International Journal Of Environmental Research
Volume:5 Issue: 1, Winter 2011

Environmental matters are becoming a question of great importance and the increased attention to such matters has helped to make businesses, politicians and society in general consider the environment a matter of priority concern. Environmental concern, taken to mean an attitude favourable to the environment, has become widespread in different environmental aspects, such as energy saving, water consumption reduction, or rubbish separations. However, economic and political interests are sometimes confronted with environmental interests, so a change in society’s behavior with regard to the use of natural resources is necessary to ensure their future and that future generations can enjoy them, in order to fulfil the concept of sustainability introduced by the Rio summit of 1992. So the aim of this study is to analyse the water-saving behavior of Spanish households and identify the variables influencing its development.

In Spain, camping accommodation accounted for 6.32% of total tourism accommodation and 8.2% of overnight stays in 2007. There were 1,152 registered campsites which provided lodging for almost 6.4 million users. Although these figures are higher than those of rural accommodation, few studies have analyzed the main attributes of this sector and their contribution to the development of Spanish tourism. The main aim of this work is to provide information on pricing based on the attributes of camping establishments. Given the heterogeneity of supply in this sector, a hedonic model is applied using data from different sources. The results show that the variables with the greatest influence on pricing are a coastal location, the quality of the facilities, having a quality distinction or being an ecological establishment. The effect of the latter variable reinforces the strategy initiated by the private sector and public administrations of investing in sustainable tourism.

Air quality is a topic of crucial importance, because air pollution is one of the most important pollution problems in the world. In particular, predicting or detecting a future extreme air pollution episode or predicting the violation of an air quality standard, is of crucial interest in the field of pollution control. Therehave been a variety of attempts to reach this purpose both from the perspective of the extreme value theory and the time series analysis, but as far as we know there is none successful strategy to alert of violations of the standards. This is why in this article we propose a new strategy, a threshold autoregressive asymmetric stochastic volatility strategy to alert of an immediate violation of the particulate matter quality standards, which take into account the different answer of the volatility to a positive or negative, but equal in magnitude, relative variation of the level of the pollutant in the previous period. Particulate matter is one of the still uncontrolled pollutants in big cities. This novel approach has been applied in Madrid City (Spain), the thirdmost populous municipality in the European Union, and it is able to predict a great percentage of violations of the standard.

An airlift-type activated sludge reactor using a sponge support medium was fed with wastewater containing 500 mg-N/L of NH4 +-N. In order to establish partial nitrification, the reactor was kept at 35°C. Moreover, the reactor was started up with the NaHCO3 solution as an alkali agent to supply inorganic carbon for enhancement of partial nitrification. The partial nitrification was established during the period when NaHCO3 was used as an alkali agent. However, soon after changing the alkali agent to a mixture of Na2HPO4 and NaOH, the production of NO2 --N started to decrease. The change in pH inside the sponge medium revealed by the model simulation and microelectrode study showed relatively high free ammonium concentration inside the medium. Thus, partial nitrification was proved to be affected by inorganic carbon in the alkali agent. Furthermore, it was suggested that the establishment of partial nitrification in this study was due to the combination of high operating temperatures, addition of inorganic carbon, and the inhibition of NOB by the free ammonium concentration.

The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of coupling an electrochemical process with a biological treatment in order to degrade phosmet, an organophosphorous pesticide. The absence of biodegradability of phosmet by Pseudomonas fluorescens and activated sludge was verified in our operational conditions. So, a conventional biological treatment is not appropriate for phosmet polluted effluents. Electrochemical behavior of phosmet was studied by cyclic voltammetry and the feasibility of an electrochemical pretreatment was thus demonstrated. Preliminary results with activated sludge showed a diminution of 26% for COD (chemical oxygen demand) measured when the electrolyzed solution was used as the sole carbon and nitrogen sources. When glucose and ammonium were added as supplementary carbon and nitrogen sources, the COD diminution reached 34% after 79 h of culture. This study demonstrates the feasibility of an electrochemical pre-treatment prior to biotreatment.

