 31) increasing humidity from zero to 80% led to the classical stepwise reduction in adsorption capacity observed by other researchers, caused by the increasing thickness of the water film, but in the transitional regime (Re = 73) increasing humidity had no effect as no significant water film develops. It is therefore recommended that siloxane adsorption vessels should be designed to operate at Reynold’s numbers above 55. By choosing a high aspect ratio (tall and thin) both Reynold’s number and contact time can be optimised.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2001.
Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 42 p. : ill. (some col.). Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 33-34).

We have effectively identified and removed ground roll through a twostep process. The first step is to identify the major components of the ground roll through various methods including multiscale separation, directional or frequency filtering or by any other method that identifies the ground roll. Given this estimate for ground roll, the recorded signal is separated during the second step through a block-coordinate relaxation method that seeks the sparsest set for weighted curvelet coefficients of the ground roll and the sought-after reflectivity. The combination of these two methods allows us to separate out the ground roll signal while preserving the reflector information. Since our method is iterative, we have control of the separation process. We successfully tested our algorithm on a real data set with a complex ground roll and reflector structure.

The objective of this dissertation was to provide a controlled comparison of identical continuous flow BNR processes both with and without prefermentation in order to provide a stronger, more quantitative, technical basis for design engineers to evaluate the potential benefits of prefermentation to EBPR in treating domestic wastewater. In addition, the even less understood effect of prefermentation on denitrification kinetics and anoxic phosphorus (P) uptake was studied and quantified. Other aspects of BNR performance, which might change due to use of prefermentation, will also be addressed, including anaerobic stabilization. Potential benefits to BNR processes derived from prefermentation are compared and contrasted with the more well-known benefits of primary clarification. Finally, some biokinetic parameters necessary to successfully model both the activated sludge systems and the prefermenter were determined and compared for the prefermented versus the non-prefermented system. Important findings developed during the course of this dissertation regarding the impact of prefermentation upon the performance of activated sludge treatment systems are summarized below: • For a septic COD-limited (TCOD:TP < 40:1) wastewater, prefermentation was found to enhance EPBR by 27.7% at a statistical significance level of alpha=0.05 (95% confidence level). • For septic P-limited (TCOD:TP > 40:1) wastewaters, prefermentation was not found to improve EBPR at a statistical significance level of alpha=0.05 (95% confidence level). • The increased anaerobic P release and aerobic P uptakes due to prefermentation correlated with greater PHA formation and glycogen consumption during anaerobiosis of prefermented influent. • Improvements in biological P removal of septic, non-P limited wastewater occurred even when all additional VFA production exceeded VFA requirements using typical design criteria (e.g. 6 g VFA per 1 g P removal). • Prefermentation increased RBCOD content by an average of 28.8% and VFA content by an average of 18.8%, even for a septic domestic wastewater. • Prefermentation increased specific anoxic denitrification rates for both COD-limited (14.6%) and P-limited (5.4%) influent wastewaters. This increase was statistically significant at alpha=0.05 for COD-limited wastewater, but not for P-limited wastewater.
Ph.D.
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Engineering and Computer Science
Environmental Engineering

Diese Arbeit untersucht den Einsatz von keramischen Materialien in der Trinkwasseraufbereitung mittels Filtration und fokussiert dabei die Entfernung von Viren. Herkömmliche, auf Kieselgur basierende Tiefenfilter (Filterkerzen) mit Porengrößen im unteren Mikrometerbereich, werden hinsichtlich ihres Rückhaltevermögens gegenüber Kolloiden (Viren sowie Polystyrolpartikel) untersucht, um deren Einsatzfähigkeit in der Entfernung von Mikroorganismen im Allgemeinen abschätzen zu können. Ferner wird gezeigt, wie durch ein einfaches Verfahren solche Filter modifiziert werden können, um auch kleinste Viren mit ca. 30 nm Durchmessern aus dem Rohwasser zu entfernen. Die Zugabe von MgO während der Granulierungsstufe im Herstellungsprozess der Filterkerzen bewirkt eine erhebliche Verbesserung des Virenrückhalts bis zu über 99.9999%. Die experimentellen Ergebnisse wurden dabei mit theoretischen Modellen verglichen, um Aussagen über die Mechanismen der Virenentfernung treffen zu können.

