M. Johir - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by M. Johir

Bioresource technology, Jan 28, 2015

Membrane adsorption hybrid system (MAHS) was evaluated for the removal of phosphate from a high r... more Membrane adsorption hybrid system (MAHS) was evaluated for the removal of phosphate from a high rate membrane bioreactor (HR-MBR) effluent. The HR-MBR was operated at permeate flux of 30L/m(2)h. The results indicated that the HR-MBR could eliminate 93.1±1.5% of DOC while removing less than 53% phosphate (PO4-P). Due to low phosphate removal by HR-MBR, a post-treatment of strong base anion exchange resin (Dowex(∗)21K-XLT), and zirconium (IV) hydroxide were used as adsorbent in MAHS for further removal of phosphate from HR-MBR effluent. It was found that the MAHS enabled to eliminate more than 85% of PO4-P from HR-MBR effluent. Hence, HR-MBR followed by MAHS lead to simultaneous removal of organics and phosphate in a reliable manner. The experiments were conducted only for a short period to investigate the efficiency of these resins/adsorbents on the removal of phosphorus and high rate MBR for organic removal.

Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, 2012

Water, Air, & Soil Pollution: Focus, 2009

In this study, a high-rate fibre filter was used as a pre-treatment to stormwater in conjunction ... more In this study, a high-rate fibre filter was used as a pre-treatment to stormwater in conjunction with in-line flocculation. The effect of operating the fibre filter with different packing densities (105, 115 and 125 kg/m 3 ) and filtration velocities (20, 40, 60 m/h) with and without in-line flocculation was investigated. In-line flocculation was provided using 5, 10 and 15 mg/L of ferric chloride (FeCl 3 ·6H 2 O). The filter performance was studied in terms of pressure drop (ΔP), solids removal efficiency, heavy metals (total) removal efficiency and total organic carbon (TOC) removal efficiency. It is found that the use of in-line flocculation at a dose of 15 mg/L improved the performance of fibre filter as measured by turbidity removal (95%), total suspended solids reduction (98%), colour removal efficiency (99%), TOC removal (reduced by 30-40 %) and total coliform removal (93%). The modified fouling index reduced from 750-950 to 12 s/L 2 proving that fibre filter can be an excellent pre-treatment to membrane filtration that may be consider as post-treatment. The removal efficiency of heavy metal was variable as their concentration in raw water was small. Even though the concentration of some of these metals such as iron, aluminium, copper and zinc were reduced, others like nickel, chromium and cadmium showed lower removal rates.

Desalination and Water Treatment, 2012

Water pollution due to the excessive presence of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) is a serious... more Water pollution due to the excessive presence of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) is a serious environmental worldwide problem, because both species are implicated in the eutrophication of receiving surface waters and elevated nitrate concentration in drinking water can be toxic to infants. The removal efficiencies of nitrate and phosphate from water spiked with different ratios and concentrations of these nutrients by two ion-exchange resins (Purolite A500PS and Purolite A520E) were studied in batch kinetics and equilibrium adsorption experiments. Both purolites were found to be selective towards nitrate removal at all ratios of nitrate to phosphate in solution. Purolite A520E showed higher (<85%) removal efficiency of nitrate than Purolite A500PS (about 65%) from a solution containing 20 mg N/L as nitrate and 10 mg P/L as phosphate at a resin dose of 1.5 g/L. However, Purolite A500PS showed higher (65%) removal of phosphate than Purolite A520E (48%). Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models fitted well for the adsorption of nitrate on Purolite A520E (R 2 = 0.95-0.96). However, the adsorption of nitrate on Purolite A500PS can be explained satisfactorily only by Freundlich model (R 2 = 0.98). The adsorption of phosphate on the resins fitted well to Freundlich model (R 2 = 0.90) for Purolite A500PS as well as for Purolite A520E (R 2 = 0.90). The adsorption of phosphate and nitrate on both ion-exchange resins was much better described by pseudo-second-order kinetic model (R 2 P 0.99) than by pseudo-first-order kinetic model (R 2 = 0.25-0.94).