The need for monitoring the overall performance of countries in Sustainable Development (SD) is widely recognized, but scant attention has been devoted to methods for aggregating and analyzing vast amounts of empirical data. This paper describes the development and application of a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology for addressing the challenges of benchmarking sustainable development. The methodology involves linear optimization techniques, and it is based on the identification of a number of attributes that provide proxy sustainable development indicators. Using these techniques, a SD index is derived, which might combine existing aggregate SD indices (developed by well-established organizations and/or expert teams) into a single synthesizing overall SD index. We propose the use of four different modeling techniques to address these concerns and report the results of an Italian case study. From the results obtained, it is possible to note that the inefficient regions are, overall, southern regions and some central regions. In particular, their inefficiency comes from high poverty rate and CO2 emissions. Nevertheless, regional economic disparities are evident and with root in government’s preferential policies towards on foreign investment for the northern regions, greater access to markets and better infrastructure. The political implication of these findings is that these regions have to concentrate to keep low the rate of CO2 emissions and to favor a good sustainable development from a social point of view. Exceptions are Basilicata and Sardegna regions, which exhibit a low poverty rate and a medium GDP per capita. The most inefficient DMUs are Sicilia, Calabria, Puglia, Campania and Abruzzo. Piemonte is borderline, even though the region has a good geographical position for the industrial placement. We view this approach as a first step towards more systematic international comparisons, aimed at facilitating the diffusion of the best practices and policies from the benchmark countries to the less developed world regions.

This study examines the responsible energy consumption of listed European hotels. Hotel efficiency is estimated using a Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) production function, with supplies costs as the input and total revenue as the output. Cluster analysis is used to group the hotels into homogeneous groups according to their efficiency level, size, or profitability. The results show that the average efficiency of listed European hotels is 25.34%. Between 2004 and 2007, the larger hotels were very inefficient, but this improved significantly in the last year, 2007. No positive relationship is observed between the returns of these hotels nor is it seen that shareholders clearly reward companies with better efficiency levels.

Environment, environmental protection and sustainability policies play a key role in social development and in the economic competitiveness of industrialized countries. Most European citizens are aware of the importance of environmental issues, both as a priority for the socio-economic system as a whole, and as a relevant factor in influencing quality of life. At the same time individual environmentally friendly behaviour is not widespread. In this framework, our question is: to what extent are positive attitudes strictly related to eco-friendly lifestyles? By applying a hierarchical logit model to recent Eurobarometer data (survey 68.2-2008), which provide information concerning the 27 European Union member countries, we focus on individual attitudes towards environmentally friendly behaviour with a threefold aim. Firstly, we will verify how this attitude changes in relation to socioeconomic characteristics. Secondly, we will investigate European citizens’ opinions on whether environmental defence is a personal responsibility of each individual or an institutional and political task, thus highlighting discrepancies between what individuals say and what they do. Thirdly, we will point out if differences in individual attitudes towards environmental protection exist among European Union countries, and if so which the main social, economic and cultural factors involved are.

Electroplating industry wastewater (EIW) characterized by high chemical oxygen demand (COD) is a big source of water and air contamination with heavy metals. The formation of cyanide complex with heavy metals is responsible for its elevated COD. The concentration of heavy metals in EIW can be removed by the use of different precipitating agents (sulfide and hydroxide). But the major bottleneck in the removal of these metals is the presence of cyanide in EIW resulting in chelation with all the metals that are soluble in water. The present work focused on, the treatment of EIW containing Cr, Ni, Zn and CN and the optimization of dosage concentration which was reliable for the dissociation of cyanide complex for maximal removal efficiency. We used hydroxide, sulfide and carbonate precipitation from different precipitating agents (NaOH, Ca (OH)2, CaCO3 Na2S5H2O, NaHS and NaHSO3). Sulfide precipitation was a viable option for the treatment of EIW as compared to hydroxide and carbonate precipitation. Moreover, COD reduction capacity of sulfide precipitation was higher than others. It was also found that Ni and Cr made a complex with cyanide that halted the removal efficiency while there was no evidence for Zn complexation; otherwise fragile complexation was evidenced.

