Research Abstracts

For the majority of the Greek islands, water resources are quite restricted, limiting the economic development of the local societies. To face increased potable water requirements, more than 2,500,000 m3 of clean water is transferred annually to these islands at a cost approaching the value of 7 i/m

A submerged membrane bioreactor (SMBR) treating ammonia-bearing synthetic inorganic wastewater without sludge purge was studied in respect to nitrification and microbial parameters over a period of 210 days. The reactor + was operated at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 24 h, and the NH4 -N volum

Solvent-resistant hollow-fiber UF membranes were selected by measurement of fiber swelling and treatability studies on spent solvent cleaning rinse. The experimental results indicated that the membranes made of both cellulose acetate (CA) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) materials could tolerate the solv

The transport of a trivalent chromium ion through charged polysulfonated cation-exchange membranes in the presence of metals of different valences under Donnan dialysis conditions was studied as a function of pH gradient at 25°C. The recovery factor (RF) values of chromium ion were obtained, and it

A membrane separation process, nanofiltration (NF), has been applied successfully for treatment of oil sands waters, particularly to water softening and removal of toxic components. This study focused on the selection of appropriate membranes and the assessment of their performance for the removal o

For long-term space missions, the algae Arthrospira platensis (previously Spirulina platensis) can be used as a food component. A. platensis can be cultured in a Zarrouk medium (further called “medium”) which contains several salts. As a result, the cultured cells have to be washed to make them edib

Diester manufacturing plants produce large quantities of glycerol solutions. Their economic development requires sodium sulfate elimination to obtain glycerol rates over 80% of the initial content. Conventional electrodialysis (ED) and bipolar electrodialysis (BED) were investigated for their perfor

Excess fluoride in drinking water is harmful for human health, so it is necessary to be removed. In this study the potential of a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane for defluoridation of underground water samples at different solute concentrations was studied. Because of the variation in feed water compo

Four microemulsions were formulated as model systems for “cutting oil” consisting of water, mineral oil as an organic component, sodium dodecylsulfate or dodiflood as a surfactant, and alcohol as a co-surfactant. Their stability was ascertained by a rheology study and their oil/water nature was conf

Filtration performance and fouling of nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes in the treatment of dairy industry wastewater were investigated. Two series of experiments were performed. The first one involved a NF membrane (TFC-S) for treating the chemical–biological treatment plant ef