Sewage sludge is a solid waste composed of water, rich in organic matter and nutrients, but concentrator of pathogenic microorganisms. Its use as agricultural fertilizer in the state of Paraná, Brazil is common. However, it is necessary to eliminate or significantly reduce microorganisms by means of a hygiene process. This can be obtained thermally, requiring a source of energy for heat generation. In this sense, a pilot system was constructed consisting of a stainless steel radiant floor, capable of transferring heat to the sewage sludge from coils coupled in base, through which the heated water circulates. The energy comes from solar radiation and is complemented by biogas from the anaerobic sewage treatment. Aiming to investigate the system's ability to transfer heat and, consequently, to sanitize and dry the sludge, a layer of 0.10 m was deposited on the radiant floor, the temperature being monitored at two different heights, obtaining averages of 328.95 K (55.8 ° C) and 336.95 K (63.8 ° C), respectively. The sludge was still submitted to a drying process, where a 68.68% increase in the total solids content was verified. Finally, the energy consumption was measured where a demand of 29.22 Nm³ of methane per m³ of treated sludge had been estimated.
Seawater intrusion into the Pombas river, source of freshwater to Praia de Leste on the coast of Parana in Brazil presents a problem to the water utility as most water treatment plants in Brazil are conventional. To find a solution to this problem, a pilot plant (1m 3 /h) consisting of ultrafiltration (UF) followed by reverse osmosis (RO) was developed and evaluated. For testing, brackish water was produced with a concentration of 1,500 ± 100 mg/L of total dissolved solids (TDS), mixing seawater and fresh water. To evaluate the water quality, TDS, electrical conductivity, pH, temperature, apparent color, turbidity, alkalinity, total hardness, calcium, chloride and sulfate were monitored. For operational performance, flowrates, osmotic pressure, filtration rate, recovery rate and mass balance were analyzed. On average, the UF system removed 96.4% of turbidity and 98.6% of apparent color; whereas the RO system removed 99.4% of TDS. The overall average recovery (UF and RO) was 45.81% with average osmotic pressure of 8.21 bar, filtration rate of 30.7 L/h/m 2 in the UF system and 21.7 L/h/m 2 in the RO system. From a water quality point of view, the system was effective in processing brackish into fresh water of high quality.
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