Global Warming is one of the major concerns in environmental issues. Its effects are being exposed faster than anticipated recently. It causes adverse ecological and socioeconomical effects. The 4th Assessment Report issued by the U. N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that it is appropriate to define Global Warming was caused by greenhouse gases due to human activities which plays a significant role by over loading the atmosphere with carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions since 1750. One of the most effective ways to prevent global warming is to replace materials which emit high level of CO2 with those of low level CO2 emission materials. Usually, CO2 emission can be presented as embodied CO2 (ECO2) and operational CO2 emissions. In this paper, appraisal of the embodied CO2 emission level of using traditional building materials (i.e.cement, steel, glass and timber) and alternative building materials (i.e. slag cement, recycle steel, cullet glass and plywood formwork) have been made by case modelling. The results show that the amount of CO2 emission is reduced after using alternative building materials by more than one-third (34.8%).

Management of solid waste (flyash) has attained an apparent scenario for scientific & strategic concern in India due to large-scale dependence on coal-based thermal power plants. Waste utilization as the best option of pollution-prevention and disaster risk strategy has been worked out during previous decades to open doors for flyash utilization on various sectors of developmental and manufacturing sectors. Low application of flyash has reportedly been employed as a soil ameliorant and experiments have demonstrated tree plantation over flyash landfills using organically rich wastes to prepare the suitable substrates. However, the large-scale and voluminous generation of flyash averagely on regular basis calls for bulk utilization options in a productive purpose. Present study discusses the features of coal-combustion flyash and a study of two important vegetable crops, viz., Brinjal and Spinach, grown on flyash substrate. The results advocated the flyash application as higher as up to 50% in case of common garden soils, supporting the options of bulk utilization of flyash in horticultural cropping. The discussions suggested screening of suitable species on the basis of dose-response studies for evolving a protocol for flyash management under ecofriendly protocols.

In this paper, we report an investigation of changes in land use and ecosystem services on Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi Province from 1978 to 2004. We used three LANDSAT TM and/or ETM data sets to estimate changes in the size of five land-cover/land-use categories, and we also used previously published value coefficients to estimate changes in the value of ecosystem services delivered by eachland category. Finally, we ranked the contribution of various ecosystem functions to the overall value of the ecosystem services. we have estimated that the annual value of the ecosystem services is 56.95 billon RMB in the loess plateau in northern shaanxi province in 2004. In the loess plateau in northern shaanxi province, from 1978 to 2004, the economic value of the fixing carbon are higher, the economic value of water conservation are lowest, but the economic value of the NPP, fixing carbon and supplying oxygen account for total value above the ninety percent, obviously the vegetation own created the biggest ecosystem service value.We conclude that future land-use policy formulation should give precedence to the conservation of these ecosystems over uncontrolled reclamation, and that further land reclamation should be based on rigorous environmental impact analyses.

No on-site sanitation system treats both urine and faecal matter in one process. A laboratory scale biological filter was fed with high concentration of urea (4 g N/L) and 17.1 g COD/L to determine if it will be possible to treat liquid that leach from a ventilated improved pit latrine. The HLR in the proposed biological filter system was calculated to be ca 36 L/m2/d, significantly lower than the rates that are typical applied in standard rate biological filters (in the range of 1000 – 4000 L/m2/d) used to treat domestic wastewater. However, the TKN and COD concentrations in standard rate biological filters are significantly lower, namely ca 60 mg N/L and 500 mg COD/L, compared to the typical nitrogen and COD concentrations of faecal sludge, namely 3 - 5 g N/L and 20 – 50 g COD/L, respectively. The biological filter was operated at 13.0, 23.9, 35.7 and 62.3 L/m2/d, until stable state conditions were obtained. It was possible to remove most of the nitrogen and COD at the applied hydraulic loading rates by a combination of volatilization, nitrification and de-nitrification processes. However, at 62.3 L/m2/d the column efficiency (1.5 m long column) decreased and ammonia concentration in the effluent increased again. The best performance was achieved at a hydraulic loading rate of 35.7 L/m2/d, with an average ammonia concentration of 285.5 (± 9.1) mg N/L.

