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Influence of salinity on the biological treatment of domestic ship sewage using an air-lift multilevel circulation membrane reactor

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Abstract

Recently, strict standards for ship domestic sewage discharge have been implemented by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The high salinity of ship sewage was considered a key factor influencing the removal efficiency of ship sewage treatment systems. In the present study, the salinity effect on the removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N) from ship domestic sewage was investigated by using a novel air-lift multilevel circulation membrane reactor (AMCMBR). Enzyme activity analysis and wavelet neural network (WNN) models were built to determine the mechanisms of the process. The experimental results indicate that high salinity levels (> 21 g/L) had a negative impact on COD and NH4+-N removal efficiencies, and low saline concentrations (≤ 21 g/L) caused a negligible effect. The COD and NH4-N removal efficiencies were 84% and 97%, respectively, at a salinity of 21 g/L, which were higher than those at low salinities (i.e., 7 g/L and 14 g/L). Invertase and nitrate reductase had a close relationship with removal performance, and they can be considered important indicators reflecting the operation effort under saline environments. With high predictive accuracies, the constructed WNN models simulated the complex COD and NH4+-N removal processes well under different saline concentrations, ensuring the long-term stable operation of the AMCMBR under different salinities.

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Funding

This research was financially supported by the National Key R&D Plan of China (2017YFC1404603), the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51579049), the Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province (E2017020), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (HEUCFG201820).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Power and Energy Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, 150001, PR China

    Yuhang Cai, Yue Shi, Kun Zhang, Shihao Xiao & Aqiang Lin

  2. Department of Engineering Sciences, PN Engineering College, National University of Sciences and Technology, Karachi, 75350, Pakistan

    Asad A. Zaidi

  3. China Aviation Development Institute, No. 1 Wanlian Road, Shenyang City, Shenhe District, China

    Xin Li

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  1. Yuhang Cai
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  5. Xin Li
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  6. Shihao Xiao
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  7. Aqiang Lin
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Correspondence to Yue Shi.

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Responsible editor: Ta Yeong Wu

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Cai, Y., Zaidi, A.A., Shi, Y. et al. Influence of salinity on the biological treatment of domestic ship sewage using an air-lift multilevel circulation membrane reactor. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26, 37026–37036 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06813-4

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