Lupine Publishers| Development of Novel Composite Biomaterials for Use as Biodegradable Adsorbents and or Bio-Carriers During Wastewater Treatments Using Galerkin’s Finite Element Analysis

  Lupine Publishers| Journal of Robotics & Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

In this study, the development of novel composite biomaterials for use as biodegradable adsorbents and or bio-carriers during wastewater treatments was carried out using Galerkin’s finite element analysis. Several literatures in the past showed that the increment in number of wastewater treatment plants, made it difficult to manage the wastewater systems. Therefore, to ensure proper discharge from the wastewater treatment plants, new and stricter regulations for nutrient removal have to be incorporated. Several wastewater treatment measures that have been adapted to date includes: bio filtration, ion exchange, sedimentation, solvent extraction, chemical oxidation, membrane processes, coagulation, oxidation, Fenton process, and electro coagulation. The data used in this analysis were obtained from various literature sources and were analyzed using Galerkin’s finite element analysis method in order to develop models that would analyze the empirical parameters affecting wastewater treatments. The result obtained showed that the removal efficiencies for wet season are TDS (16), BOD (63), COD (55.8) and N (72%) respectively. The results justified the presence of high impurities as a result of influx of wastes from industries, households etc into the river body.

Introduction

Freshwater is the chief constituent of the planet and is essential for the survival of all living organisms [1-5]. The continuous addition of undesirable chemicals, agricultural wastes [11], civilization, industrial wastes, other environmental and global changes etc. reduced the quality of water resources [18]. Over the last century, major part of the world has been facing degradation of environment because of the continuous growth in population [12]. With the growing population, there is a striking increase in usage and wastage of water for domestic purposes. Domestic wastewater is usually the water discharged from household purposes such as toilets, dishwashers, showers, sinks, washing machines etc. [8]. The contamination due to organic pollutants is very dangerous due to their various side effects and carcinogenic nature. Several literatures reveal some methods for the removal of organic pollutants from water. The methods used in literature suggested that the methods might depend on their physical, chemical, electrical, thermal and biological properties [13-17].

While other researchers proposed that oxidation, reverse osmosis, ion exchange, electro-dialysis, electrolysis, adsorption as another method of wastewater removal etc. Of course, reverse osmosis, ion exchange, electro-dialysis, electrolysis and adsorption are excellent wastewater removal technologies. Several reviews were made in the past in order to determine the best wastewater removal technique. Others argued that before talking about wastewater removal technique, that it is imperative to firstly divide the wastewater treatment procedures into primary and secondary treatment processes depending on either the removal of solid particles physically by using screens or biological treatment where microorganisms consume organic matter and convert it into inorganic compounds. [6-7] Nitrogen and phosphorus removal are the major goals of wastewater treatment which can be carried out biologically in an economically feasible and environmentally friendly manner in recent years [19]. In case of phosphorus, sometimes biological methods are not efficient because of lack of carbon. Hence, to make up for the lack of carbon, some additional organic matter is added to the biological reactors which increases the cost of operation and results in generation of one more pollutant. However, there is an alternative for this problem which is the use of enhanced biological phosphorus removal which works efficiently for domestic waters with Low C/N ratio [1]. Nowadays, with the increment in number of wastewater treatment plants, it has become challenging to manage the wastewater systems. Therefore, to ensure proper discharge from the wastewater treatment plants, new and stricter regulations for nutrient removal have been incorporated. Several wastewater treatment measures that have been adapted to date include bio filtration, ion exchange, sedimentation, solvent extraction, chemical oxidation, membrane processes, coagulation, oxidation, Fenton process, and electro coagulation [1,2].

Adsorption is today regarded as the best water treatment procedure because of its universal nature, ease of operation and inexpensiveness.it has a removal capacity rate of 99.9% .The adsorption has some limits which made its removal rates not to perfect [9-20]. To comply with these limits, there is a need for modeling and operation control of wastewater treatment plants. However, the modeling of wastewater treatment systems tends to become intricate due to certain characteristics such as unusually long residence times, plenty of tunable kinetic parameters and large variations in influent component flow rates. Nevertheless, with the advancements in technology, activated sludge modeling, flow sheet simulators and computational fluid dynamics have emerged as some significant tools for modeling Wastewater treatment plants. Over the years, dynamic modeling has come across as a remarkable approach for developing operational models in process design and management. Moreover, these Models help in establishing operating policies and control strategies for the wastewater treatment plants which in turn maximizes the plant performance and comply with the required permit limits. The mathematical modeling of wastewater, the performance of the pH, dissolved oxygen demands, and other wastewater analytical parameters were not captured in literature

Mathematical Formulation:

The mathematical formulation can be carried out by considering the following assumptions

1. The evolution of the biological oxygen demand and the dissolved oxygen for freshwater treatment are governed by partial differential equations

2. The outfalls are located at points

3. The convex functions are known

4. The fluid medium is continuous.

5. The soil matrix is continuous.

6. The fluid is in mot ion.

7. The soil medium undergoes consolidation.

8. The fluid is incompressible.

9. The air phase is continuous and is at atmospheric pressure.

10. Flow is laminar and Darcy’s law is valid.

The biological oxygen demand and dissolved oxygen concentrations in a point u and a time t be denoted by ρ1(u,t) and ρ2(u,t) respectively .The boundary equations can be obtained by

Considering the following boundary value problems

Let h(u,t) and x ⃗(u,t) be the height and the mean horizontal velocity of the fluid layer obtained as a solution of saint venant equation. ∂(x-p_J) is the dirac measure for point p_i and the parameters β1> 0, β2 >0 represents the horizontal viscosity coefficients involving the dispersion and turbulence effects. Parameters k1> 0, k2 >0 represents the kinetic coefficients related to temperature and transference of oxygen through the surface and ds is the oxygen saturation density which can be drawn from experimental measurements.

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