The process of composting which involves the treatment of organic wastes to obtain a stable clean product, has become an increasingly desirable choice, at any scale from home to large waste treatment plants. Composting serves as an alternative to landfilling for managing biodegradable waste while also increasing or preserving soil organic matter, decreasing solid waste, and reducing disposal costs. The compost product improves the condition of the soil, reduces erosion, and helps reduce plant diseases without having adverse impacts on the environment. This study aims to manufacture high-quality compost as a solid waste management method by converting organic waste into a useful resource for the community in a financially and ecologically sustainable manner. We investigated the potential of aerobic composting by controlling the operation process parameters, including monitoring the pH value, temperature, electrical conductivity (EC), carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C/N), and moisture content during the composting. We studied the physiochemical and biological changes of composting using a 60-liter bioreactor. The composting process determined an average pH value between 6.9 and 7.8, and it revealed a decrease in TOC from 26.18 to 22.19. Additionally, compost process monitoring indicated a maximum temperature rise of 69 °C over the first three days, and then a decrease after 20 days of air temperature. Total nitrogen in the NH4+/NO3-ratio nitrification decreased to less than 1.4, and the compost in the C/N ratio decreased from 20.75 to 10.035 and setting quality criteria by comparing the final product quality produced through the in-vessel composting.
Erbil city is located in the northern Iraq with a population of over one million people. Due to water crises farmers usually use wastewater and well water for the agricultural production. In this study six stations were designed to sample waste water and three from well water to define waste water and ground water characteristics. In this study, Residual Na+ Carbonate, Mg++ hazard, salinity hazard, Kelley index, %sodium, total hardness, permeability index, potential salinity, sodium adsorption ratio, and Irrigation Water Quality Index (IWQI) were determined. The order of average cation concentrations in water was Mg2+> Ca2+ > Na+ > K+. While the proportion of main
... Show MoreBiodiesel is an environmentally friendly fuel and a good substitution for the fossil fuel. However, the purity of this fuel is a major concern that challenges researchers. In this study, a calcium oxide based catalyst has been prepared from local waste eggshells by the calcination method and tested in production biodiesel. The eggshells were powdered and calcined at different temperatures (700, 750, 800, 850 and 900 °C) and periods of time (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 hr.). The effect of calcination temperature and calcination time on the structure and activity of the solid catalyst were examined by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Brunaure-Emmett-Teller (BET). The optimum catalyst performance was obtained at 900 °C
... Show MoreCo-composting process can be acquired by combining organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) with sewage sludge (SS) and mature compost (MC) as enhancement and bulking agent to overcome the problems of municipal solid waste and wastewater treatment plants besides the finally produced fertilizer usage for agriculture and horticulture. The effects of different mixture ratios of (OFMSW), (SS) and (MC) on the performance of composting process were investigated in this study. Piles of about 10 kg were prepared by mixing OFMSW, SS and MC in three different ratios (w/w) [OFMSW: SS: MC= 3:1:1, 3:2:1, and 3:3:1]. Results showed that the pile [3:1:1] was most beneficial to composting. The final compost products contained a
... Show MoreIn this research a local adsorbent was prepared from waste tires using two-step pyrolysis method. In the carbonization process, nitrogen gas flow rate was 0.2L/min at carbonization temperature of 500ºC for 1h. The char products were then preceded to the activation process at 850°C under carbon dioxide (CO2) activation flow rate of 0.6L/min for 3h. The activation method produced local adsorbent material with a surface area and total pore volume as high as 118.59m2 /g and 0.1467cm3/g, respectively. The produced . local adsorbent (activated carbon) was used for adsorption of lead from aqueous solution. The continuous fixed bed column experiments were conducted. The adsorption capacity performance of prepared activated carbons in this work
... Show MoreRapid worldwide urbanization and drastic population growth have increased the demand for new road construction, which will cause a substantial amount of natural resources such as aggregates to be consumed. The use of recycled concrete aggregate could be one of the possible ways to offset the aggregate shortage problem and reduce environmental pollution. This paper reports an experimental study of unbound granular material using recycled concrete aggregate for pavement subbase construction. Five percentages of recycled concrete aggregate obtained from two different sources with an originally designed compressive strength of 20–30 MPa as well as 31–40 MPa at three particle size levels, i.e., coarse, fine, and extra fine, were test
... Show MoreObjective(s): The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of education program on Health Care Workers’ practices toward Primary Health Care Centers waste management and to identify the relationship between these practices and the demographic characteristics of the health workers. Methodology: A quasi- experimental design (pre-post tests) has been used in the present study for the period of November 16th 2014 to June 22nd 2015 .The allocated sample in the present study is consisted of (60) health care worker. The sample was randomly divided into two groups of (30) health care workers each. The stu
In this research, production of ethanol from waste potatoes fermentation was studied using Saccharmyses cerevisiae. Potato Flour was prepared from potato tubers after cooking and drying at 85°C. Homogenous slurry of potato flour was prepared in water at solid liquid ratio 1:10. Liquefaction of potato flour slurry with α-amylase at 80°C for 40 min followed by saccharification with glucoamylase at 65°C for 2 hr .Fermentation of hydrolysate with Saccharomyces cerevisiae at 35°C for two days resulted in production of 33 g/l ethanol.
The parameters studied were; temperature, time of fermentation and pH. It was found that Saccharification process is affected by enzyme Amylo 300 conc
... Show MoreIn this work, a vertical pulsating heat pipe heat exchanger (PHPHE) was designed for waste heat recovery, exchanging thermal energy between two air streams in a counterflow configuration. The heat exchanger consists of six rows, each row consists of one pulsating heat pipe (PHP), and each PHP has six turns. The working fluid used in the heat pipe was acetone with fill ratios of 50%, 60%, and 70%. The effect of evaporator inlet temperature at 40, 45, and 50°C and air velocity at 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9 m/s on the pulsating heat pipes consisting of three sections- evaporator, condenser, and adiabatic, whose dimensions were 25 x 25 x 10 cm, was studied. At the same time, the condenser temperature was maintained at 26°C. The system’s th
... Show MoreExcessive intake of fluoride, mainly through drinking water is a serious health hazard affecting humans worldwide. In this study, the defluoridation capacities of locally available raw waste beef bones have been estimated. Several experimental parameters including contact time, pH, bone dose, fluoride initial concentration, bone grains size, agitation rate, and the effect of co-existence of anions in actual samples of wastewater were studied for fluoride removal from aqueous solutions. Results indicated excellent fluoride removal effeciency up to 99.7% at fluoride initial concentration of 10 mg F/L and 120 min contact time. Maximum fluoride uptake was obtained at neutral pH range 6-7. Fluoride removal kinetic was well described by the ps
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