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Bed expansion serves an important function in the design and operation of an upflow anaerobic reactor. An analysis of the flow pattern of expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) reactors shows that most EGSB reactors do not behave as expanded bed reactors, as is widely perceived. Rather, these reactors behave as fluidized bed reactors based on the classic chemical reactor theory. In this paper, four bed expansion modes, divided as static bed, expanded bed, suspended bed, and fluidized bed, for bioreactors are proposed. A high-rate anaerobic suspended granular sludge bed (SGSB) reactor was then developed. The SGSB reactor is an upflow anaerobic reactor, and its expansion degree can be easily controlled within a range to maintain the suspended status of the sludge bed by controlling upflow velocity. The results of the full-scale reactor confirmed that the use of SGSB reactors is advantageous. The full-scale SGSB reactor runs stably and achieves high COD removal efficiency (about 90%) at high loading rates (average 40 kg-COD·m·d, maximum to 52 kg-COD·m·d) based on the SGSB theory, and its expansion degree is between 22% and 37%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-made cation exchange resin supported nanoscale zero-valent iron (R-nZVI) was used to remove phosphorus in rainwater runoff. 80% of phosphorus in rainwater runoff from grassland was removed with an initial concentration of 0.72 mg·L phosphorus when the dosage of R-nZVI is 8 g per liter rainwater, while only 26% of phosphorus was removed when using cation exchange resin without supported nanoscale zero-valent iron under the same condition. The adsorption capacity of R-nZVI increased up to 185 times of that of the cation exchange resin at a saturated equilibrium phosphorous concentration of 0.42 mg·L. Various techniques were implemented to characterize the R-nZVI and explore the mechanism of its removal of phosphate. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicated that new crystal had been formed on the surface of R-nZVI. The result from inductive coupled plasma (ICP) indicated that 2.1% of nZVI was loaded on the support material. The specific surface area was increased after the load of nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI), according to the measurement of BET-N method. The result of specific surface area analysis also proved that phosphorus was removed mainly through chemical adsorption process. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis showed that the new product obtained from chemical reaction between phosphate and iron was ferrous phosphate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A self-developed sewer health assessment system using the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation and analytical hierarchy process was applied to give a comprehensive health condition evaluation on part of the local sewers in a southern Chinese city based on the sewer video data collected by a sewer inspection closed circuit television (CCTV) robot. Aside from the overall condition evaluation, the structure, function, and stability status of the sewer were also analyzed using the method. A comprehensive index H was proposed to give the overall health condition of pipes with different defects, and H, H, and H were used to quantify the defects affecting the tightness, stability, and function of the pipe, respectively. Results show that 48% of the inspected pipes were in good condition (0< H<0.25), and about 33% of the sewer pipes analyzed were categorized to be at severe or urgent condition levels ( H>0.5), although most of the pipes were installed only within five years. Frequent sedimentation affects the function of the sewer, and deformation and joint damage affect the structure of the sewer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]