River treatment using biofilm growth on coconut and oil palm cellulosic fibres

Many conventional treatments have been proposed to reduce river pollution issues in Malaysia. However, the application of these technologies is still expensive and sophisticated in terms of both operation and management. Recently, natural waste materials have been found to successfully treat differe...

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Main Author:	Low, Wen Pei
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2015
Subjects:	TA Engineering (General) Civil engineering (General)
Online Access:	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/54724/1/LowWenPeiPFKA2015.pdf
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id	my-utm-ep.54724
record_format	uketd_dc
spelling	my-utm-ep.547242020-11-04T08:10:01Z River treatment using biofilm growth on coconut and oil palm cellulosic fibres 2015-09 Low, Wen Pei TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General) Many conventional treatments have been proposed to reduce river pollution issues in Malaysia. However, the application of these technologies is still expensive and sophisticated in terms of both operation and management. Recently, natural waste materials have been found to successfully treat different types of pollutants from contaminated water. Therefore, in this study, coconut fibre (CF) and oil palm fibre (OPF), two highly available natural materials in Malaysia have been selected for the development of adsorption and filtration materials. Instead of multi-purpose usage as furniture, slope protections and others, fibres (CF and OPF) can performed as a treatment medium for removing organic and nutrient pollutants, as well as providing an ideal biofilm formation platform to enhance removal rates. The main goal of this study is to develop biofilm on cellulosic fibres (CF and OPF) for organics and nutrients removal in river water and elucidate its adsorption mechanisms using modified empirical model. Desa Bakti River which is one of the polluted rivers in Johor, Malaysia due to domestic effluent discharge from nearby oxidation ponds was chosen as sampling site throughout the study. Initially various amounts of CF and OPF were tested in a jar test. Then, the obtained amount of fibres (CF and OPF) was used for organic and nutrient removal in a fabricated model with 0.2 m3 of river water at different flow rates. A same study that used the optimum flow rate was conducted again for biofilm developed fibres (CF and OPF). All the results were analyzed using modified empirical model. This model tested various loading rates and the predicted accumulation rate of adsorbates was found to decrease along with the percentage of outflows. It was discovered that CF with an attached biofilm have a higher mass transfer rate than OPF due to the fact that the thickness of the extracellular polymeric substance on CF was less than on OPF. The global mass transfer factor for the developed biofilm CF was found to be highest at 2% outflow, where chemical oxygen demand, total nitrogen and total phosphorus were 1.0067 d-1, 0.4857 d-1 and 0.1485 d-1 respectively. By using these modified empirical models as an analysis tool, the natural biofilm formation by using both CF and OPF were confirmed based on optimized yield in removal of organics and nutrients from river water. 2015-09 Thesis http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/54724/ http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/54724/1/LowWenPeiPFKA2015.pdf application/pdf en public http://dms.library.utm.my:8080/vital/access/manager/Repository/vital:94691 phd doctoral Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Faculty of Civil Engineering Faculty of Civil Engineering
institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
collection	UTM Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	TA Engineering (General) Civil engineering (General)
spellingShingle	TA Engineering (General) Civil engineering (General) Low, Wen Pei River treatment using biofilm growth on coconut and oil palm cellulosic fibres
description	Many conventional treatments have been proposed to reduce river pollution issues in Malaysia. However, the application of these technologies is still expensive and sophisticated in terms of both operation and management. Recently, natural waste materials have been found to successfully treat different types of pollutants from contaminated water. Therefore, in this study, coconut fibre (CF) and oil palm fibre (OPF), two highly available natural materials in Malaysia have been selected for the development of adsorption and filtration materials. Instead of multi-purpose usage as furniture, slope protections and others, fibres (CF and OPF) can performed as a treatment medium for removing organic and nutrient pollutants, as well as providing an ideal biofilm formation platform to enhance removal rates. The main goal of this study is to develop biofilm on cellulosic fibres (CF and OPF) for organics and nutrients removal in river water and elucidate its adsorption mechanisms using modified empirical model. Desa Bakti River which is one of the polluted rivers in Johor, Malaysia due to domestic effluent discharge from nearby oxidation ponds was chosen as sampling site throughout the study. Initially various amounts of CF and OPF were tested in a jar test. Then, the obtained amount of fibres (CF and OPF) was used for organic and nutrient removal in a fabricated model with 0.2 m3 of river water at different flow rates. A same study that used the optimum flow rate was conducted again for biofilm developed fibres (CF and OPF). All the results were analyzed using modified empirical model. This model tested various loading rates and the predicted accumulation rate of adsorbates was found to decrease along with the percentage of outflows. It was discovered that CF with an attached biofilm have a higher mass transfer rate than OPF due to the fact that the thickness of the extracellular polymeric substance on CF was less than on OPF. The global mass transfer factor for the developed biofilm CF was found to be highest at 2% outflow, where chemical oxygen demand, total nitrogen and total phosphorus were 1.0067 d-1, 0.4857 d-1 and 0.1485 d-1 respectively. By using these modified empirical models as an analysis tool, the natural biofilm formation by using both CF and OPF were confirmed based on optimized yield in removal of organics and nutrients from river water.
format	Thesis
qualification_name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.)
qualification_level	Doctorate
author	Low, Wen Pei
author_facet	Low, Wen Pei
author_sort	Low, Wen Pei
title	River treatment using biofilm growth on coconut and oil palm cellulosic fibres
title_short	River treatment using biofilm growth on coconut and oil palm cellulosic fibres
title_full	River treatment using biofilm growth on coconut and oil palm cellulosic fibres
title_fullStr	River treatment using biofilm growth on coconut and oil palm cellulosic fibres
title_full_unstemmed	River treatment using biofilm growth on coconut and oil palm cellulosic fibres
title_sort	river treatment using biofilm growth on coconut and oil palm cellulosic fibres
granting_institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Faculty of Civil Engineering
granting_department	Faculty of Civil Engineering
publishDate	2015
url	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/54724/1/LowWenPeiPFKA2015.pdf
_version_	1747817711718629376

River treatment using biofilm growth on coconut and oil palm cellulosic fibres

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