Environmental assessment of desalination processes: Reverse osmosis and Memstill®

Desalination becomes in many parts of the world and also in Europe a promising option to combat water stress in water scarce regions. However, also the question of sustainability and environmental impacts of this technology is in focus of numerous studies and discussions. Especially, the focus is set on high energy demand and disposal of...

Nano-silver in membranes for medical applications

Effect of toxic components on microbial fuel cell-polarization curves and estimation of the type of toxic inhibition

Polarization curves are of paramount importance for the detection of toxic components in microbial fuel cell (MFC) based biosensors. In this study, polarization curves were made under non-toxic conditions and under toxic conditions after the addition of various concentrations of nickel, bentazon, sodiumdodecyl sulfate and potassium ferricyanide....

Comparison of environmental impact and energy efficiency of desalination processes by LCA

In this study two desalination technologies have been compared by means of LCA with the focus on energy supply with a variety of scenarios based on different assumptions. The studied technologies are reverse osmosis and the newly developed technology Memstill where electrical energy demand is reduced by using external thermal energy source and...

Adlayers of palladium particles and their aggregates on porous polypropylene hollow fiber membranes as hydrogenization contractors/reactors

Principal approaches for the preparation of catalytic membrane reactors based on polymer membranes containing palladium nanoparticles and for the description of their characteristics are presented. The method for the development of adlayers composed of palladium nanoparticles and their aggregates on the surface of hydrophobic polypropylene...

Production of gas from coal seams in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin in Poland in the post-injection period of an ECBM pilot site

A pilot site for CO2 storage in coal seams was set-up in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin in Poland in the scope of the RECOPOL project, funded by the European Commission. About 760 tons CO2 were injected into the reservoir from August 2004 to June 2005. Breakthrough of the injected CO2 was established, which resulted in the production of about 10%...

Memstill® - Low cost membrane distillation technology for seawater desalination

Despite widespread research and development efforts during the last 25 years, membrane distillation still is not an accepted process for seawater desalination. A consortium of nine parties is presently developing a modified air gap membrane distillation (AGMD) process, aiming at presenting a low-cost alternative for both large and small scale RO...

Evaluation of Simple Treat 3.0 for two hydrophobic and slowly biodegradable chemicals: Polycyclic musks HHCB and AHTN

In the current study, predictions by Simple Treat 3.0, a fate model for organic chemicals in sewage treatment plants (STPs), are compared with actual measurements in three STPs. Two polycyclic musks, Tonalide® (AHTN) and Galaxolide® (HHCB), were used for model evaluation. Results show that Simple Treat 3.0 is able to predict the removal...

International issues on human health effects of exposure to chemical mixtures

In this article, we highlight new developments and recent studies concerning adverse human health effects related to chemical mixtures. One group of activities comprises the development of a new computer program for analyzing mixture studies and a mathematical model as a basis for combination rules that predict the toxicity of mixtures. Other...

Nitrite accumulation in an attapulgas clay biofilm reactor by fulvic acids

As a result of seriously polluted raw water sources, some water- treatment plants in China are intending to apply the biofilm process as a pretreatment prior to the traditional drinking water-treatment systems. These polluted raw waters contain higher total organic matter and ammonium than unpolluted waters. It has been reported that synthetic...

Water treatment in a Membrane-Assisted Crystallizer (MAC)

In many cases it is necessary to remove ions from aqueous streams because of environmental reasons or process demands. Crystallization is one of the available techniques for the removal of many unwanted ionic components from aqueous streams. The removal of ions by means of crystallization on foreign seeds offers technical, economical and...

Protection against toxic compounds: chemical and technological aspects

De nooddrinkwatervoorziening bij de Koninklijke Landmacht