Use of anaerobically digested sludge (ADS) in heavy metal removal, was researched. The raw and dewatered ADS samples collected from the effluent of anaerobic digesters and mechanical dewatering units of Ankara City Wastewater Treatment Plant were used. Sorption kinetic and equilibrium tests were conducted using raw ADS at initial pH of 2.0, 4.0 and without adjusting the initial pH. The highest Pb(II) removal capacity was observed as, 8.5 mmol (or 1760 mg) Pb(II) per g of biomass, when the initial pH was not controlled. When dewatered ADS was used Pb(II) removal capacity of ADS was found to drastically decrease to 2.5 mmol (or 518 mg) Pb(II) per g of biomass. Both biomass samples resulted in an increase in the solution pH from an initial value of 4 &ndash
5 to an equilibrium value of 7 &ndash
8. Large floc particles settling rapidly were formed after the ADS samples contacted with Pb(II) solution. The high Pb(II) removal capacities, and visual observations during the experiments indicated that precipitation is a dominant mechanism especially at low initial Pb(II) concentrations. FTIR studies showed that carboxyl groups present in the biomass surface of raw ADS were major functional groups in biosorption of Pb(II). The low capacity values attained at initial pH 2.0 indicated that there was a competition between Pb(II) species and hydrogen ions for carboxyl groups. Single and 3-stage fed-batch reactor systems were operated using raw ADS at different initial Pb(II) concentrations. The efficiency of reactor systems increased when 3-stage fed-batch configuration was used and an effluent Pb(II) concentration below 2 mg/L was reached from an initial value of about 200 mg/L.

ABSTRACT SULPHATE REMOVAL BY NANOFILTRATION FROM WATER Karabacak, Asli M.Sc., Department of Environmental Engineering Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ü
lkü
Yetis Co-advisor: Prof. Dr. Mehmet Kitis December 2010, 152 pages Excess sulphate in drinking water poses a problem due to adverse effects on human health and also due to aesthetic reasons. This study examines the nanofiltration (NF) of sulphate in surface water using a laboratory cross-flow device in total recycle mode. In the study, three NF membranes, namely DK-NF, DL-NF and NF-270, are used. The influence of the main operating conditions (transmembrane pressure, tangential velocity and membrane type) on the steady-state permeates fluxes and the retention of sulphate are evaluated. Kizilirmak River water is used as the raw water sample. During the experimental studies, the performance of NF is assessed in terms of the parameters of UVA254, sulphate, TOC and conductivity of the feed and permeates waters. Results indicated that NF could reduce sulphate levels in the surface water to a level below the guideline values, with a removal efficiency of around 98% with all three membranes. DK-NF and NF-270 membranes showed fouling when the surface water was fed directly to the system without any pre-treatment. MF was found to be an effective pretreatment option for the prevention of the membrane fouling, but no further removal of sulphate was achieved. Parametric study was also conducted. No change in flux values and in the removal of sulphate was observed when the crossflow velocity was lowered. The flux values were decreased as the transmembrane pressure was lowered
however there were not any decrease in the sulphate removal efficiency.

In our daily life, we are faced with many occluded faces. The occlusion may be from different objects like sunglasses, mufflers, masks, scarves etc. Sometimes, this occlusion is used by the criminal persons to hide their identity from the surroundings. In this thesis, a technique is used to detect the facial occlusion automatically. After detecting the occluded areas, a method for image reconstruction called aPCA (asymmetrical Principal Component Analysis) is used to reconstruct the faces. The entire face is reconstructed using the non occluded area of the face. A database of images of different persons is organized which is used in the process of reconstruction of the occluded images. Experiments were performed to examine the effect of the granularity of the occlusion on the aPCA reconstruction process. The input mask image is divided into different parts, the occlusion for each part is marked and aPCA is applied to reconstruct the faces. This process of image reconstruction takes a lot of processing time so pre-defined eigenspaces are introduced that takes very less processing time with very less quality loss of the reconstructed faces.

