To improve dye retention, there is a concurrent interest in the development and optimization of an alternative and promising method for the dye recovery in aqueous solutions. In this regard, considerable attention was paid to the polyoxometalates (POMs) assisted ultrafi ltration (POMAUF). The aim of the present study is to eliminate toluidine blue (TB) dye by ultrafi ltration membrane using keggin polyoxometalates (POMs) as complexing agents. In the fi rst step, the keggin polyoxometalates K₃[PW₁₂O₄₀]∙6H₂O(PW₁₂) and K₇[PW) were prepared. Then, the obtained powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopies. Afterwards, the removal of toluidine blue (TB) using polyoxometalates assisted ultrafi ltration (POMAUF) was studied. Factors affecting the retention of dye and permeate fl ux such as transmembrane pressure, operating time, polyoxometalates concentration, ionic strength, surfactant and pH were investigated. All results of both compounds have been presented and discussed. The results reveal that the addition of POMs leads to an increase in dye retention from 11 to 95% for the PW 12 and to 98% for the PW . The results of this work have thus suggested the promising enhancement of ultrafi ltration membrane selectivity for the dye removal using new complexing agents such as POMs in place of polyelectrolytes and surfactants.

This paper presents the results of the investigation associated with the determination of mercury content in Polish hard coal and lignite samples. Those coals are major fuels used for electricity generation in Poland. The results indicated that the average content of mercury in the coal samples was roughly about 100 ng/g. Apart from the determination of the mercury contents a detailed ultimate and proximate analysis of the coal samples was also carried out. The relationships between the mercury content and ash, as well as fixed carbon, volatile matter, sulfur, and high heating value of the coal samples were also established. Furthermore, the effect of coal enrichment was also investigated, and it was found that the enrichment process enabled the removal of up to 75% of the coal mercury from the samples.

The study of the effectiveness of the removal of anionic natural organic matter (fulvic acids-FA and humic acids-HA) and inorganic anions (F-, Br-, NO3-) in MIEX®DOC process was performed. The influence of physico-chemical parameters of feed water on the process performance was investigated. The ion exchange process was carried out using strongly basic, macroporous polystyrene resin MIEX® by Orica Watercare. The synthetic feed waters differ in composition, i.e. concentration of FA and HA (ca. 6 and 12 mg/L), anions content (F-, Br-, NO3-) and of various alkalinity (ca. 20 and 120 mg/L as CaCO3) were used. The study confirmed the possibility of application of MIEX®DOC process for removal of anionic contaminants from water. It also showed the significant impact of feed water parameters on the process effectiveness. Moreover, the strong dependence of anions (F-, Br-, NO3-) removal, FA and HA concentration on the resin dose was revealed.

Acid mine drainage (AMD) is widespread environmental problem associated with both working and abandoned mining operation, resulting from the microbial oxidation of pyrite in presence of water and air, to form an acidic solution containing metal ions. The present study aims to adjust low pH, remove iron, manganese and sulphate from AMD generated at open pit Jiří and depth Jiří, Sokolovská uhelná, Czech Republic. The local AMD is very problematic due to its composition and process taking place in the Water Preparing Plant Svatava (WPPS), where only pH value is adjusted and mainly high concentration of iron and suspended solids are removed.

The paper presents the results and analysis of biomass processing in order to provide the conditions for the most profitable use of the biomass in modern and efficient power generation systems with particular attention put on the decrease of the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) and no need to develop carbon capture and storage plants. The promising concept of CO2 storage via the production of biochar and the advantages of its application as a promising carbon sink is also presented and the results are supported by authors’ own experimental data. The idea enables the production of electricity, as well as (optionally) heat and cold from the thermal treatment of biomass with simultaneous storage of the CO2 in a stable and environmentally-friendly way. The key part of the process is run in a specially-designed reactor where the biomass is heated up in the absence of oxygen. The evolved volatile matter is used to produce heat/cold and electricity while the remaining solid product (almost completely dry residue) is sequestrated in soil. The results indicate that in order to reduce the emission of CO2 the biomass should rather be ‘cut and char’ than just ‘cut and burn’, particularly that the charred biomass may also become a significant source of nutrients for the plants after sequestration in soil.