Ground water is the major source of drinking water in rural and semi-urban areas of Assam. It contains an excessive amount of iron (1 to 10 mg/L). People living in rural and semi-urban areas of Assam uses indigenous household iron filter units – developed using community prepared wooden charcoal (CPWC) and river sand (RS) as filter media. CPWC and RS processed and respectively termed as processed wooden charcoal (PWC) and processed sand (PS). The present work evaluates adsorptive capacity of PWC and PS for dissolved iron removal through continuous mode column studies. The experiments were carried out using synthetic water containing Fe(II) at a fixed pH of 5.5 and zero dissolved oxygen levels. The adsorption breakthrough curves obtained at different bed depths indicate increase of breakthrough time with increase in bed depths, while the uptake of Fe(II) ions onto the adsorbent decreases when the linear flow rate through the bed increases. A rise in the inlet Fe(II) concentration reduces the volume treated before the packed bed gets saturated. PWC shows higher affinity for Fe(II) as compared to PS under the experimental conditions of this study. On comparison of up-scaled columns and indigenous unit models of same bed heights and flow rate, the up-scaled columns perform better than indigenous unit models and yield higher breakthrough throughputs. Among up-scaled columns, the column with PWC at top and PS at bottom yielded higher breakthrough throughput for initial Fe(II) concentration of 5 mg/L. The up-scaled columns perform reasonably well with actual groundwater containing various other ionic species and indicate its ability to remove fluoride, turbidity, sulfate and alkalinity at breakthrough point of Fe(II).

The objective of this study is to develop a novel methodology integrating remote sensing, geographic information system technology and local spatial autocorrelation geo-computation for quick drought assessment. One group of drought indices, based on the condition of the vegetation, includes the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Anomaly of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVIA) and Standardized Vegetation Index (SVI). The other group, based on the moisture conditions, includes the Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI) and Standardized Moisture Index (SMI). The local G-statistic (Gi*) provides insight into the spatial relationships of the drought indices for drought risk assessment. Specifically, locations with significant Gi* values indicate spatial clusters where there are differences between the vegetative and hydrological drought indices. The results of spatial co-occurrence analysis indicate the existence of hot spots where the drought indices are spatially stable. This spatial information can be used to identify high drought risk areas as a first step towards helping local administrators improve the allocation of local water resources in arid environments. Finally, the novel methodology, integrating remote sensing, geocomputation and geographic information techniques, is demonstrated. The results indicate its effectiveness for quick drought assessment.