During zinc electrowinning, fluoride is the primary cause of aluminum cathode corrosion and the onset of difficulty in stripping zinc from the aluminum blank. It is therefore of great interest to determine how to remove fluoride from zinc plant solutions to prevent cathode corrosion and difficult stripping. There has been recent work on the removal of fluoride from drinking water and ground water. Research on zinc sulfate electrolyte purification has focused on metallic impurity removal, for example Cu, Co,Ni, Cd, Ti while halide impurities have been briefly investigated. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to investigate a reliable and economical process for fluoride removal from zinc sulfate electrolyte. In this work, aluminum pre-loaded Lewatit® MonoPlus TP 260 resin was introduced as the absorbent. This absorbent has a high fluoride-loading capacity through the formation of aluminum-fluoride complexes on the resin structure. Also, both aluminum chloride and aluminum sulfate have been found to be effective sources of aluminum for pre-loading of the resin. The loaded aluminum along with co-loaded fluoride may be removed by sulfuric acid stripping. The resin can then be conditioned with sodium hydroxide prior to be re-loaded with aluminum. As for the results, when 10 ppm fluoride existed in the initial solution, the fluoride capacity of the aluminum pre-loaded resin was calculated as 7.4 g F/L resin. Additionally, the breakthrough point could achieve 1000 bed volumes. Therefore, the cycle of aluminum sulfate pre-loading, fluoride-loading, sulfuric acid stripping, sodium hydroxide regeneration was recommended for effective fluoride removal in the zinc sulfate system.
Applied Science, Faculty of
Materials Engineering, Department of
Graduate

Thermal conversion of organic materials through gasification yields gaseous fuel. The fuel gas often requires cleaning and upgrading ahead of combustion in advanced technologies such as gas engines, fuel cells and turbines. Tar is one of the major impurities found in streams, and can foul and block equipment. This study focuses on catalytic destruction of tar in a hot gas stream, at different operating conditions to improve the gas yield and quality. Steam gasification and reforming of tar involves thermal decomposition of tar and the reaction of tar with steam and fuel gases. These processes contribute to complex kinetics of the overall process involving a series of reactions, including: CO + H2O ͍ CO2 + H2, CO + 3H2 → CH4 + H2O, C + H2O → CO + H2, CH4 + 2H2O → CO2 + 4H2, CO2 + 4H2 → CH4 + 2H2O, C + 2H2O → 2H2 + CO2, CO + 2H2 → CH3OH, C + CO2 → 2CO, 2C + H2 → C2H2, & C + 2H2 → CH4. The concentration of each component affects the rate of reaction for each product. Introducing a catalyst to these processes increases the rate reactions and hence the number of successful reactions. The operating temperature, residence time and type of feedstock are other factors that can also affect the gas yield and quality. In this work, a continuous fixed bed-reactor was developed and assembled at Imperial College London, and used to investigate the activity of Pt-, Rh- and Ni-based catalysts, provided by Johnson Matthey. Experiments were performed at temperatures from 700 oC to up to 950 oC. The carrier gas flow rate, the steam-to-carbon ratio and feed gas composition were also varied to investigate the reaction kinetics and reaction pathways. Rh- and Pt-based catalysts had a better activity, thermal durability and corrosion resistance than the Ni-based catalyst. The Rh-catalyst results at considered conditions and above 800 oC were just about the same as the equilibrium results. Rh- had a better longevity and a tar conversion to syngas as high as 98% at 750 oC and S/C of 3. Ni deactivated within initial 30 minutes whereas the Rh- and Pt-catalyst activity remained steady.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2007.
Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 95 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-91).

Coffee processing presents a considerable waste disposal problem, mainly because of the large volumes generated and the chemical composition of the by-products, particularly the caffeine levels. The use of Pseudomonas putida IF-3, a caffeine-degrading microorganism, in a microbial consortium for bioremediation of caffeine found in coffee wastes was investigated. Caffeine degradation was observed in fed-batch reactor experiments with caffeine as sole source of carbon and nitrogen. Metabolic regulation and caffeine removal potential by Pseudomonas putida IF-3 were investigated by supplementing with other nutrient sources. Diauxic growth was not observed. Nitrogen release from caffeine breakdown was found to be rate-limiting.
Effects of caffeine on microbial consortia were studied using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), providing a community-scale view of changes in microbial consortia upon caffeine addition. Surprisingly, caffeine removal was achieved indigenously by the microbial consortium. Principal component analysis was used to analyze differences in DGGE banding patterns between control and caffeine-exposed mixed cultures.