The Environmental Burden of Disease (EBD) approach for outdoor air pollution has been used to calculate premature deaths and average potential years of life lost attributable to air pollution in China over the past 10 years with differences between the North and the South of the country being analyzed. The results indicate that: (1) Between 2004 and 2013, annual premature deaths attributable to outdoor air pollution in China ranged from 350000 to 520000. In 2013, deaths resulting from air pollution in China represented 9.9% of the country’s total deaths. (2) In 2004, the average life expectancy of the Chinese population and the number of potential years of life lost (PYLL) attributable to air pollution was 69.6 and 1.85 years respectively as compared to 74.4 and 0.67 years respectively in 2013. (3) The number of the PYLL attributable to air pollution in the northern regions of China is found to be larger than that of the southern regions. The PYLL figures of the northern and southern regions in 2004 were 2.3 and 1.8 years, respectively, with a difference of 0.5 years, as compared to 1.4 and 0.7 years respectively with a difference of 0.7 years in 2013.
Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) released from the sediment to the surface water is a major source of water quality impairment. Therefore, inhibiting sediment nutrient release seems necessary. In this study, red soil (RS) was employed to control the nutrients released from a black-odorous river sediment under flow conditions. The N and P that were released were effectively controlled by RS capping. Continuous-flow incubations showed that the reduction efficiencies of total N (TN), ammonium (NH4+-N), total P (TP) and soluble reactive P (SRP) of the overlying water by RS capping were 77%, 63%, 77% and 92%, respectively, and nitrification and denitrification occurred concurrently in the RS system. An increase in the water velocity coincided with a decrease in the nutrient release rate as a result of intensive water aeration.
Methane fermentation process can be restricted and even destroyed by the accumulation of propionate because it is the most difficult to be anaerobically oxidized among the volatile fatty acids produced by acetogenesis. To enhance anaerobic wastewater treatment process for methane production and COD removal, a syntrophic propionate-oxidizing microflora B83 was obtained from an anaerobic activated sludge by enrichment with propionate. The inoculation of microflora B83, with a 1:9 ratio of bacteria number to that of the activated sludge, could enhance the methane production from glucose by 2.5 times. With the same inoculation dosage of the microflora B83, COD removal in organic wastewater treatment process was improved from 75.6% to 86.6%, while the specific methane production by COD removal was increased by 2.7 times. Hydrogen-producing acetogenesis appeared to be a rate-limiting step in methane fermentation, and the enhancement of hydrogen-producing acetogens in the anaerobic wastewater treatment process had improved not only the hydrogen-producing acetogenesis but also the acidogenesis and methanogenesis.
In the recent years, photocatalytic self-cleaning and “depolluting” materials have been suggested as a remediation technology mainly for NOx and aromatic VOCs in urban areas. A number of products incorporating the aforementioned technology have been made commercially available with the aim to improve urban air quality. These commercial products are based on the photocatalytic properties of a thin layer of TiO2 at the surface of the material (such as glass, pavement, etc.) or embedded in paints or concrete. The use of TiO2 photocatalysts as an emerging air pollution control technology has been reported in many locations worldwide. However, up to now, the effectiveness measured in situ and the expected positive impact on air quality of this relatively new technology has only been demonstrated in a limited manner. Assessing and demonstrating the effectiveness of these depolluting techniques in real scale applications aims to create a real added value, in terms of policy making (i.e., implementing air quality strategies) and economics (by providing a demonstration of the actual performance of a new technique).
Many studies have focused on environmental estrogen-related diseases. However, no consistent gene markers or signatures for estrogenicity have been discovered in mammals. This study investigated the estrogenic effects of 17β-estradiol on the prostate in immature male mice. Consistent U-shaped responses were seen in bodyweight, ventral prostate epithelial morphology, and miRNA expression levels. Specifically, most estradiol regulated miRNAs were downregulated at low doses of estradiol (0.2 and 2 mg·kg–1), and whose expression returned to the control level at a larger dose (200 mg·kg–1). The function of these regulated miRNAs is related to the prostate cancer and PI3K-Akt signaling pathways, which is consistent with the function of estradiol. Furthermore, the miRNA-processing machinery, Drosha, in the prostate was also regulated in a similar pattern, which could be a part of the U-shaped miRNA expression mechanism. All of these data indicate that the prostate is a reliable organ for evaluating estrogenic activity and that the typical nonmonotonic dose-response relationship could be used as a novel biomarker for estrogenicity.
