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    Continuous phenol removal using Nocardia hydrocarbonoxydans in spouted bed contactor: Shock load study
    (2009) Dabhade, M.A.; Saidutta, M.B.; Murthy, D.V.R.
    Shock load studies are essential to investigate the suitability of biocontactors in degradation of pollutants. In the present work, the degradation of phenol by immobilized Nocardia hydrocarbonoxydans in a spouted bed contactor was conducted. Granular activated carbon (GAC) and polymer beads were tested for the immobilization of cells of N. hydrocarbonoxydans-NCIM 2386. Initially, batch immobilization study was conducted to know the quantity of immobilized microorganisms per gram of solids and then the immobilized solids were used in the spouted bed contactor for phenol degradation. Also, the shock loading of phenol and hydraulic shock load test was performed to check the stability of operation. The immobilized Nocardia cells sustained the shock load and hydraulic load of phenol. Increase of influent phenol concentration and dilution rates increased the steady state effluent phenol concentration. Almost 95% degradation at maximum phenol loading of 0.73 gL-1h-1 was achieved. GAC has more attached biomass weight compared to polymer beads. © 2009 Academic Journals.
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    Separation of dimethyl phenol using a spiral-wound RO membrane - Experimental and parameter estimation studies
    (2009) Srinivasan, G.; Sundaramoorthy, S.; Murthy, D.V.R.
    Reverse osmosis (RO) is increasingly used as a separation technique in chemical and environmental engineering for the removal of organics and organic pollutants present in waste water. Treatment of organics by RO is dependent on many factors and hence developing a viable RO system involves extensive pilot-plant studies. The removal of an organic compound, namely dimethyl phenol, using a polyamide membrane was investigated in this study. Experiments were conducted on a laboratory-scale spiral-wound RO module. The permeate concentrations and rejection coefficient values were measured for various transmembrane pressures and feed concentrations. A maximum rejection of 97% was observed. A mathematical model was developed for the RO module assuming a solution-diffusion mechanism for solute and solvent transport through the membrane and considering the concentration and pressure to be uniform on both permeate and retentate sides. The model has four parameters. A graphical method for estimating the model parameters was proposed. The model and the estimated parameter values were validated with the experimental data. The model was able to predict the permeate concentration within an error of 19% and rejection within 2% error. © 2009.
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    Adsorption of phenol on granular activated carbon from nutrient medium: Equilibrium and kinetic Study
    (2009) Dabhade, M.A.; Saidutta, M.B.; Murthy, D.V.R.
    This paper presents the adsorption of phenol on granular activated carbon (GAC) from nutrient medium suitable for microorganisms' growth and also the subsequent biodegradation. Two parameter Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm models were studied using large range of phenol concentration (50-1000 mg/L). In low range of phenol concentration (50-300 mg/L), correlation coefficient, normalized deviation "g% and separation factor were 0.9989,2.18% and 0.38-0.78 respectively, while for higher concentration range (400-1000 mg/L), the corresponding values were 0.9719, 1.9% and 0.45- 0.67. Freundlich isotherm gave correlation coefficient of 0.9984, 1/n. value of 0.7269 and normalized deviation of 4.55%. Comparison based on R2, adjusted R2, normalized deviation and root mean square deviation (RMSD) showed that the Redke-Prausnitz isotherm model gives better prediction compared to other models. Adsorption of phenol follows pseudo second order kinetics with correlation coefficient closer to one. Biodegradation study using immobilized cells of Nocardia hydrocarbonoxydans on GAC showed that, biodegradation begins well before GAC reaches the saturation period.
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    Validation of an analytical model for spiral wound reverse osmosis membrane module using experimental data on the removal of dimethylphenol
    (2011) Srinivasan, G.; Sundaramoorthy, S.; Murthy, D.V.R.
    A new analytical model for spiral wound RO module has been recently proposed by Sundaramoorthy et al. [1] and the same has been validated [2] with experimental data obtained on a laboratory scale RO unit used for the removal of chlorophenol. In this paper, the need to check the validity of this model with solutes other than chlorophenol is addressed by conducting suitable experiments with dimethylphenol as solute and validating this experimental data with the model. The four model parameters namely solvent transport coefficient Aw, solute transport coefficient Bs, feed channel friction parameter b and the mass transfer coefficient k were estimated. The results show that the mass transfer coefficient is influenced not only by fluid velocity but also by the solvent flux and solute concentration. A new correlation for mass transfer coefficient k, proposed by Sundaramoorthy et al. [2] for experimental data taken with chlorophenol as solute is also shown to be consistent with the experimental readings recorded in this study taking dimethylphenol as solute. Comparison of model predictions with the experimental observations demonstrated the capability of the model in predicting permeate concentration within 12% error, retentate flow within 5% error and rejection coefficient within 2% error. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.