Feasibility of methanolic wastes treatment containing chlorophenol in experimental UASB reactors i.e. R-I and R-II working side by side constantly for a couple of almost 32 weeks were studied. UASB reactor R-I was initiated by utilizing the digested sludge alone, whereas, the UASB reactor R-II was startedup by adding an activated carbon of an effective size 1.5-2.5mm to the digested sludge with the volume-volume ratio of 3:2. At low loading rates d” 0.5g-TOC/L-d for R-I and d” 2.6g-TOC/L-d for R-II, it was observed that the effect of HRT on the TOC reduction was not prominent, and in both the reactors the TOC reduction effectiveness was noticed to be above 80%. An optimum OLR to accomplish 80-85% TOC and chlorophenol reduction effectiveness (at HRT e” 12hours) was observed to be 2.6g-TOC/L-day and 10.8g-TOC/L-day for reactor R-I and R-II, respectively. It was also observed that to attain more than 80% TOC removal efficiency at a constant OLR of 6.5g-TOC/L-day and at a HRT of 18-20hours, the maximum influent chlorophenol concentration should stay below 21mg/L and 29mg/L for reactor R-I and R-II, respectively. The average VFAs effluent concentration observed was 357mg/L and 230mg/L for the reactor R-I and R-II, respectively. Comparatively the production of biogas in reactor R-II was less. The overall gas conversation rate observed at greater than 80% TOC removal efficiency for R-I and R-II was found to be 0.28L/g-CODremoved and 0.17L/g-CODremoved, respectively, with 60-62% of methane content for both the reactors. The results of this study suggested that the use of methanol as a medium to biodegrade chlorophenol in the presence of an activated carbon in a UASB reactor is an effective and feasible method at mesophilic temperature and neutral pH.

Wheat is a staple food in Pakistan. Production of wheat is increased with extensive use of phosphate based fertilizers in agricultural fields. Activity mass concentration of primordial radionuclides due to use of phosphate fertilizers in soil enhances the external gamma dose and due to the consumption of wheat food grown on these soils also increases the internal dose. Different types of soil, including saline and normal soil in the districts of Lahore and Faisalabad in Punjab were selected for this study. The technique of gamma ray spectroscopy was used for the determination of s levels of radioactivity 226Ra, 232Th, 40K, and the nuclear fallout 137Cs in soil, wheat and wheat made products. Radioactivity in flour, chapatti, bread, nan and rusk was determined. Maximum activity was found in the chapatti sample of highly fertilized soil. Calculations were made for the determination of external absorbed dose in air from soil and internal absorbed dose in human body due to the consumption of wheat and wheat products. The average value of wheat consumption of 140 kg was used in the estimation of ingestion dose. The value of the ingestion dose due to highly fertilized soil was 206.1 μSv/Yr, while the total ingestion dose due to unfertilized farm’s food was 146.3 μSv/Yr. Risk assessment to man due to ingestion of wheat was also calculated. The cancer risk assessment due to ingestion of wheat food grown on highly fertilized soils comes as additional sufferings of 14 persons in cancer per million.

This study was carried out from June to October 2008 in Nansi Lake. Based on the data collected from five sampling stations, phytoplankton taxonomic composition, abundance, temporal variations and spatial distribution were examined. About 94 species, including 48 species of Chlorophyta, 22 species of Bacillariophyta, and 1 water bloom causative species were identified. Average phytoplankton diversity index and evenness values were 1.59 and 0.58, respectively, revealing moderate biodiversity of phytoplankton biocoenosis. The phytoplankton abundance averaged 1.52×107 cells/L, and was much higher than previous investigation carried out in the same months in 1995. The species of Chlorophyta, Bacillariophyta dominated phytoplankton community. The main dominant species were Scenedesmus dimorphus, Chlorella vulgaris, Synedra acus, Aulacoseira granulata, Merismopedia tenuissima and Monallantus brevicylindrus. Concerning nutrient stoichiometry, it was suggested that the higher TN: TP ratio indicated potential P-limitation for phytoplankton growth in Nansi Lake. The environmental conditions of water quality and phytoplankton community composition indicated that Nansi Lake was eutrophic in summer.