Flow cytometry (FCM) has been widely used in multi-parametric assessment of cells in various research fields, especially in environmental sciences. This study detected the metabolic activity of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus by using an FCM method based on 5-cyano-2,3-ditolyltetrazolium chloride (CTC); the accuracy of this method was enhanced by adding SYTO 9 and 10%R2A broth. The disinfection effects of chlorine, chloramine, and UV were subsequently evaluated by FCM methods. Chlorine demonstrated stronger and faster destructive effects on cytomembrane than chloramine, and nucleic acids decomposed afterwards. The metabolic activity of the bacteria persisted after the cytomembranewas damaged as detected using CTC. Low-pressure (LP) UV or medium-pressure (MP) UV treatments exerted no significant effects on membrane permeability. The metabolic activity of the bacteria decreased with increasing UV dosage, and MP-UV was a stronger inhibitor of metabolic activity than LP-UV. Furthermore, the membrane of Gram-positive S. aureus was more resistant to chlorine/chloramine than that of Gram-negative E. coli. In addition, S. aureus showed higher resistance to UV irradiation than E. coli.
Bottom ash is an inevitable by-product from municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration plants. Recycling it as additives for cement production is a promising disposal method. However, the heavy metals and chlorine are the main limiting factors because of the potential environmental risks and corrosion of cement kilns. Therefore, investigating heavy metal and chlorine characteristics of bottom ash is the significant prerequisite of its reuse in cement industries. In this study, a correlative analysis was conducted to evaluate the effect of the MSW components and collection mode on the heavy metal and chlorine characteristics in bottom ash. The chemical speciation of insoluble chlorine was also investigated by synchrotron X-ray diffraction analysis. The results showed that industrial waste was the main source of heavy metals, especially Cr and Pb, in bottom ash. The higher contents of plastics and kitchen waste lead to the higher chlorine level (0.6 wt.%–0.7 wt.%) of the bottom ash. The insoluble chlorine in the MSW incineration bottom ash existed primarily as AlOCl, which was produced under the high temperature (1250°C) in incinerators.
A sampling campaign including summer, autumn and winter of 2014 and spring of 2015 was accomplished to obtain the characteristic of chemical components in PM2.5 at three sites of Kunming, a plateau city in South-west China. Nine kinds of water-soluble inorganic ions (WSI), organic and element carbon (OC and EC) in PM2.5 were analyzed by ion chromatography and thermal optical reflectance method, respectively. Results showed that the average concentrations of total WSI, OC and EC were 22.85±10.95 µg·m-3, 17.83±9.57 µg·m-3 and 5.11±4.29 µg·m-3, respectively. They totally accounted for 53.0% of PM2.5. Secondary organic and inorganic aerosols (SOA and SIA) were also assessed by the minimum ratio of OC/EC, nitrogen and sulfur oxidation ratios. The annual average concentrations of SOA and SIA totally accounted for 28.3% of the PM2.5 concentration. The low proportion suggested the primary emission was the main source of PM2.5 in Kunming. However, secondary pollution in the plateau city should also not be ignorable, due to the appropriate temperature and strong solar radiation, which can promote the atmospheric photochemical reactions.
Direct individual analysis using Scanning Electron Microscopy combined with online observation was conducted to examine the S-rich particles in PM2.5 of two typical polluted haze episodes in summer and winter from 2014 to 2015 in Beijing. Four major types of S-rich particles, including secondary CaSO4 particles (mainly observed in summer), S-rich mineral particles (SRM), S-rich water droplets (SRW) and (C, O, S)-rich particles (COS) were identified.We found the different typical morphologies and element distributions of S-rich particles and considered that (C, O, S)-rich particles had two major mixing states in different seasons. On the basis of the S-rich particles’ relative abundances, S concentrations and their relationships with PM2.5 as well as the seasonal comparison, we revealed that the S-participated formation degrees of SRM and SRW would enhance with increasing PM2.5 concentration. Moreover, C-rich matter and sulfate had seasonally different but significant impacts on the formation of COS.
Investigation of demulsification of polybutadiene latex (PBL) wastewater by polyaluminum chloride (PAC) indicated that there was an appropriate dosage range for latex removal. The demulsification mechanism of PAC was adsorption-charge neutralization and its appropriate dosage range was controlled by zeta potential. When the zeta potential of the mixture was between -15 and 15 mV after adding PAC, the demulsification effect was good. Decreasing the latex concentration in chemical oxygen demand (COD) from 8.0 g/L to 0.2 g/L made the appropriate PAC dosage range narrower and caused the maximum latex removal efficiency to decrease from 95% to 37%. Therefore, more accurate PAC dosage control is required. Moreover, adding 50 mg/L sulfate broadened the appropriate PAC dosage range, resulting in an increase in maximum latex removal efficiency from 37% to 91% for wastewater of 0.2 g COD/L. The addition of sulfate will favor more flexible PAC dosage control in demulsification of PBL wastewater.
