Sharif Digital Repository

More than 50 percent of countries in the world will likely face water stress or water shortages by 2025, and by 2050, as much as 75 percent of the world's population could face water scarcity. Desalination technologies, particularly the reverse osmosis (RO) process, have increasingly been adopted to produce freshwater from alternative sources such as seawater and brackish water due to water scarcity. However, desalination applications have always been limited by the disposal costs of RO brine and the adverse impact of brine on the receiving environment. The scope of this paper is to identify technically and commercially RO brine disposal and treatment methods such as deep well injection,... 

This review paper is devoted to the intensification of processes for nitrate removal. First, the developments of microfluidic sensors for nitrate detection and analysis have addressed. Second, the process variables of photocatalytic nitrate removal have been categorized according to their relationship with activity, selectivity and stability of the catalyst. The objective of this classification is to generate guidelines toward the photocatalytic process optimization. Third, because of the fact that a single method for nitrate removal faces some challenges, hybrid methods have been presented, and the best choice for nitrate removal can be referred to as photocatalytic – reverse osmosis... 

Increasing demand of fresh water, and limitation water resources, with respect to world economic growth brings up the importance of utilization of saline water. At the current research the sensitivity analysis of ROSA was conducted. For this analysis, a single stage reverse osmosis is designed for well water specifi cation in southern Tehran under following condition: Feed fl ow: 40 m3/h and membrane Element: BW30–400 FR. The sensitivity analyses for all chemical element of base water were performed. As a result of sensitivity analysis shortest sensitivity gap, belongs to boron, and longest sensitivity gap, belongs to calcium. Which refl ects, under the same conditions, the least element to... 

The demand for freshwater has enormously risen the water stress in various parts of the globe. Accessibility of clean water is crucial for sustainable development involving socioeconomic and environmental promotion. Considering the fact that 96.5% of all Earth’s water is related to seawater, desalination (producing clean potable water from sea or saline water) can be considered as a leading solution to fulfill water scarcity problem. Among various advanced and conventional techniques, carbon nanotube (CNT) membrane has become an attractive alternate for most of water treatment methods owing supreme features such as easy operationality, low energy and expense requirement, high water... 

The fluoride ion is usually added to drinking water because of its prominent role in treating osteoporosis and improving dental health. However, fluoride contents over the optimal level (>1.5 ppm) in water resources has been found to have harmful effects on human health such as bone and dental fluorosis, Alzheimer's syndrome, DNA damage, infertility, kidney failure, acute gastric problems, thyroid disorder, brain damage, and even cancer. Therefore, sensitive and selective detection of fluoride ions and their removal from drinking water are of great significance. The unique features of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), such as chemical activities, a broad range of functionalities, high... 

The fluoride ion is usually added to drinking water because of its prominent role in treating osteoporosis and improving dental health. However, fluoride contents over the optimal level (>1.5 ppm) in water resources has been found to have harmful effects on human health such as bone and dental fluorosis, Alzheimer's syndrome, DNA damage, infertility, kidney failure, acute gastric problems, thyroid disorder, brain damage, and even cancer. Therefore, sensitive and selective detection of fluoride ions and their removal from drinking water are of great significance. The unique features of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), such as chemical activities, a broad range of functionalities, high... 

A series of ZIF-8/OND hybrid nanostructures with different percentages of oxidized nanodiamond (OND) was prepared. Then, the adsorptive removal performance of pristine ZIF-8 and its nanohybrids with OND towards methylene blue (MB) was investigated. The fabricated adsorbents were characterized via thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, nitrogen adsorption/desorption, field emission scanning electron microscopy and zeta potential measurements. The maximal adsorption capacity of ZIF-8 (242 mg/g) was found to grow steadily with the increment in OND content and reached an approximate plateau at 343 mg/g for the nanohybrid containing 5 wt% OND, i.e.... 

