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  • Toxicity reduction and biodegradability enhancement of cork processing wastewaters by ozonation
    Publication . Gomes, A.C.; Silva, Lúcia; Simões, Rogério; Canto, N.; Albuquerque, Antonio
    Biodegradability enhancement and detoxification of cork boiling wastewater (CBW) are required for the successful implementation of biological treatment options. We studied the possibility of achieving these goals through ozonation pre-treatment by experimenting on the effect of ozone dose and pH. The CBW used had a pH of 5.81, a chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 1,865 mg L-1, a biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) of 498 mg L-1 and total phenol (TP) and tannin compounds concentrations of 523 and 399 mg L-1, respectively. The ozone doses ranged from 0.27 to 2.63 for the O-3(applied)/COD0 ratios with samples at natural pH and set to 3.33 and 9.96. Ozonation allowed the BOD20/COD ratio (biodegradability index) to increase from 0.37 to 0.63 and a toxicity reduction from 3.08 to 1.24 TU (Microtox). The corresponding removals obtained were 15.2-62.0%, 38.4-83.2% and 56.7-92.1% for COD, TP and colour, respectively. The best outcome of ozonation pre-treatment requires O-3(applied)/COD0 ratios over 1.5 and an acid pH. The increase of TP removals with ozone dose at acid pH led to biodegradability enhancement and CBW detoxification. However, for similar conditions the highest COD removals were obtained at alkaline pH due to the hydroxyl radicals' high oxidation ability but lack of selectivity.
  • Biodegradability enhancement and detoxification of cork processing wastewater molecular size fractions by ozone
    Publication . Santos, Diana C.; Silva, Lúcia; Albuquerque, Antonio; Simões, Rogério; Gomes, A.C.
    Cork boiling wastewater pollutants were fractionated by sequential use of four ultrafiltration membranes and five fractions were obtained: four retentates (>100, 50-100, 20-50 and 10-20 kDa) and one permeate (<10 kDa); which were used to study the correlation of molecular size with biodegradability and toxicity before and after ozonation. The results show that molecular size is correlated with organic load and restrains biodegradability. The fraction with >100 kDa corresponds to 56% of the organic load and the one with <10 kDa only 8%. The biodegradability of fractions increased 182% with fractions molecular size reduction from >100 to < 10 kDa and the chemical oxygen demand (COD) was from 3436 to 386 mg L-1. For biodegradability enhancement the best outcome of ozonation was obtained with compounds having molecular size >20 kDa and range from 5% up to 175% for applied ozone doses to COD ratios between 0.15 and 0.38.