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Showing posts with label wastewater. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wastewater. Show all posts

Saturday, 3 June 2017

More on biochar for wastewater industry applications

This looks interesting for the wastewater industry... The full publication is available from the linked title.

Bioremediation of Wastewater by Iron Oxide-Biochar Nanocomposites Loaded with Photosynthetic Bacteria 

Shiying He1 , Linghao Zhong2 , Jingjing Duan1 , Yanfang Feng1 , Bei Yang1 and Linzhang Yang1 * 
1 Institute of Agricultural Resources and Environment, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China, 
2 Department of Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, Mont Alto, PA, United States 

"It has been reported that bacteria-mediated degradation of contaminants is a practical and innocuous wastewater treatment. In addition, iron oxide nanoparticles (NP) are wastewater remediation agents with great potentials due to their strong adsorption capacity, chemical inertness and superparamagnetism. Therefore, a combination of NPs and microbes could produce a very desirable alternative to conventional wastewater treatment. For this purpose, we first prepared Fe3O4/biochar nano-composites, followed by loading photosynthetic bacteria (PSB) onto them. It was found that Fe3O4/biochar nano-composites exhibited a high adsorption capacity for PSB (5.45 × 109 cells/g). The efficiency of wastewater pollutants removal by this PSB/Fe3O4/biochar agent was then analyzed. Our results indicated that when loaded onto Fe3O4/biochar nano-composites, PSB’s nutrient removal capability was significantly enhanced (P < 0.05). This agent removed 83.1% of chemical oxygen demand, 87.5% of NH+ 4 , and 92.1% of PO3− 4 from the wastewater in our study. Our experiments also demonstrated that such composites are outstanding recyclable agents. Their nutrient removal capability remained effective even after five cycles. In conclusion, we found the PSB/Fe3O4/biochar composites as a very promising material for bioremediation in the wastewater treatment. "

Wednesday, 19 April 2017

IBI Webinar: Sewage sludge & Biochar, 26Apr




Reminder! One Week from Today.
New this month: one of our IBI members has put together an 11 page summary of recent sewage sludge and biochar peer reviewed academic research.  This packet will be available only to IBI members and those that register for this webinar!
International Biochar Initiative - Educational Webinar Series
 Sewage Sludge & Biochar
April 26, 2017 • 1:00- 2:30pm ET (United States)
As the world's population continues to increase, our need to find sustainable methods of managing human waste becomes increasingly more important.  Carbonizing waste through pyrolysis or gasification offers some significant advantages over other common waste management practices including substantial reductions in the overall volume of waste, nutrient recovery, renewable energy production, reducing GHG emissions related to wastewater management, immobilization of toxins, to name a few.
Dr. Saran Sohi, an academic from the University of Edinburgh, will provide an overview of scientific research being conducted on the topic of biochar derived from sewage sludge, including the potential for recovery and re-use of Phosphorus.
Jeff Hallowell, CEO of Biomass Controls, has been collaborating with the Gates Foundation for several years where their technology is being used to carbonize human sewage in India.  Jeff will share an overview of the project including lessons learned, challenges and the vast opportunities, especially for remote communities, to convert human waste into biochar.
This webinar will be of interest to wastewater treatment managers both in the developed and developing world, biochar producers, researchers, climate researchers and more.  An interactive Q&A period will follow at the end of the Webinar.  Questions may be submitted during the event or prior to it via email: webinars@biochar-international.org

Cost?
Free to IBI Members or $40 for non-members
To Register:
Registration includes access to the slides and a recording of the webinar.
IBI Members register here (go to the upcoming webinars section). Your event link will be emailed to you after successful confirmation about your membership status.
Non-IBI members register here.
Presenters:

Dr. Saran Sohi
Dr. Sohi leads the soil science dimension of the UK Biochar Research Center (UKBRC) which was launched in 2009. 
The Centre is based in the University of Edinburgh, within the School of GeoScience and emerging out of the Scottish Centre for Carbon Storage.

Collectively the UKBRC addresses biochar production technologies, the function of biochar in soil, potential carbon-equivalent gains from pyrolysis-biochar systems, and scoping socio-economic opportunities and issues (including regulation and land-use).


HallowellJeff Hallowell
Jeff has over 30 years of experience in the computer technology industry with companies such as Xerox, Oracle, Netscape and United Healthcare.  As the former President of ClearStak for five years, Jeff worked on pollution reduction and improving efficiency on hydronic and forced air heats, wood boilers, pellet burners, biochar kilns and wood stoves.  His experience includes the development and modification of automatic controls for each biomass system including Biomass Controls' patented Pollution Control Device and Intelligent Biofuel Controller.  Currently Jeff is working on several projects including rolling out human excreta-to-biochar processing systems that provide a suitable sanitation option to meet the needs of the urban poor as part of the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundaiton.  He was also the Project Manager for the Relocate, LLC project to process human solid waste to biochar in the arctic climate of Kivalina, Alaska.

 
Moderator:  Kathleen Draper
Kathleen is a member of the IBI Board and Chair of IBI's Information Hub. She is also the US Director of the Ithaka Institute for Carbon Intelligence. The Institute is an open source network focusing on beneficial carbon sequestration strategies which simultaneously provide economic development opportunities both in the developed and developing world. She is an editor and writer for The Biochar Journal, sponsored by the Ithaka Institute. Kathleen also works with various different universities and individuals on projects that are investigating the use of biochar in cement and other building and packaging products to develop products with lower embodied carbon which can be made from locally available organic waste. She has written extensively about various topics related to biochar and is a co-author of the book "Terra Preta: How the World's Most Fertile Soil Can Help Reverse Climate Change and Reduce World Hunger".

For more information:
What questions do you have about biochar quality and use? Please send your questions by April 23rd to webinars@biochar-international.org. For more information or if you have any questions about registration please email Vera Medici at vmedici@ttcorp.com.
Want to become an IBI member?  Visit our membership page to help support IBI.