The objective of this research work was to obtain a microorganism capable of decolorizing treated distillery wastewater (TDW). 21 isolated and procured microorganisms were screened for their percentage decolorization. The screening strategy was performed using three different culture media in two main steps. The primary screening was carried out in two stages. In the first stage 10 microorganisms had a lower than 25% decolorization of TDW (with 25% TDW concentration). In the second stage 8 microorganisms had more than a 48% decolorization of TDW. In the secondary screening all 3 different culture media, the effect of TDW concentration, pH and nitrogen source were studied. A fungus identified... 

Pressure filters are popular in small municipal water treatment plants. One of the principles for designing and using the various units of water treatment plants is the ability of assigning and predicting the performance of those units under different and various conditions that could be verified by making pilot scale tests and could be modeled by means of available programs and software such as artificial neural network. The goals of this study that was conducted to predict pressure filter efficiency are: (1) evaluations of pressure filter efficiency for turbidity removal under different conditions such as turbidity of raw water, filtration rate and filter pressure changes; (2) statistical... 

Preparation and evaluation of chitosan-coated eggshell (CTS-ES) particles as a biosorbent for removal of Cu(II) ions from aqueous media was considered in this research. For this purpose, chitosan was coated on eggshell (ES) particles through precipitation procedure. The coated particles were characterized by Fourier transform infrared, thermogravimetric analysis, and field emission scanning electron microscopy analysis. Kinetic studies showed that coating of chitosan on ES particles improved their Cu(II) adsorption capacity. The removal of Cu(II) ions by either ES or CTS-ES particles followed the pseudo-second-order kinetics, indicating that chemical sorption is the rate-limiting step for... 

In common solar stills, a portion of the produced vapor undesirably condenses on the sidewalls and runs down to be mixed with saline water in the basin. This results in lower distillate output of the system. The aim of this study was to improve the condensation process of a solar still without complicating its structure to collect the water condensed on sidewalls. The proposed solar still was made of two containers nested one inside the other such that the smaller container, containing saline water, fitted easily into the larger container. There was a thin gap between the two in which condensed liquid on sidewalls, ran down and was collected from the bottom of the larger container. The... 

Heavy metals belong to a group of lethal environmental pollutants. Ongoing efforts targeted at safeguarding public health have led to considerable attention being focused on methods that allow efficient extraction of these toxic substances. Polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) with their special characteristics are a class of adsorbents that demonstrate high potential for use in heavy metal extraction. As this process of removal is predominantly governed by adsorption, various parameters in PNCs’ chemical structure, as well as the metal solutions, can have a significant effect on the adsorption process. Herein, this review undertakes a survey of recently developed PNCs and their metal adsorption... 

There is a need to find cheaper and simpler techniques for rural water filtration system in developing countries. Using a filter made of blocks for the water treatment enables one to make vertical filters. It is expected that the amount of land utilized would decrease by more than 70 % if vertical filters were used. The operation and washing would be simpler than using horizontal sand filters as filters made of blocks would be used instead. The feasibility study focused on finding adequate materials, compositions and methods of making a block with enough resistance to water pressure, sufficient porosity for water transformation, and using inexpensive, readily available materials. A pilot... 

Natural and modified clays were applied as adsorbents for the removal of organic contaminants from wastewater. This study presents an investigation on the technical feasibility of using modified minerals that are named organoclay for treatment of dissolved substances, mainly polyphenols in olive mill wastewater. The different parameters such as applied cation dosage were effective on the removal of contaminants by these adsorbents (%CEC), pollutant concentration, pH and particle size of minerals. In this investigation bentonite particles were modified by stirring the clay with a long chain quaternary ammonium cation. Doses of the applied cation varied from zero to 1.5 times the clay CEC.... 

In this study a membrane bioreactor (MBR) has been studied experimentally for the treatment of oil field wastewater (produced water). This type of wastewater is characterised with relativity moderate to high amount of salt and oil. The normal bacteria which are growing in conventional activated sludge and MBR cannot withstand at these adverse conditions, therefore it is necessary to be adapted. In this study, different samples from sea sediment in Bushehr (south of Iran) were analysed and different groups of bacteria were isolated and adapted for surveying under high salinity conditions. The performance and efficiency of these bacteria in the degradation of model oil has been studied. The...