Background: Highly-concentrated phosphate and nitrate anions from sugarcane wastewater are often discharged into public waters without standardized treatments. This study assessed the effects of electrical coagulation, initial pH and reaction time in the removal of phosphate and nitrate pollutants. Methods: We used aluminum electrodes to remove the pollutants at Hakhim Farabi Agricultural and Industrial complex, Khuzestan Province, Iran. A septic tank was used for collecting water samples followed by measuring the pH, and the concentrations of phosphate and nitrate in the samples. The pH was set at 5, 7, 9 or 11. Six aluminum electrodes were placed perpendicular to the water flow and were connected to power in a single-polar method. They were used to assess the effects of pH changes, electrical power at 10 and 30 volts and the water retention time at 15, 30, 45 or 60 min. on the efficiency of the pollutants’ removal. Results: The results indicated that under equal retention time and varying pH values, as voltage increased from 10 to 30, the phosphate and nitrate removal increased progressively. It was further demonstrated that the maximum phosphate removal efficiency was achieved at pH7, while it declined at higher pH levels. The highest possible nitrate removal efficiency was achieved under alkaline pH levels. The overall results showed that at every pH and voltage, the percentage of phosphate and nitrate removal increased over time. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that electro-coagulation process is an appropriate and efficient method to remove phosphate and nitrate pollutants from sugarcane wastewaters.
Assessment of superabsorbent polymer effect on water use efficiency of plant under water deficit conditions Evaluación del efecto del polímero súper absorbente en la eficiencia del uso del agua de la planta en condiciones de déficit de agua
The high level of reliability of water resources is always an advantage for consumers, but in arid and semi-arid regions where the inflow to the reservoir is faced with severe fluctuations, it makes sense to decrease the percentage of reliability of the system and allocate less water to consumuption zones to prevent critical conditions such as emptying of the reservoir. In this research, the employed operaton modelis based on the simulation-optimization combination, which by considering the objectives of minimizing the violation of the allowed capacity of the new reservoir and maximizing the percentage of supplying the demands, the optimal hedging variables are specified through the reservoir simulator link to the MOPSO multi-objective optimization algorithm. According to the available data, the duration of the simulation and optimization period in the model is 360 months.After 1000 iterations, the optimal reservoir volume values are obtained at the hedging level and hedging coefficient in different months. Finally, the model results are compared with the results obtained from the standard operation policy (SOP). The results show that the proposed model is able to manage the allocation to needs in the dry months and prevent the tank from emptying. Also, by storing a part of the flow in the reservoir in watery months and consuming it in low water months, it increases the supply of needs by 20 to 35% and reduce the failure rate in dry months.
The high level of reliability of water resources is always an advantage for consumers, but in arid and semi-arid regions where the inflow to the reservoir is faced with severe fluctuations, it makes sense to decrease the percentage of reliability of the system and allocate less water to consumuption zones to prevent critical conditions such as emptying of the reservoir. In this research, the employed operaton modelis based on the simulation-optimization combination, which by considering the objectives of minimizing the violation of the allowed capacity of the new reservoir and maximizing the percentage of supplying the demands, the optimal hedging variables are specified through the reservoir simulator link to the MOPSO multi-objective optimization algorithm. According to the available data, the duration of the simulation and optimization period in the model is 360 months. After 1000 iterations, the optimal reservoir volume values are obtained at the hedging level and hedging coefficient in different months. Finally, the model results are compared with the results obtained from the standard operation policy (SOP). The results show that the proposed model is able to manage the allocation to needs in the dry months and prevent the tank from emptying. Also, by storing a part of the flow in the reservoir in watery months and consuming it in low water months, it increases the supply of needs by 20 to 35% and reduce the failure rate in dry months.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.