The aim of this study was to investigate the Congo red sorption on soil from the region of Iasi (NE of Romania). The effects of contact time, temperature, sorbent dose and initial dye concentration on soi sorption were investigated. The results show that the amount adsorbed of Congo red on soil increase with increasing dye concentration, temperature and contact time. The experimental data were analyzed using the pseudo-first order Lagergren model, the pseudo-second order model and intraparticle diffusion model. Experimental results show that the dye sorption process follows the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Intraparticle diffusion studies indicated that the adsorption mechanism was not exclusively controlled by the diffusion step. The equilibrium sorption data were interpreted using Langmuir, Freundlich and Tempkin models and the results were best described by Freundlich isotherm. It was indicative of the heterogeneity of the sorption sites on the soil particle. Thermodynamic analysis of the Congo red sorption on studied soil indicates that the system is spontaneous and exothermic in nature.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports of projects in different development sectors in Sudan (Agriculture, Roads and highways, Power generation, Oil production, River engineering projects) were analyzed to investigate how these studies corresponded with the local, regional, international and good practice requirements. The results of the analysis illustrated some variations in the practice among the different sectors. Most of the practices failed in some major areas of EIA such as: timing of EIA in the project cycle, alternative analysis, limited tools applied which in most cases were insufficient for specific projects, EMP in most cases was not complete and was not considered in the cost-benefit analysis, monitoring plan, poor public participations and bad interaction with the decision making process. Generic EIA report review process devaluated the monitoring plan and sustainability of the EIA mitigations. Advantageously, EIA practice is becoming more popular in Sudanese development planning and there are lots of arguments about enhancing the legislation and regulations. However, common obstructions facing implementation of best EIA practices and compatibility with international norms are; the legal, institutional and administrative frameworks; shortcoming of expert agencies and specialists, and other difficulties related to the data collection and measurement.

The concentrations and speciation of Mo, together with Fe, Cu, and Zn, in Nver River sediments impacted with Mo mining activities in western Liaoning, northeast China, were investigated withgeochemical method. Using the X-ray fluorescence and X-Ray diffraction, the characterizations of metals in tailings ponds deposited along the Nver River bank were analyzed. Analysis and comparison of the concentrations and speciation of heavy metals show that the maximum concentrations of Fe, Cu, Zn, and Mo detected in river sediments exceed corresponding reference values (S0, P0) by 6.3, 9.7, 16.1, and 494.0 times, respectively, and that of Mo exceeds the abundance of Mo in earth’s crust by 1127.9 times. High IPOLL showed that all of these heavy metals might pose an environmental risk. Bioavailable fractions of Fe, Cu, and Zn were not detected in both tailings ponds and sediments, but that of Mo presented in tailings pond and sediments are 16.15-18.73% and 18.61-59.07%, respectively. The alkaline condition in sediments and tailings ponds is a significant factor governing chemical speciation of heavy metals. This study indicates that Mo tailings ponds deposited along the bank may have a closely relationship with the high levels of these metals in sediments and Mo in sediments may pose a high risk to the local environment.

Nowadays, transportation sector consumes about 27 percent of the whole energy in Iran. Therefore, after domestic and business sectors which consume about 40 percent of the whole energy, transportation is placed in the second rank. However, the financial value of transportation is of the highest importance. Moreover, having 55percent of gasoline product consumption transportation has been also ranked as the largest consumer of gasoline products. Gasoline consumption in transport showed an increase until 1979. During 1980-1981, it decreased slightly and from 1982 have had a permanent upward trend. Oil products consumption in transport sector in 1950 has been less than average 15 million barrels (equivalent to crude oil) per year. In 1990, the above amount was approximately 140 million barrels per year, while in 2000; this amount was 20.7 times more than 1960s. Gasoline consumption in transport sector is about 98percent of the whole gasoline consumption in Iran. Since gasoline burning vehicles are consuming nearly all gasoline supply in the country; thereafter vehicle number is a determining factor in estimation of gasoline consumption. Investigations showed that the number of gasoline burning vehicles has increased constantly from 1960. The activities of domestic automotive factories have increased since 1970. Excessive demand for personal cars in 1990 and 2000s have caused enormous amount of cost for government to import gasoline and gas oil yearly. Thereupon, the energy management seems to be an inevitable necessity for transport sector. During the past ten years, by increasing car ownership and the moderate prosperity, the ratio of trips from 1.5 million has been reached to almost 15 million travels during the day. This huge number causes many other problems such as consuming about 12 million liters gasoline by vehicles in Tehran. More than 2 million vehicles are traveling in Tehran during a day. Tehran bus system can transfer about 1 billion passengers and the subway system transfers about 200 million passengers annually.

