Negar Zamanfar

Name: 
Negar Zamanfar
Nationality: 
Iranian
Project ID: 
ESR10
Mathematical modelling of sulfide oxidation in microaerobic bioreactors
Short CV / biography: 

Education

  • 2014 – 2016: UNESCO-IHE, UCT Prague, Gent University, International master of science in environmental technology and engineering (IMETE)
    Diploma thesis: “Detailed characterization of municipal wastewater pretreated in AnMBR”
  • 2007-2010: Allameh Tabatabaie University, Theran-Iran, Master of science in regional development planning
    Diploma thesis: “Evaluation of spatial inequalities in access to energy in Iran using ArcGIS ”
  • 2001 – 2006: Amirkabir university of technology, Tehran-Iran, Bachelor of science in chemical engineering
    Diploma thesis: “Simulation of convection heat transfer inside the solids with C#”

Work

  • 2007-2014: working as process engineer in the field of water and wastewater treatment, utilities and power plants, in three Iranian oil and gas company
Short description of my topic: 

Hydrogen sulfide as a toxic gas is formed during anaerobic treatment of sulfate-containing wastewater. Deterioration of biogas quality, inhibition of methane formation and corrosion of downstream facilities are some of the problems associated with hydrogen sulfide. Therefore, minimizing the hydrogen sulfide content of the anaerobic bioreactors and controlling its emission with biogas is necessary. 

Micro-aeration as the controlled dosing of a small amount of air into the anaerobic reactor to promote H2S oxidation, is a simple process that has been demonstrated to reach high H2S removal efficiencies. By this, sulfides are oxidized mainly biologically to elemental sulfur. Nevertheless, several challenges are still associated with the micro-aeration processes, such as a lack of knowledge regarding the exact chemical and biological processes contribution to the micro-aeration effect; their mechanisms; fate of produced elemental sulfur; effect of operational conditions like hydro dynamics, reactor geometry, etc. A better understanding of these effects will result in efficient online control strategies to minimize the undesired effects and optimize this process.  This PhD project aims to tackle these challenges through several short-term and long-term lab-scale and full-scale experiments. Moreover, a mathematical model will be set up to design appropriate control strategies and increase process efficiency.

My progress / state of the art : 

Characterization and modeling of the micro-aeration process for sulfide removal can provide the opportunity to extend its application to high rate anaerobic reactors such as UASB and main stream wastewater treatments with high sulfate content. This can help to minimize the hydrogen sulfide emissions in a more efficient and cost effective way.