The impacts of industrial wastewater contamination on the geotechnical properties of clayey soil have been studied in the research presented in this paper. The contaminant in question is industrial wastewater released from Thi-Qar oil refinery as a by-product of production, and the soil samples obtained from Thi-Qar oil refinery plant in Al-Nassyriah (a city located in the south of Iraq). The geotechnical properties of contaminated soil samples were compared with those of intact soil to measure the effects of such a contaminant. The soil samples were obtained from three locations in the study area; representing the highly contaminated area, the slightly contaminated area, and the intact area used as a reference for comparison of test results. The results of the tests showed that the contaminant causes an increase of natural moisture content, field unit weight, Atterberg’s limits, and maximum dry unit weight, as well as an increase of the compression index and the coefficient of vertical consolidation. Also, the contaminant causes a decrease in specific gravity, the optimum moisture content initial void ratio, the swelling index, the coefficient of permeability, and cohesion between soil particles.

Na terenie zakładów mleczarskich powstają dwa rodzaje ścieków: poprodukcyjne i nieprodukcyjne. Oczyszczanie ścieków przemysłu mleczarskiego przebiega kilkuetapowo. W oczyszczaniu wstępnym ze ścieków usuwane są min. tłuszcze i piasek. Oczyszczanie drugiego stopnia to głównie oczyszczanie tlenowe metodą osadu czynnego, ale również metody pogłębionego utlenienia, a także oczyszczanie beztlenowe. W ostatnich latach coraz więcej zakładów decyduje się na oczyszczanie ścieków w sekwencyjnych reaktorach biologicznych (SBR), ponieważ wykazują się wysokim stopniem elastyczności w działaniu, pozwalając użytkownikowi zmieniać warunki, tak, aby dopasować je do zmieniającej się jakości ścieków surowych. W przeprowadzonych badania prześledzono kinetykę oczyszczania syntetycznych ścieków przemysłu mleczarskiego w systemie SBR. Analizowano usunięcie związków azotu, fosforu, węgla organicznego a także kinetykę stężenia tlenu rozpuszczonego i potencjału redoks. Badania przeprowadzono w skali laboratoryjnej w dwóch reaktorach o pojemności 12 dm3 każdy. Reaktory pracowały w cyklu 12-godzinnym, z czego napełnianie trwało 3 godziny, napowietrzanie 7 godzin, następnie była godzinna sedymentacja, półgodzinna dekantacja i półgodzinna przerwa techniczna. W prezentowanych badaniach średnie stężenie zanieczyszczeń w ściekach surowych wynosiło: OWO 329 mg C/dm3, azotu amonowego 11, 15 mg NNH/dm3, a fosforu ogólnego 15,42 mg P/dm3.

The paper deals with the problem of the determination of the effects of temperature on the efficiency of the nitrification process of industrial wastewater, as well as its toxicity to the test organisms. The study on nitrification efficiency was performed using wastewater from one of Polish chemical factories. The chemical factory produces nitrogen fertilizers and various chemicals. The investigated wastewater was taken from the influent to the industrial mechanical-biological wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The WWTP guaranteed high removal efficiency of organic compounds defined as chemical oxygen demand (COD) but periodical failure of nitrification performance was noted in last years of the WWTP operation. The research aim was to establish the cause of recurring failures of nitrification process in the above mentioned WWTP. The tested wastewater was not acutely toxic to activated sludge microorganisms. However, the wastewater was genotoxic to activated sludge microorganisms and the genotoxicity was greater in winter than in spring time. Analysis of almost 3 years’ period of the WWTP operation data and laboratory batch tests showed that activated sludge from the WWTP under study is very sensitive to temperature changes and the nitrification efficiency collapses rapidly under 16°C. Additionally, it was calculated that in order to provide the stable nitrification, in winter period the sludge age (SRT) in the WWTP should be higher than 35 days.

The study has investigated the technical characteristics of a number of sorption materials (natural mineral) and the pos-sibility of their use for the purification of surface and wastewater from oil and oil products. At the first step, regularities of the process of purification of oily waters have been established taking into account the processes of filtration and sorption. After that, the sorption capacity of the sorbents has been estimated, and the factors influencing it analysed. As a final step, the optimal conditions for the sorption process have been selected depending on the conditions and nature of purification. Results indicated that the maximum purification degree has been reached at the concentration of 500 mg∙dm–3 and temper-ature of 20°С.