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The effectiveness of ozone treatment for improving (he biodegradability of recalcitrant pollutants has been proved by investigating the ozonation reaction of FAST-VIOLET-B (FVB) a bioresistant chemical intermediate of azo-dyes. Laboratory scale experiments have been carried out, at room temperature, by bubbling, for 90 min, ozonated air (9ppmO3/min) into 0.35 l of an alkaline (pH=11) aqueous solution (50 ppm) of FVB. The experimental results indicate that during the ozonation, even though complete FVB degradation occurs in 10 min, ozone consumption goes on for a further 20 min after which time most degradation reactions are completed. The main ozonation by-products, identified by HPLC, IC, and GC-MS are formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, glyoxal, acetone, acetic-, formic-, oxalic- and carbonic-acid, plus six FVB derivatives scarcely biodegradable. At the end of the ozonation, i.e. after 30 min., the initial values of TOC (35 mgC/l) and COD (103 mgO2/l) are respectively 27 and 25 and correspond to a relative removal of about 23% and 76%. As for FVB solution biodegradability expressed as (BOD5)/COD) ratio, during the first 10 min its value regularly increases from zero up to a maximum of 0.75 that corresponds to an ozone consumption of 2.4 mg per each mg of organic carbon initially present in the solution.

Among the activities appointed by the EC research-project “Integrated water recycling and emission abatement in the textile industry” (Contract: ENV4-CT95-0064), the effectiveness of ozone for improving the biotreatability of recalcitrant effluents as well as for removing from them toxic and/or inhibitory pollutants has been evaluated at lab-scale. Real membrane concentrates (pH=7.9; TOC=190 ppm; COD=595 ppm; BOD5=0 ppm; Conductivity=5,000 μS/cm; Microtox-EC20=34%) produced at Bulgarograsso (Italy) Wastewater Treatment Plant by nanofiltering biologically treated secondary textile effluents, have been treated with ozonated air (O3conc.=12 ppm) over 120 min. The results have indicated that during ozonation, BOD5 increases from 0 to 75 ppm, whereas COD and TOC both decrease by about 50% and 30 % respectively. As for potentially toxic and/or inhibitory pollutants such as dyes, nonionic surfactants and halogenated organics, all measured as sum parameters, removals higher than 90% were achieved as confirmed by the complete disappearance of acute toxicity in the treated streams. The only ozonation byproducts searched for and found were aldehydes whose total amount continuously increased in the first hour from 1.2 up to 11.8 ppm. Among them, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, glyoxal, propionaldehyde, and butyraldehyde were identified by HPLC.

A design model of sewage sludge incineration plants has been developed to examine the possibilities for energy recovery. It was evident that, without sludge drying, there was a high fuel (methane) consumptions (149–192 Nm3/t sludge cake at 25% concentrations), but considerable amount of electric energy is obtainable (391–515 kWh/t sludge cake). Sizes of boiler and whole exhaust gases treatment line are in this case quite large. On the contrary, fuel consumption can be lowered down to 20 Nm3/t sludge cake at 44% concentration by introducing sludge drying. In this case fuel is needed only in the afterbuming chamber, as the combustion in the fluidized bed furnace is autothermal. Boiler and exhaust gas treatment line are considerably reduced in size when power production is not performed, thus allowing a simpler and smaller plant to be designed.

This work presents a thorough fractionation of COD in raw sewage, followed by pilot plant coagulation tests with low-dosage lime (pH 9). Through a physical separation (sieving and crossflow filtration) total COD in the raw sewage was partitioned among eight size fractions in the range of 150–0.02μm. In addition, respirometric tests were performed to measure the biodegradability of the different size fractions. More than 60% of COD was associated with settleable and supracolloidal particles (size >1μm), which are characterised by slow biodegradability. Coagulation with lime increased COD removal efficiencies in the primary treatment from typical 30–35%, up to 65–70%, suggesting that lime may induce the almost complete removal of the slowly settling, slowly biodegradable supracolloidal particles in the primary treatment. On the basis of these results a non-conventional sewage treatment scheme is proposed, considering that there is plenty of space for improving primary treatment efficiency through sewage coagulation. Higher primary treatment efficiency may present several advantages, including lower aeration energy in the subsequent biological unit and higher energy recovery from sludge digestion.