A large quantity of sludge is generated each year from water treatment plants in Egypt. Disposing the sludge to the nearest water stream is the common practice in Egypt, which accumulatively rise the aluminum concentrations in water and consequently in human bodies. This practice has been linked to occurrence of Alzheimer’s disease. Landfill disposal of the sludge is impractical because of the ...

Removal of five acidic pharmaceuticals (ibuprofen, ketoprofen, naproxen, diclofenac and clofibric acid) by activated sludge from five municipal activated sludge treatment processes, with various sludge ages and nitrification capacities, was assessed through batch experiments. The increase in aerobic sludge age from 1-3 to 7 d seemed to be critical for the removal ofnaproxen and ketoprofen, with...

Samples of wastewater sludge were examined for infectious enteroviruses before and after they had been chemically conditioned and dewatered. The least virus was recovered from the cake produced by filter pressing of sludge, which had a greatly increased solids content (39 to 45% [wt/vol]) relative to the untreated sludge (4.2 to 6.2% [wt/vol]) and in one plant was at pH 11 due to the lime condi...

The prerequisite to the development success of the novel mainstream processes partial nitritation/anammox is the out-selection of nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB). A recent study suggested that this could be achieved through NO production by ammonium oxidizing bacteria under cyclic oxic-anoxic conditions. Indeed, it is known that among NOB, Nitrobacter species are reversibly inhibited by NO. Ho...

The leaching and/or accumulation of trace elements in sulfate reducing granular sludge systems was investigated. Two thermophilic up-flow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) reactors operated at pH 5 were fed with sucrose (4 gCOD l(reactor)(-1)d(-1)) and sulfate at different COD/SO(4)(2-) ratios. During the start-up of such acidogenic systems, an initial leaching of trace elements from the inoculum slu...

Application of fish sludge as fertiliser to agricultural land can contribute to closing nutrient cycles in fish farming. The effect of different treatment technologies on the nitrogen fertilisation effects of fish sludge was studied by a bioassay with barley (Hordeum vulgare), an incubation and a field experiment. Dried fish sludge resulted in relative agronomic efficiency of 50-80% compared wi...

PCR detection of seeded poliovirus type 1 in sludge-amended soil was made possible by utilizing Sephadex G-50 and Chelex-100 resins to remove compounds present in sludge-amended soil that may inhibit PCR. With this method, enteroviruses indigenous to an anerobically digested sludge were detected by PCR in 10 different soils amended with this sludge.

The aim of this work is to evaluate the influence of cyclophosphamide and its principal metabolites (CPs) on microbial behaviour in a membrane bioreactor system. Two laboratory-scale membrane bioreactors (MBR) were run in parallel with a sludge retention time of 70 days (one with the cytostatic drugs, MBR-CPs, the second without, MBR-control). The microbial activity was measured by respirometri...

The effects of zero-valent iron (Fe0) on the performance of a mesophilic upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor treating high-strength wastewater from the vitamin C biosynthesis industry (VCW) was investigated during a 200-day period. The results showed that the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency, CH4 content in biogas, specific methanogenic activity of sludge, and phosphat...

The pathophysiology of canine gallbladder diseases, including biliary sludge, gallbladder mucoceles and gallstones, is poorly understood. This study aimed to evaluate the component of gallbladder contents and bacterial infection of the gallbladder in order to elucidate the pathophysiology of biliary sludge and gallbladder mucoceles. A total of 43 samples of canine gallbladder contents (biliary ...