Radioactive Wastewater Treatment in Japan

After Fukusima nuclear power plant leakage in Japan, engineers builds wastewater treatment process for radioactive polluted wastewaters.

One of them is James Braun, a graduate of Youngstone State University in chemical engineering.

His system's main parts are radionuclide removal, shielding, heat generation and hydrogen gas.

Strategic Sourcing and Procurement - Best Practices

Shunmugham PANDIAN (Ph.D)
International Logistics and Supply Chain Management Unit
University of Plymouth, United Kingdom

The contemporary business landscape is characterized by dynamism, unpredictability and complexity. Such a business landscape exerts enormous pressure on organisations to streamline their business processes to reduce the cost and the quality of their outputs. In this regard, the workshop focuses on the role of sourcing and purchasing that have transformed from transactional to strategic function. Shortening product life cycles coupled with product proliferation and lead-time reduction call for more proactive approach to the sourcing strategy in many organisations. As sourcing and procurement constitute a big part of spend management in organisations, the workshop will identify the importance of strategic sourcing to exploit the suppliers’ competitive advantage. Build a long-term relationship with suppliers is essential to develop a competitive synergy to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

Issues such as sourcing planning, supplier selection, supplier scoring and evaluation, and performance metrics will be discussed. Procurement categorization for effective procurement process in organisations will also be looked at to identify the need for e-Marketplace for indirect procurement practices. Also best sourcing and procurement practices that are adopted by the leading organisations would also be discussed in this workshop. While learning from best procurement practices are relevant for organisations to develop an effective procurement strategy, the workshop will also look at the importance of developing the sourcing and procurement strategies organically.

Industrial Production New Tools, New Methods, New Thinking

Gideon SAMID (Ph.D)
Case Western Reserve University, USA
D&G Sciences – Innovation Productivity Corporation

While products and merchandize constantly become obsolete through innovative replacements, the means and methods of production exhibit inertia and only incremental improvement -- especially for commodities and staples. This imbalance was recognized by emerging successful manufacturers as an opportunity to develop a competitive edge by injecting bold innovation into the very means of production, manufacturing, and process management. The impact of innovative production may be dramatic, a critical edge in the cut-throat climate of modern competition where efficient shipping, and global village mentality renders far away manufacturers into survival-level competitors.

This one-day seminar will introduce the emerging tools, the prevailing methods, and the re-thinking that are used by innovative manufacturers and far-thinking producers, exploiting the economic potential of production innovation.

Production re-thinking is characterized by S3: scope, scale, and scenarios: the traditional question: “How do I build a production line to produce the required quantity of my product?” is replaced with the question: “How do I optimize my production facilities in view of the contingencies, risks, and opportunities that will prevail throughout the foreseeable future?” ...more

Storm Water Flow

Actual flow is a function of statistical frequency of design storm, distribution of the storm in time (hyetograph), previous conditions, season of the year and physical design of the collection system

There are methods which using for handling the storm water flow. These are The Rational Method, Hydrograph Techniques and Computer Simulation Techniques

The Rational Method

The simplest method used for storm sewer design.
Valid for areas < 3 km2
Q = CiA
Q = Total volume of water
A = Area
i = rainfal intensity
C= runoff coefficient

Run off Coefficent;
Fraction of precipitation that appears as runoff depends on landuse, moisture, soil characteristics, ground slope.
Use literature values for various surfaces and land uses.
C increases as urbanization level increases
Cave=Sum(Ai*Ci)/Sum(Ai)

Time of concentration: Time required for a particle of water to flow hydraulicly from the most distant point in the watershed to the outlet or design point.

Frequency-Duration-Intensity:
Used as input to many hydrologic design methods
Compiled for most locations
Most often used by entering with the duration and frequency to find the intensity.

Hydrograph Techniques

Unit Hydrograph: Hydrograph of surface runoff resulting from an effective rain falling for a unit of time.
Unit of time > time of concentration
Based on the observation that all single storms on a watershed which have equal duration will produce runoff during equal lengths of time.
Constructed from existing records of rainfall and stream flow

Computer Simulation Techniques

HEC-1:
Hydrologic/ hydraulic computer model
U.S. Army Corps
Urban Drainage Systems
Data required: Hyetograph, infiltration/detention function, sufficient hydraulic detail to permit routing by selected technique

STORM:
Pollutant loadings resulting from urban runoff
Continuous simulation model of multiple storm events
Simpler than HEC-1

SWMM:
Hydrologic/ hydraulic computer model
EPA
Rainfall is introduced in the form of hyetographs which can be varied for different subareas
Abstractions: Detention storage and infiltration
Overland flow is calculated from Manning’s Equation
Overland flow is routed using continuity equation in storage form

Fine Screens

Main fine screen types are; static sieve screen, drum screen, micro screen etc.

Fine screens water level is measured at both sides of the screen by level meter (LE) sensor. Then electrical signal is sent to the transmitter (LT) in which the signal will convey the form that controller (LC) can understand. In the controller, the range for the head loss is entered.

Therefore, when that range will be exceeded, the controller makes the motor (M) of screen run and cleaning procedure starts automatically. For warning purposes, there is an alarm (LAH) on the panel mounted instrument that will inform the operator about the high head loss.

There is no automation difference in fine screens, since; they are also mechanical screens.

Wastewater Sludge

What is Sludge in Environmental Engineering?

Sludge is a semi-solid substance formed during water and wastewater treatment that is removed by settlement. It is a substance that requires further treatment; unless this is done it may pose harm to the environment and public health.

Why further treatment is needed for sludge?
Because sludge includes; large amounts of organic matter, nurients, pathogenic microorganism, huge amount of water.

Sludge production amounts
In order to calculate the amounf of sludge produced in a conventional domestic wastewater treatment plant, dry solid matter content is assumed as roughly 0.09 kg per capita per day in wastewater treatment. For instance, for a residential area with 1.000.000 population, 90-100 tons sludge production can be expected in a day.

Sludge	Conc.of Solids (%)	Characteristics
Raw Primary	4-8	Bad odor, gray-brown color, does not drain well on drying beds, can be dewatered mechanically
Anaerobic Primary Digested	6-10	Black color, produces gas, dewaters well on drying beds
Wasted Activated Sludge	0.5-1.5	Little or no odor, yellow-brown color, flufly, biologically active, difficult to dewater
Mixed Digested (Primary and Waste Activated)	2-4	Black-brown color, produces gas, not as easy to dewater as digested primary
Aerobic Digested	1-3	Yellow-brown color, biologically active, generally difficult to dewater
Waste Alum	0.5-1.5	Grey-yellow in color, odorless, very difficult to dewater

Mass Balance Analysis

Mass balance relies on the conservation of mass principle. By doing mass balance the materials entering and leaving the system and mass flows can be identified which are unknown at the beginning. According to the conservation law, mass cannot disappear or be created spontaneously.

The boundaries of the system cover all of the liquid and constituent flows into and out of the system. The control volume is used to identify the actual volume in which change is occurring.