Azo dye wastewater treatment is urgent necessary nowadays. Electrochemical technologies commonly enable more efficient degradation of recalcitrant organic contaminants than biological methods, but those rely greatly on the energy consumption. A novel process of biofilm coupled with electrolysis, i.e., bioelectrochemical system (BES), for methyl orange (MO) dye wastewater treatment was proposed and optimization of main influence factors was performed in this study. The results showed that BES had a positive effect on enhancement of color removal of MO wastewater and 81.9% of color removal efficiency was achieved at the optimum process parameters: applied voltage of 2.0 V, initial MO concentration of 20 mg/L, glucose loads of 0.5 g/L and pH of 8.0 when the hydraulic retention time (HRT) was maintained at 3 d, displaying an excellent color removal performance. Importantly, a wide range of effective pH, ranging from 6 to 9, was found, thus greatly favoring the practical application of BES described here. The absence of a peak at 463 nm showed that the azo bond of MO was almost completely cleaved after degradation in BES. From these results, the proposed method of biodegradation combined with electrochemical technique can be an effective technology for dye wastewater treatment and may hopefully be also applied for treatment of other recalcitrant compounds in water and wastewater.

This study investigates the influence of four imidazolium ionic liquids (ILs) present in wastewater on the activated sludge process. In addition, experiments with inactivated sludge to assess the capacity of this sorbent to remove ILs from the wastewater were conducted. It occurred that the presence of ionic liquids in wastewater reduces biomass growth and size of the sludge flocs. The strongest effect has been found for IL 6 (1-hexyl-2H-3-methyl-4,5-dimethylimidazolium iodide) with the longest alkyl chain length. Also, the degree of ILs removal increases with the alkyl chain length and decreases with the increase of initial concentration of ILs in wastewater. IL 6 reaches the highest degree of ILs removal from wastewater but inhibits the biomass growth and growth of sludge flocs in a greater extent than other tested compounds. Moreover, it was confirmed that newly synthesized ionic liquids can be adsorbed onto inactivated sludge. IL 6 could be adsorbed in a higher degree than other ionic liquids. This adsorption was described by Langmuir isotherm, whereas adsorption of other ionic liquids was described by Freundlich isotherm.

There are certain well-known methods of diminishing concentrations of nitrogen compounds, but they are ineffective in case of nitrogen-rich wastewater with a low content of biodegradable carbon. Partial nitritation followed by anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox) process appear to be an excellent alternative for traditional nitrification and denitrification. This paper presents the feasibility of successful start-up of Anammox process in a laboratory-scale membrane bioreactor (MBR). It was shown that the combination of membrane technology and Anammox process allowed to create a new highly efficient and compact system for nitrogen removal. It was possible to achieve average nitrogen removal efficiency equal to 76.7 ± 8.3%. It was shown that the start-up period of 6 months was needed to obtain high nitrogen removal efficiency. The applied biochemical model of the Anammox process was based on the state-of-the-art Activated Sludge Model No.1 (ASM 1) which was modified for accounting activity of autotrophs (nitrite-oxidising bacteria and nitrateoxidising bacteria) and anammox bacteria. In order to increase the predictive power of the simulation selected parameters of the model were adjusted during model calibration. Readjustment of the model parameters based on the critically evaluated data of the reactor resulted in a satisfactory match between the model predictions and the actual observations.

