Nihan Goral

By Ayse Kurt, Berna Kiril Mert, Nihan Özengin, Özge Sivrioğlu and Taner Yonar

Antibiotics are nonbiodegradable, can survive at aquatic environments for long periods and they have a big potential bio-accumulation in the environment. They are extensively metabolized by humans, animals and plants. After metabolization, antibiotics or their metabolites are excreted into the aquatic environment. Removal of these compounds from the aquatic environment is feasible by different processes. But antibiotics are not treated in conventional wastewater treatment plants efficiently. During the last years studies with advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for removal of these pharmaceuticals from waters has shown that they can be useful for removing them fully. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) can work as alternatives or complementary method in traditional wastewater treatment, and highly reactive free radicals, especially hydroxyl radicals (OH) generated via chemical (O3/H2O2, O3/OH-), photochemical (UV/O3, O3/H2O2) reactions, serve as the main oxidant. This study presents an overview of the literature on antibiotics and their removal from water by advanced oxidation processes. It includes almost all types of antibiotics which are consumed by human and veterinary processes. It was found that most of the investigated advanced oxidation treatment processes for the oxidation of antibiotics in water are direct and indirect photolysis with the combinations of H2O2, TiO2, ozone and Fenton?s reagent.

Part of the book: Physico-Chemical Wastewater Treatment and Resource Recovery

By Berna Kırıl Mert, Nihan Ozengin, Esra Can Dogan and Coskun Aydıner

In the recent past years, micropollutants that are pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) have been used extensively and have been discovered in raw sewage, wastewater treatment plants, effluents, surface, and groundwater with concentrations from ng/L to several μg/L. Even though many of these compounds are still not determined online, monitoring technology improvements progressed. Today’s wastewater treatment plants are not constructed to remove these micropollutants yet. Conventional activated sludge processes are used in the treatment of municipal wastewater but are not specifically designed for the removal of micropollutants. The remaining pharmaceuticals mix into surface waters. At that stage, they can adversely affect the aquatic environment and may cause issues for drinking water production. As the conventional methods are insufficient for removing the micropollutants, other alternative treatment methods can be applied such as coagulation-flocculation, activated carbon adsorption (powdered activated carbon and granular activated carbon), advanced oxidation processes, membrane processes, and membrane bioreactor. It has been observed that membrane bioreactor (MBR) can achieve higher and more consistent micropollutants removal. The removal of micropollutants is based on physicochemical properties of micropollutants and the conditions of treatment. Due to recent technical innovations and cost reductions of the actual membranes, the membrane bioreactor takes attention. In this study, membrane bioreactor experiments for micropollutants in drinking use, wastewater, and surface waters were investigated in detail based on literature investigations, and the feasibility of this method was evaluated.

Part of the book: Wastewater and Water Quality

By Taner Yonar, Özge Sivrioğlu and Nihan Özengin

Dairy industries have grown in most countries because of the demand in milk and milk products. This rise has led to the growth of dairy industries. The wastewaters discharged from this industry contain high concentrations of nutrients, chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), total suspended solids (TSS) and organic and inorganic contents, which can cause serious environmental problems if not properly treated. The conventional biological treatment methods are suitable for dairy wastewaters due to its high biodegradability. However, long chain fatty acids formed during the hydrolysis of lipids show the inhibitory action during anaerobic treatment. Sequencing batch reactor (SBR) and up flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) systems seem to be the most promising technology for the biological treatment of dairy wastewaters. Several research papers have been published on the application of aerobic and anaerobic treatment technologies for dairy industry wastewater, but both treatment methods still have some disadvantages. The most important challenge is to find cost-efficient and environmentally sustainable approaches to enable water reuse and waste management. Therefore, alternative treatment technologies against biological treatment methods such as coagulation, adsorption, membrane and electrolysis processes are under investigation. This chapter provides a critical review focusing on physicochemical treatment technologies of dairy wastewater.

Part of the book: Technological Approaches for Novel Applications in Dairy Processing