Desalination and Water Treatment, 2009

This paper presents the results of experiments on the application of dual media and single media ... more This paper presents the results of experiments on the application of dual media and single media deep bed filters as pre-treatments to stormwater. In-line flocculation-filtration experiments were conducted with dual and single media filter. The single filter media (80 cm) consisted of either anthracite or sand, and the dual media filter consisted of sand (40 cm at the bottom) and anthracite (40 cm on top). Filtration velocities of 5 m/h, 10 m/h and 15 m/h were examined. The removal efficiency for turbidity, suspended solids and TOC was found to be 95%, 99% and 30-45% respectively at a flocculant dose of FeCl 3 of 15 mg/L. The anthracite filter media showed a lower headloss development (26 cm, operated at 5 m/h filtration velocity with FeCl 3 dose of 5 mg/L). The removal efficiency for nitrogen was lower than phosphorus which was relatively good (up to 50%). The removal efficiency for heavy metals such as Cd, Pb, Cr and Ni was found to be very low for all tested filtration systems because concentrations of these metals in the influent were also low. This filter can be used as a pretreatment to a membrane filter as the modified fouling index was reduced from 750 s/L 2 (for stormwater) to 15 s/L 2 (for filtered effluent). Detailed submerged membrane filter experiments conducted with pre-treated water showed that the membrane filter can be successfully be used as post-treatment to in-line flocculant-filter at a sustainable flux of 10 L/m 2 .h to remove the remaining solids and pathogens. An increase of air scouring in the membrane unit decreased the pressure development although it did not have any effect on increasing the critical flux beyond 10 L/m 2 .h.

Desalination and Water Treatment, 2012

This paper discusses laboratory scale and pilot scale treatment systems used to in treat water fr... more This paper discusses laboratory scale and pilot scale treatment systems used to in treat water from a stormwater canal in Carlton, Sydney. The laboratory scale pre-treatment systems investigated included flocculation, GAC filtration and fibre filter prior to laboratory scale steriflow stainless steel membrane filter. The results showed that these pre-treatments improved the quality of the filtrate as measured by the turbidity and TOC removal efficiency. The use of pre-treatment improved the TOC removal efficiency from 10% to 90%. Among the three pretreatment methods, GAC filter resulted in the highest TOC removal efficiency (88%). Pilot scale experiments were also carried out using stainless steel membrane filtration and GAC filtration at Carlton, Sydney. Pilot scale experiments showed that the Steri-Flow membrane filter treatment without any pre-treatment achieved an effluent filtrate turbidity of between 0.79–0.99 NTU which were well below the 5 NTU ADWG (2004) limit [1]. The influent raw stormwater had generally low concentrations of heavy metals. Following membrane filtration the concentration of all heavy metals were reduced to very low levels and well within the ADWG (2004) [1] limits. The membrane filter could not remove TOC in significant amounts. GAC adsorption used as post-treatment following Steri-flow membrane treatment effectively reduced the TOC influent feed levels. GAC filtration of stormwater provided a 70% removal of organics. It removed all types of organic. The GAC filter did not provide any further improvement to the turbidity level or heavy metal concentration following treatment with the Steri-flow membrane system.

Desalination and Water Treatment, 2012

ABSTRACT Stainless steel membrane has recently emerged as a durable membrane for microfiltration.... more ABSTRACT Stainless steel membrane has recently emerged as a durable membrane for microfiltration. An aerobic membrane bioreactor (MBR) equipped with a tubular stainless steel membrane of pore size 0.3 μm was submerged in a wastewater reactor to treat municipal wastewater of about 1,000 mg/L COD. The membrane operational performance was tested at three different permeate flux (7.5, 10 and 15 L/m h [LMH]) for 2 days each. In all cases, the rate of transmembrane pressure (TMP) rise was very high at 30, 45 and 80 kPa for 7.5, 10 and 15 LMH, respectively. Different analytical techniques i.e. particle size distribution, UV spectrometry, fluorescent spectrometry and size exclusion chromatography were used to study the nature of mixed liquor and the fouling deposited on the membrane surface. Rapid rise of TMP and decrease in permeate flux was observed during the experiment. Analysis of the fouling indicated a negligible difference in nature of organics between it and the mixed liquor. Filtration flux test showed a high sludge cake and pore-blocking resistance of 4.4 × 10 and 2.8 × 10 m, respectively, compared to a clean membrane resistance 5.4 × 10 m. The similar nature of organics in the mixed liquor and the foulant and recovery of flux after removal of the foulant after gentle washing in water, indicated a rapid sludge accumulation rather than the irreversible fouling.

