Yaakov Anker
Samaria and the Jordan Rift R&D Center, Israel
Title: Utilization of redundant industrial aggregates for construction of biofiltration of industrial and domestic effluents
Biography
Biography: Yaakov Anker
Abstract
Development of constructed bio-filters for wastewater treatment is an emerging branch of bio-remediation engineering. The careful design of such systems can produce facilities with similar capabilities as industrial activated systems, with the benefit of reduces energy consumption and higher sustainability. While constructed bio-filters are usually with low environmental imprint, some systems are already acknowledged as Best Available Technic for Integrative Pollution Prevention and Control (BAT-Bio-IPPC). The basic concept of operation is transferring the polluted influent through a series of different bioreactors that may be activated or not, aerobic, anaerobic, anoxic and with different physical properties. Each reactor is actually a diverse habitat, which differs in both flora and biochemical impact. When designed properly, sequential process in a system consisting of several bioreactors may be a very efficient Bio-IPPC solution to various pollution scenarios. One of the most significant parameters in the structure of the system is the aggregate used as medium for the biological films. The most common application is of carbonate aggregates, nevertheless since carbonates are reactive to water solutions they are not the optimal strata. Our research had shown that the best natural aggregate is of volcanic origin, demonstrating resilience to weathering, as well as high porosity and specific surface, which encourage bio-films development. This research also included evaluation of artificial aggregates and in particular, bottom coal ash, construction residue and plastic medium. The comparison results demonstrated that plastics lack resilience and between non-carbonate construction residue and bottom coal ash the second is better owing to higher porosity.