Optimization of temperature and supporting electrolyte for ammonium removal using bioelectrochemical systems

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Environmental Health, School of Medicine, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Environmental Health, School of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Environmental Engineering, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

4 Assistant Professor, School of Public Health and Institute of Public Health Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

High concentrations of ammonium in drinking water can cause many diseases and environmental problems such as eutrophication. Therefore, high-performance and eco-friendly methods for purification are of great importance and must be considered. Recently, bioelectrochemical systems have been successfully applied for the removal of many pollutants from water and wastewater. In the present work, ammonium was treated using the bioelectrochemical process. The 2 effective factors of temperature and supporting electrolyte dose were optimized using response surface methodology (RSM). The optimal conditions were electrolyte dosage of 250 mg/l and temperature of 26.5 °C. Under optimized conditions, the maximum ammonia removal percentage was 99.6%. Analysis of variance indicated a reasonable correlation coefficient (R2) between the predicted and actual values. R2 (0.8913), adjusted R2 (0.8137), and coefficient of variation (8.32 %) were calculated based on statistical analysis. The results indicate that the bioelectrochemical process is the most useful and effective method for the removal of ammonium from wastewater.   

Keywords

References

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Journal of Advances in Environmental Health Research
Volume 3, Issue 1 - Serial Number 1
8
Winter 2015
Pages 62-70

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