Desalination, 2009

Hybrid processes combining fi bre fi lter with deep bed fi ltration process such as (i) fi bre fi... more Hybrid processes combining fi bre fi lter with deep bed fi ltration process such as (i) fi bre fi lter and sand fi lter, (ii) fi bre fi lter and anthracite and (iii) fi bre fi lter and dual media fi lter were investigated as pre-treatments to SWRO. Seawater was drawn from Chowder Bay, Sydney. The eff ect of diff erent pretreatment hybrid systems was investigated in terms of silt density index (SDI 10 ), modifi ed fouling index (MFI), headloss across the fi lters and reduction in turbidity and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). The in-line fl occulation in fi bre fi lter improved the performance of the pretreatment hybrid system as measured by the MFI, SDI 10 , headloss, turbidity and DOC removal. The lowest SDI 10 and MFI were found with a fi bre fi lter operated at a fi ltration velocity of 40 m/h followed by dual media fi lter operated at a fi ltration velocity of 5 m/h. The lowest headloss and turbidity was found with a fi bre fi lter operated at a fi ltration velocity of 40 m/hr followed by anthracite operated at a fi ltration velocity of 5 m/h. This system also gave an effl uent with the lowest DOC of 0.64 mg/L corresponding to a removal effi ciency of about 70%.

Bioresource Technology, 2012

The influence of imposed flux and aeration rates on membrane fouling in a submerged membrane bior... more The influence of imposed flux and aeration rates on membrane fouling in a submerged membrane bioreactor was studied. The experiments were conducted at four imposed fluxes and three aeration rates. The effect of flux on the reduction of membrane fouling was much higher than that caused by aeration rate. A lower flux of 20 L/m(2) h produced 75 times more water than a higher flux of 40 L/m(2) h with an aeration rate of 2 L/min. Low flux showed slightly higher removal of NH(4)-N and 93-96% removal of dissolved organic matter and chemical oxygen demand. Imposed flux also had a significant effect on the composition of organics present in the soluble microbial product (SMP) and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). At a higher flux, both SMP and EPS had organics of high molecular weight (MW) of around 48 kDa as well as lower MW organics below 200 Da.

Bioresource Technology, 2012

The performance of a submerged membrane bioreactor (SMBR) has been investigated for abattoir wast... more The performance of a submerged membrane bioreactor (SMBR) has been investigated for abattoir wastewater (AW) treatment. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) of permeate has not exceeded 25 mg L À1 providing an average COD removal of 98%. Microbiological analysis showed that the SMBR has allowed a complete removal of fecal coliforms, Listeria and Salmonella. A significant reduction in the excess biomass production was also observed. In fact, the yield of biomass production (Yobs) ranged between 0 and 0.106 g suspended solids/g COD removed.

Bioresource Technology, 2012

In this study, the influence of organic loading rate (OLR) on the performance of a membrane bio-r... more In this study, the influence of organic loading rate (OLR) on the performance of a membrane bio-reactor (MBR) was investigated. The MBR was operated with 6 different OLRs between 0.5 and 3.0 kg COD/m(3)d. The hydrodynamic parameters of the MBR were kept constant. The hydraulic retention time and sludge retention time were kept at 8h and 40 d respectively. From the experimental investigation, it was found that the removal efficiency of DOC, COD and NH(4)-N decreased when OLRs were increased from 0.5 to 3.0 kg COD/m(3)d. Higher OLRs of 2.75-3.0 kg COD/m(3)d resulted in a higher transmembrane pressure development. The fractionation of organic matters showed more hydrophilic substances with higher OLRs. A detailed organic matter characterization of membrane foulant, soluble microbial product and extracellular polymeric substances showed that bio-polymers type substances together with humic acid and lower molecular neutral and acids were responsible for membrane fouling.

Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 2013

Bioresource technology, Jan 28, 2015

Membrane adsorption hybrid system (MAHS) was evaluated for the removal of phosphate from a high r... more Membrane adsorption hybrid system (MAHS) was evaluated for the removal of phosphate from a high rate membrane bioreactor (HR-MBR) effluent. The HR-MBR was operated at permeate flux of 30L/m(2)h. The results indicated that the HR-MBR could eliminate 93.1±1.5% of DOC while removing less than 53% phosphate (PO4-P). Due to low phosphate removal by HR-MBR, a post-treatment of strong base anion exchange resin (Dowex(∗)21K-XLT), and zirconium (IV) hydroxide were used as adsorbent in MAHS for further removal of phosphate from HR-MBR effluent. It was found that the MAHS enabled to eliminate more than 85% of PO4-P from HR-MBR effluent. Hence, HR-MBR followed by MAHS lead to simultaneous removal of organics and phosphate in a reliable manner. The experiments were conducted only for a short period to investigate the efficiency of these resins/adsorbents on the removal of phosphorus and high rate MBR for organic removal.

Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, 2012

Water, Air, & Soil Pollution: Focus, 2009

In this study, a high-rate fibre filter was used as a pre-treatment to stormwater in conjunction ... more In this study, a high-rate fibre filter was used as a pre-treatment to stormwater in conjunction with in-line flocculation. The effect of operating the fibre filter with different packing densities (105, 115 and 125 kg/m 3 ) and filtration velocities (20, 40, 60 m/h) with and without in-line flocculation was investigated. In-line flocculation was provided using 5, 10 and 15 mg/L of ferric chloride (FeCl 3 ·6H 2 O). The filter performance was studied in terms of pressure drop (ΔP), solids removal efficiency, heavy metals (total) removal efficiency and total organic carbon (TOC) removal efficiency. It is found that the use of in-line flocculation at a dose of 15 mg/L improved the performance of fibre filter as measured by turbidity removal (95%), total suspended solids reduction (98%), colour removal efficiency (99%), TOC removal (reduced by 30-40 %) and total coliform removal (93%). The modified fouling index reduced from 750-950 to 12 s/L 2 proving that fibre filter can be an excellent pre-treatment to membrane filtration that may be consider as post-treatment. The removal efficiency of heavy metal was variable as their concentration in raw water was small. Even though the concentration of some of these metals such as iron, aluminium, copper and zinc were reduced, others like nickel, chromium and cadmium showed lower removal rates.

Desalination and Water Treatment, 2012

Water pollution due to the excessive presence of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) is a serious... more Water pollution due to the excessive presence of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) is a serious environmental worldwide problem, because both species are implicated in the eutrophication of receiving surface waters and elevated nitrate concentration in drinking water can be toxic to infants. The removal efficiencies of nitrate and phosphate from water spiked with different ratios and concentrations of these nutrients by two ion-exchange resins (Purolite A500PS and Purolite A520E) were studied in batch kinetics and equilibrium adsorption experiments. Both purolites were found to be selective towards nitrate removal at all ratios of nitrate to phosphate in solution. Purolite A520E showed higher (<85%) removal efficiency of nitrate than Purolite A500PS (about 65%) from a solution containing 20 mg N/L as nitrate and 10 mg P/L as phosphate at a resin dose of 1.5 g/L. However, Purolite A500PS showed higher (65%) removal of phosphate than Purolite A520E (48%). Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models fitted well for the adsorption of nitrate on Purolite A520E (R 2 = 0.95-0.96). However, the adsorption of nitrate on Purolite A500PS can be explained satisfactorily only by Freundlich model (R 2 = 0.98). The adsorption of phosphate on the resins fitted well to Freundlich model (R 2 = 0.90) for Purolite A500PS as well as for Purolite A520E (R 2 = 0.90). The adsorption of phosphate and nitrate on both ion-exchange resins was much better described by pseudo-second-order kinetic model (R 2 P 0.99) than by pseudo-first-order kinetic model (R 2 = 0.25-0.94).