Western and eastern populations of goitered gazelles are separated by Zagors Mountains as a barrier. Bordering Iraq, western population has suffered from drastic decline during and after Iran-Iraq war. Presently, there are small numbers of the goitered gazelles left in the region with no clear understanding of their taxonomic status. It has been normally assumed that there should be a difference between these regions which has been the main objective of the present study. Twenty two skull variables of the goitered gazelles were measured and analyzed. Difference between the mean values of the regions (males only) in eastern and western Zagros as well as populations of western Zagros in Iran and Iraq populations show that western Zagros individuals in Iran have differentiated from eastern Zagros in at least 10 variables. Also, comparison of Iranian and Iraqi specimens indicates that no significant difference between these areas can be seen, seemingly an indication of morphological similarities between these two groups. Accordingly, it was concluded that western and eastern Zagros populations exhibit remarkable variation which can be due to their distinct evolution, phylogeny and environmental variations. Uniqueness of Kermanshah population in western Zagros reveals high priority to promote conservation and management of the habitat which enhancing its conservation level to Protected Area is a significant official step forward.

The equivalent noise level in large cities has been growing due to the population growth, uncontrolled production of cars, and the existence of worn out cars. On the other hand, heavy traffic has increased the amount of noise problems for residents of medical and educational centers, research institutes and residential area (or sensitive centers to noise) built in highway bounds and it has also caused and added to their stress and discomfort. This paper presents the results of measurement of equivalent noise level (Leq) on various roads in Tehran. The noise maps and color contours resulted from modeling of the noise emission sources, and the critical zones in these area have been identified through the noise pollution aspect and have been studied and the appropriate solutions have been suggested. It is possible to decrease the level of noise pollution in those zones effectively, through modeling and identifying the critical zones and also by presenting noise control solution.

Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors have been widely used for treatment of industrial wastewater. In this study, performance of a lab-scale up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor, treating a chemical synthesis-based pharmaceutical wastewater, was evaluated under different operating conditions. A (P.E) pipe with a diameter of 250 mm and total height of 120 cm and effective height of 100 cm with approximate volume of 49 liter was used as a reactor. The loading rates on reactor were increased in steps to assess the maximum loading capacity of the reactor to study the performance of reactor at different loading rates. The COD concentrations used in the present investigation ranges between 1850 mg/L to 15170 mg/L. The performance of the reactor up to 10.81 kg COD/m3.d was evaluated and the hydraulic retention times were examined. During this study, which lasted for 120 days, the temperature of the wastewater entering the reactor ranged from 30 to 35 o C and no heat exchanger was used. Finally the removal ratio of COD with hydraulic retention time of 33.7 hours and organic loading rate of 10.81 kg COD/m3.day were 54 percent respectively.

Removal of thiosulfate (S2O32-, 200 mg/L) from simulated wastewater samples was investigated under varying co-pollutants and pH conditions employing the titanium dioxide (TiO2) mediated photocatalysis. For thiosulfate only studies higher substrate removal was noted at lower pH with a specific trend of pH 4 > pH 7 > pH 10. Furthermore, near complete thiosulfate removal was also achieved at pH 4. A similar thiosulfate removal trend was also noted for the binary thiosulfate & p-cresol and thiosulfate & thiocyanate systems at pH 4, indicating high photocatalysis process efficiency. However, thiosulfate removal from the mixed systems at pH greater than 4 was slower as compared to the respective thiosulfate only systems. Nevertheless for the binary thiosulfate & thiocyanate system, significant thiosulfate removal was noted even at pH 12 when the thiosulfate concentration was reduced to 40 mg/L.