Study of urban population attitudes towards various wastewater reuse options: Israel as a case study

This paper summarizes the findings of a survey (256 participants) conducted to determine the attitude of the Israeli urban public towards various urban water reuse options. Israel is known for its long and successful agricultural water reuse scheme, but to date no large-scale urban reuse projects have been implemented. The survey included 21 reuse options, which were clustered into three reuse categories, namely: low, medium, and high contact levels. Results show that a high proportion of the participants supported medium contact reuse options such as sidewalk landscaping (95%), domestic WC flushing (85%) and firefighting (96%). Higher contact reuse options such as domestic laundry (38%), preserved food (13%), and potable aquifer recharge (11%) found much lesser support. Less than expected support was found for low contact reuse options with 86% for field crop irrigation, 62% for aquifer recharge for agricultural irrigation, and as low as 49% for orchard irrigation. This low support is surprising, since all three options have been practiced on a large scale for over three decades in Israel without any adverse effects to the public. No correlation was found between any biographical characteristic examined (education, gender, income, marital status, having young children, and age) and support for medium contact options. For the medium contact options, the results suggest that perceived financial gain (individual and/or communal) and positive public opinion enhances support, while perceived health effects negatively affects the degree of support. Technology, trust in authorities and awareness of water and environmental issues were found to not have a significant effect on support for medium contact reuse options. Analyzing the four possible reasons for support given by participants who identified themselves as supporters of wastewater reuse revealed that the most important reason for support was "water saving", followed by "minimization of importing water from abroad". These were followed by "infrastructure cost saving" together with "environmental improvement".     

Interaction Between the Environment and Animals in Urban Settings: Integrated and Participatory Planning

In urban ecosystems, the ecological system has become completely unbalanced; this, in turn, has led to an increase in well-known problems such as air pollution, ground pollution, and water pollution. This imbalance has also led to the growth and spread of pathogens harmful to man, animals, and plants. Urban sustainability indicators, both global and local, also “indicate” the percentage of population, but these refer only to the human population, not the animal population. Cities need good waste, water, and air management, effective traffic planning, and good zoning of businesses, crafts, and services; over and above these activities, cities also need for planning to take into account the existence of pets (dogs, cats, and etc.) and nonpet animals (insects, birds, mice, etc.). Cities tend to be designed around humans and “on a human scale,” without taking into account the fact that a huge animal population is living side by side with people. That explains why overcrowding tends to go hand in hand with urbanization; all these populations, including humans, need to adapt to new spaces and often need to drastically change their behavior. This is a fact that must be included when drafting sustainable city plans. The supposed strategy is that of “integrated-participatory” control of the interactions between the environment and animals in the cities. Strategy will focus on the development of integrated approaches and tools for environment and animal management in the context of urban settings. This will require such specific methods as ecological balance sheets and ecoplans for the planning, management, and control of the interrelation among environment, animal, and public health. The objective is to develop a better understanding of urban biodiversity and of urban ecosystem functioning, in order to understand and minimize the negative impacts of human activities on them. The research will focus on assessing and forecasting changes in urban biodiversity, structure, function, and dynamics of urban ecosystems, with relationships among society, economy, biodiversity, and habitats.     

有机废水资源化技术--发酵产氢

氢作为一种清洁高效的可再生能源日益受到人们的重视.利用有机废水发酵产氢,既保护环境又可获得氢能,是一条符合可持续发展战略的废水资源化途径,极具发展前景.本文介绍了发酵产氢微生物的种类及其产氢机理,对发酵产氢的影响因素进行了分析;总结了有机废水发酵产氢的研究现状,并探讨了今后的研究方向.     

污水直接膜过滤用于农灌可行性试验

本试验尝试用膜直接截留污水中对人体健康有害的细菌病毒,而保留水中对作物有益的氮、磷等营养元素,以期实现水、肥双成分资源化。试验结果表明,无论是微滤膜还是超滤膜均对细菌及粪大肠菌有很高的截留率(99.9%～99.999%),污水中有机物、氮与磷的保留率分别为32%～67%、72%～78%和60%～62%。用渗滤液灌溉的小麦较之清水灌溉和常规灌溉的小麦,麦穗单重分别提高13%和7.5%。     

炼化混合废水达标排放技术改造

通过对炼化混合废水处理工序进行全过程分析与检测,找出影响外排水达标排放的因素,对加药、释放器及生化系统提出了改造方案,改造后的结果表明,浮选与生化系统的降解能力得到提高,外排水水质明显改善,实现达标排放。     

蜡防印花生产废水处理工程扩改设计

对蜡防印花生产废水处理工程进行扩改设计,实际结果表明:机械洗蜡废水分流后经双级气浮处理,蜡回收率和处理水回用率可达90%以上;皂化脱蜡废水分流后采用酸化-气浮处理,蜡回收率可达95%以上,出水与印花水洗废水经微电解脱色,脱色率可达85%以上;混合废水经混凝气浮-生物接触氧化-沉淀-过滤组合工艺处理,出水达标排放。该处理工艺效率高,效果稳定,经济效益和环境效益高。     

厌氧-好氧生物滤池处理城市污水试验

研究了生物滤池处理城市污水的性能特点,结果表明:厌氧-好氧生物滤池去除城市污水中的CODCr、SS和NH4+-N等具有较好的效果,当进水CODCr、SS和NH4+-N分别为23、112mg/L和56mg/L时,水力停留时间8h,曝气强度在0·5~0·6L/(m2·s)时,CODCr、SS和NH4+-N的去除率分别在90%、80%和75%以上。     

肉类加工废水生物脱氮工艺的工程应用

采用ABRSBR组合工艺开展了大量现场模拟试验及动力学理论研究,最终获得了进一步提高肉类加工废水脱氮效率的措施途径。通过对已建成、正调试、正设计3种情况下肉类加工废水脱氮工艺的研究,表明此脱氮工艺具有良好的工程应用价值。     

折光率法和电导率法测定稀土废水中氯化铵

阐述了折光率法与电导率法测定稀土废水中高浓度氯化铵的原理和方法.在恒温和低悬浮物浓度条件下,折光率与氯化铵质量浓度线性关系良好;当保持外界条件不变时,氯化铵质量浓度在5 000 mg/L～60 000 mg/L与电导率显著相关.经t检验,两种方法与银量法差异均不显著,且操作简单,准确快速,适用于水处理过程中的现场实时监测.     

Ultrasound and enzyme assisted biodegradation of distillery wastewater

Irradiation with ultrasound (US) and use of an enzyme (E) as pretreatment techniques were carried out to treat a complex effluent (distillery wastewater). These two techniques have been used alone as well as in combination and the efficacy of these techniques was tested by subjecting the effluent to subsequent aerobic biological oxidation (AO). When used alone, US exposure for 30 min and 2 h yielded the best COD reduction during the aerobic oxidation step (US+AO). For the enzyme when used alone, a pH value of 4.8 (corresponding to the optimum pH of the enzyme), a dose of 50 U and a pretreatment time of 24 h yielded better COD removal efficiency as compared to untreated effluent (aerobic oxidation alone). When used in combination, ultrasound followed by enzymatic pretreatment (US+E+AO) yielded the best COD removal efficiencies during aerobic oxidation as compared to the other combinations tested for the treatment of the distillery wastewater. A 4-fold increase in the initial oxidation rate was observed over the untreated batch for the integrated technique (US+E+AO). On the basis of the variation in the values of the biokinetic parameters it can be concluded that the type of pretreatment scheme affects the subsequent rate of the aerobic oxidation significantly.