Desalination and Water Treatment, 2009

This paper presents the results of experiments on the application of dual media and single media ... more This paper presents the results of experiments on the application of dual media and single media deep bed filters as pre-treatments to stormwater. In-line flocculation-filtration experiments were conducted with dual and single media filter. The single filter media (80 cm) consisted of either anthracite or sand, and the dual media filter consisted of sand (40 cm at the bottom) and anthracite (40 cm on top). Filtration velocities of 5 m/h, 10 m/h and 15 m/h were examined. The removal efficiency for turbidity, suspended solids and TOC was found to be 95%, 99% and 30-45% respectively at a flocculant dose of FeCl 3 of 15 mg/L. The anthracite filter media showed a lower headloss development (26 cm, operated at 5 m/h filtration velocity with FeCl 3 dose of 5 mg/L). The removal efficiency for nitrogen was lower than phosphorus which was relatively good (up to 50%). The removal efficiency for heavy metals such as Cd, Pb, Cr and Ni was found to be very low for all tested filtration systems because concentrations of these metals in the influent were also low. This filter can be used as a pretreatment to a membrane filter as the modified fouling index was reduced from 750 s/L 2 (for stormwater) to 15 s/L 2 (for filtered effluent). Detailed submerged membrane filter experiments conducted with pre-treated water showed that the membrane filter can be successfully be used as post-treatment to in-line flocculant-filter at a sustainable flux of 10 L/m 2 .h to remove the remaining solids and pathogens. An increase of air scouring in the membrane unit decreased the pressure development although it did not have any effect on increasing the critical flux beyond 10 L/m 2 .h.

Desalination and Water Treatment, 2012

This paper discusses laboratory scale and pilot scale treatment systems used to in treat water fr... more This paper discusses laboratory scale and pilot scale treatment systems used to in treat water from a stormwater canal in Carlton, Sydney. The laboratory scale pre-treatment systems investigated included flocculation, GAC filtration and fibre filter prior to laboratory scale steriflow stainless steel membrane filter. The results showed that these pre-treatments improved the quality of the filtrate as measured by the turbidity and TOC removal efficiency. The use of pre-treatment improved the TOC removal efficiency from 10% to 90%. Among the three pretreatment methods, GAC filter resulted in the highest TOC removal efficiency (88%). Pilot scale experiments were also carried out using stainless steel membrane filtration and GAC filtration at Carlton, Sydney. Pilot scale experiments showed that the Steri-Flow membrane filter treatment without any pre-treatment achieved an effluent filtrate turbidity of between 0.79–0.99 NTU which were well below the 5 NTU ADWG (2004) limit [1]. The influent raw stormwater had generally low concentrations of heavy metals. Following membrane filtration the concentration of all heavy metals were reduced to very low levels and well within the ADWG (2004) [1] limits. The membrane filter could not remove TOC in significant amounts. GAC adsorption used as post-treatment following Steri-flow membrane treatment effectively reduced the TOC influent feed levels. GAC filtration of stormwater provided a 70% removal of organics. It removed all types of organic. The GAC filter did not provide any further improvement to the turbidity level or heavy metal concentration following treatment with the Steri-flow membrane system.

Desalination and Water Treatment, 2012

ABSTRACT Stainless steel membrane has recently emerged as a durable membrane for microfiltration.... more ABSTRACT Stainless steel membrane has recently emerged as a durable membrane for microfiltration. An aerobic membrane bioreactor (MBR) equipped with a tubular stainless steel membrane of pore size 0.3 μm was submerged in a wastewater reactor to treat municipal wastewater of about 1,000 mg/L COD. The membrane operational performance was tested at three different permeate flux (7.5, 10 and 15 L/m h [LMH]) for 2 days each. In all cases, the rate of transmembrane pressure (TMP) rise was very high at 30, 45 and 80 kPa for 7.5, 10 and 15 LMH, respectively. Different analytical techniques i.e. particle size distribution, UV spectrometry, fluorescent spectrometry and size exclusion chromatography were used to study the nature of mixed liquor and the fouling deposited on the membrane surface. Rapid rise of TMP and decrease in permeate flux was observed during the experiment. Analysis of the fouling indicated a negligible difference in nature of organics between it and the mixed liquor. Filtration flux test showed a high sludge cake and pore-blocking resistance of 4.4 × 10 and 2.8 × 10 m, respectively, compared to a clean membrane resistance 5.4 × 10 m. The similar nature of organics in the mixed liquor and the foulant and recovery of flux after removal of the foulant after gentle washing in water, indicated a rapid sludge accumulation rather than the irreversible fouling.

