Investigation of a ponding irrigation system to recycle agricultural wastewater

This article presents the results of natural carrying capacity of ponding irrigation system in Taoyuan agricultural zone, Taiwan. Both the systematic water quality and the ponding effects were examined. The ponding irrigation system included a flow channel and storage ponds. The data showed that most water characteristics deteriorated gradually from upper- to down-stream in the flow channel and the flow channel was not attributed to any self-purification in agricultural returning water practically. On the other hand, the results of storage ponds indicated that they can provide a natural treatment (i.e., the outlet water quality of the ponds is more desirable than that of the inlet). Consequently, the ponding irrigation system offers the natural self-purification in ponds to reuse and recycle the returning agricultural wastewater and to extend the irrigation capacity and efficiency.     

Reutilisation-extended material flows and circular economy in China

Circular economy (CE), with its basic principle of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, has been determined as the key strategy for the national development plan by the Chinese government. Given the economy-wide material flow analysis (EW-MFA) that leaves the inner flow of resource reutilisation unidentified, the reutilisation-extended EW-MFA is first introduced to evaluate and analyse the material input, solid waste generation, and reutilisation simultaneously. The total amount of comprehensive reutilisation (CR) is divided into three sub-flows, namely, reutilisation, recycle, and reuse. Thus, this model is used to investigate the resource CR in China from 2000 to 2010. China’s total amount of CR and its sub-flows, as well as the CR rate, remain to have a general upward trend. By the year 2010, about 60% of the overall solid waste generation had already been reutilised, and more than 20% of the total resource requirement was reutilised resource. Moreover, the growth patterns of the CR sub flows show different characteristics.Interpretations of resource reutilisation-related laws and regulations of CE and the corresponding policy suggestions are proposed based on the results.     

A new approach to characterize biodegradation of organics by molecular mass distribution in landfill leachate

This study provides biodegradability of organics in leachate according to their molecular mass distributions (<0.5, 0.5 to 1, 1 to 3, 10, and >10 KDa). Organics with molecular mass values lower than 0.5 KDa were the predominant species in the raw leachate filtrate, and the aerated lagoon process was very effective in treating these highly biodegradable organics; the Fenton's oxidation process was very effective in treating not-so-biodegradable organics with molecular mass values higher than 0.5 KDa, but a portion of these organics were converted into organics <0.5 KDa after Fenton's oxidation. An oxygen uptake measurement using a respirometer was more sensitive than a conventional biochemical oxygen demand measurement to evaluate bioactivities, especially when bioactivities were low.