The paper presents the production problems related to casting using precision casting methods. The essential adverse effect of the casting

process is the presence of burrs understood as oversize material necessary to remove the next finishing operations. In addition, the surfaces

of the cast often characterized by a porous structure. One of the methods to improve the smoothness of the area proposed by the authors is

the use of vibro-abrasive finishing. This type of treatment is widely used in the treatment of finishing small objects as well as complex

shapes. Objects in the form of casting in the first step was treated with aggressive deburring polyester matrix abrasive media. The second

stage was polishing, with using smoothing porcelain media. The study evaluated the effect of vibro-abrasive machining typical cast on the

basic parameters of the geometric structure of the surface. Observations using optical microscope Nicon Eclipse MA 200 compared

changes in surface microstructure and the effect of deburring. Clearly we can say that vibro-abrasive machining an effective way

of reducing the size of burrs, smoothing and lightening the surface of objects made by casting.

This article presents the effects of the application of the passive method of flue gas purification from mercury compounds emitted during combustion. The research was carried out on a fluidized bed installation using coal. The dry method of acid gas pollutants reduction was applied during the combustion with the use of 9 modified sodium sorbents. They were fed into a gas jet of 573 K in two molar ratios (sodium contained in the sorbent to the sulphur contained in the fuel). The mercury emission level into the atmosphere was determined based on the mercury content in the solid substrates of the combustion process (in the fuel and the sorbent) and the solid products (fly ash and bottom waste). The combustion process was accompanied by mercury emission 14.7 μgHg/m3. During the removal of acid pollutants from fumes, a decrease in mercury concentration was achieved. The degree of the mercury reduction depended on the type the sorbent used, the manner of modification and the molar ratio in which they were fed into the installation (2 Na/S = 0.5; 2.1). Each time, the more the sorbent was fed into the installation, the bigger the reduction of the mercury emission level. Among the unmodified sorbents, the lowest emission level was achieved for the raw bicarbonate – 3.7 μgHg/m3. For baking soda it was 9.7 μgHg/m3. The application of mechanically modified compounds based on baking soda resulted in the reduction of the Hg emission in fumes up to 2.5–2.6 μgHg/m3. The determined mercury concentration levels in the gases during the purification of the fumes were compared with the accepted Hg emissions contained in the BAT conclusions for large combustion plants. As for all of the existing and newly built plants with a heat capacity below 300 MW, satisfactory effects would be achieved by the use of mechanically modified sorbents in the molar concentration of 2 Na/S = 2.1.

Due to the occurrence of zinc and lead ore deposits in dolomite rocks, the sphalerite concentrates obtained from these ores contain an admixture of dolomite. In practice, a substantial amount of magnesium included in zinc ores passes to the last production stage, i.e. zinc electrolysis. The magnesium present in electrolyte impairs electrical conductance and appears in the technical and economical indexes. This paper deals the attempts to remove magnesium removal from initial sphalerite concentrates by means of chemical flotation using spent electrolyte derived from zinc electrolysis. The authors attempt to substantiate the existing relationships, as well as to derermine the optimum conditions for the procedure suggested. The leaching efficiency of magnesium amounted to about 80%, and is dependent upon the stage of the leaching. Losses of zinc were below 2%, and the magnesium concentration in solution amounted to about 20%. These solution can produce magnesium and zinc, which will be presented in the following paper.

Per- and polyfl uoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are human-invented chemicals that were created in the middle of the 20th century. They were synthesized for the fi rst time in 1949, and because of their exceptional surfactant properties, they have been widely used in many industrial applications and daily life products. The common use of PFASs resulted in their worldwide dissemination in natural environment. PFASs are reported to be ubiquitous in surface and drinking waters, but also may be present in soils, animals, milk and milk-products, plants, food. Contaminated drinking water and food are the most signifi cant exposure sources to these chemicals. Ingested PFASs are bio-accumulative and have adverse eff ect on health of humans as well as animal organisms. This paper reviews the most signifi cant information on the origin, properties, distribution, environmental fate, human exposure, health eff ects, and the environmental regulations on PFASs and summarizes the latest advances in the development of novel methods for the eff ective removal of these chemicals from the aqueous environment. Recognized (reverse osmosis, adsorption on activated carbon) and most promising developing removal methods such as adsorption on biomaterials (plant proteins, chitosan beds), mineral adsorbents (LDHs, hydrotalcite), ionexchange resins, and photocatalytic degradation have been emphasized.