Desalination, 2009

Hybrid processes combining fi bre fi lter with deep bed fi ltration process such as (i) fi bre fi... more Hybrid processes combining fi bre fi lter with deep bed fi ltration process such as (i) fi bre fi lter and sand fi lter, (ii) fi bre fi lter and anthracite and (iii) fi bre fi lter and dual media fi lter were investigated as pre-treatments to SWRO. Seawater was drawn from Chowder Bay, Sydney. The eff ect of diff erent pretreatment hybrid systems was investigated in terms of silt density index (SDI 10 ), modifi ed fouling index (MFI), headloss across the fi lters and reduction in turbidity and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). The in-line fl occulation in fi bre fi lter improved the performance of the pretreatment hybrid system as measured by the MFI, SDI 10 , headloss, turbidity and DOC removal. The lowest SDI 10 and MFI were found with a fi bre fi lter operated at a fi ltration velocity of 40 m/h followed by dual media fi lter operated at a fi ltration velocity of 5 m/h. The lowest headloss and turbidity was found with a fi bre fi lter operated at a fi ltration velocity of 40 m/hr followed by anthracite operated at a fi ltration velocity of 5 m/h. This system also gave an effl uent with the lowest DOC of 0.64 mg/L corresponding to a removal effi ciency of about 70%.

Bioresource Technology, 2012

The influence of imposed flux and aeration rates on membrane fouling in a submerged membrane bior... more The influence of imposed flux and aeration rates on membrane fouling in a submerged membrane bioreactor was studied. The experiments were conducted at four imposed fluxes and three aeration rates. The effect of flux on the reduction of membrane fouling was much higher than that caused by aeration rate. A lower flux of 20 L/m(2) h produced 75 times more water than a higher flux of 40 L/m(2) h with an aeration rate of 2 L/min. Low flux showed slightly higher removal of NH(4)-N and 93-96% removal of dissolved organic matter and chemical oxygen demand. Imposed flux also had a significant effect on the composition of organics present in the soluble microbial product (SMP) and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). At a higher flux, both SMP and EPS had organics of high molecular weight (MW) of around 48 kDa as well as lower MW organics below 200 Da.

Bioresource Technology, 2012

The performance of a submerged membrane bioreactor (SMBR) has been investigated for abattoir wast... more The performance of a submerged membrane bioreactor (SMBR) has been investigated for abattoir wastewater (AW) treatment. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) of permeate has not exceeded 25 mg L À1 providing an average COD removal of 98%. Microbiological analysis showed that the SMBR has allowed a complete removal of fecal coliforms, Listeria and Salmonella. A significant reduction in the excess biomass production was also observed. In fact, the yield of biomass production (Yobs) ranged between 0 and 0.106 g suspended solids/g COD removed.

Bioresource Technology, 2012

In this study, the influence of organic loading rate (OLR) on the performance of a membrane bio-r... more In this study, the influence of organic loading rate (OLR) on the performance of a membrane bio-reactor (MBR) was investigated. The MBR was operated with 6 different OLRs between 0.5 and 3.0 kg COD/m(3)d. The hydrodynamic parameters of the MBR were kept constant. The hydraulic retention time and sludge retention time were kept at 8h and 40 d respectively. From the experimental investigation, it was found that the removal efficiency of DOC, COD and NH(4)-N decreased when OLRs were increased from 0.5 to 3.0 kg COD/m(3)d. Higher OLRs of 2.75-3.0 kg COD/m(3)d resulted in a higher transmembrane pressure development. The fractionation of organic matters showed more hydrophilic substances with higher OLRs. A detailed organic matter characterization of membrane foulant, soluble microbial product and extracellular polymeric substances showed that bio-polymers type substances together with humic acid and lower molecular neutral and acids were responsible for membrane fouling.

Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 2013