Pulsed plate bioreactor (PPBR) is a biofilm reactor which has been proven to be very efficient in phenol biodegradation. The present paper reports the studies on the effect of dilution rate on the physical, chemical and morphological characteristics of biofilms formed by the cells of Pseudomonas desmolyticum on granular activated carbon (GAC) in PPBR during biodegradation of phenol. The percentage degradation of phenol decreased from 99% to 73% with an increase in dilution rate from 0.33 h–1 to 0.99 h–1 showing that residence time in the reactor governs the phenol removal efficiency rather than the external mass transfer limitations. Lower dilution rates favor higher production of biomass, extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) as well as the protein, carbohydrate and humic substances content of EPS. Increase in dilution rate leads to decrease in biofilm thickness, biofilm dry density, and attached dry biomass, transforming the biofilm from dense, smooth compact structure to a rough and patchy structure. Thus, the performance of PPBR in terms of dynamic and steady-state biofilm characteristics associated with phenol biodegradation is a strong function of dilution rate. Operation of PPBR at lower dilution rates is recommended for continuous biological treatment of wastewaters for phenol removal.
Microwave irradiation has been used to prepare Al, Fe-pillared clays from a natural Tunisian smectite from the El Hicha deposit (province of Gabes). Chemical analysis, XRD spectra and surface properties evidenced the success of pillaring process. The obtained solids present higher surface area and pore volume than conventionally prepared Al-Fe pillared clays. The main advantages of the microwave methodology are the considerable reduction of the synthesis time and the consumption of water. The microwave-derived Al-Fe pillared clays have been tested for catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) of phenol in a stirred tank at 160°C and 20 bar of pure oxygen pressure. These materials are efficient for CWAO of phenol and are highly stable despite the severe operating conditions (acidic media, high pressure, high temperature). The catalyst deactivation was also significantly hindered when compared to conventionally prepared clays. Al-Fe pillared clays prepared by microwave methodology are promising as catalysts for CWAO industrial water treatment.
To further determine the fouling behavior of bovine serum albumin (BSA) on different hydrophilic PVDF ultrafiltration (UF) membranes over a range of pH values, self-made atomic force microscopy (AFM) colloidal probes were used to detect the adhesion forces of membrane–BSA and BSA–BSA, respectively. Results showed that the membrane–BSA adhesion interaction was stronger than the BSA–BSA adhesion interaction, and the adhesion force between BSA–BSA-fouled PVDF/PVA membranes was similar to that between BSA–BSA-fouled PVDF/PVP membranes, which indicated that the fouling was mainly caused by the adhesion interaction between membrane and BSA. At the same pH condition, the PVDF/PVA membrane–BSA adhesion force was smaller than that of PVDF/ PVP membrane–BSA, which illustrated that the more hydrophilic the membrane was, the better antifouling ability it had. The extended Derjaguin–Landau–Verwey–Overbeek (XDLVO) theory predicts that the polar or Lewis acid–base (AB) interaction played a dominant role in the interfacial free energy of membrane–BSA and BSA–BSA that can be affected by pH. For the same membrane, the pH values of a BSA solution can have a significant impact on the process of membrane fouling by changing the AB component of free energy.
Bioelectrochemical systems (BES) have been extensively studied for resource recovery from wastewater. By taking advantage of interactions between microorganisms and electrodes, BES can accomplish wastewater treatment while simultaneously recovering various resources including nutrients, energy and water (“NEW”). Despite much progress in laboratory studies, BES have not been advanced to practical applications. This paper aims to provide some subjective opinions and a concise discussion of several key challenges in BES-based resource recovery and help identify the potential application niches that may guide further technological development. In addition to further increasing recovery efficiency, it is also important to have more focus on the applications of the recovered resources such as how to use the harvested electricity and gaseous energy and how to separate the recovered nutrients in an energy-efficient way. A change in mindset for energy performance of BES is necessary to understand overall energy production and consumption. Scaling up BES can go through laboratory scale, transitional scale, and then pilot scale. Using functions as driving forces for BES research and development will better guide the investment of efforts.
Under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), China is required not only to reduce polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDD/PCDF) but also unintentionally produced polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and pentachlorobenzene (PeCBz). A baseline of the sources in China that generate these unintentional POPs is needed for both research and regulation purposes. In this paper, we have compiled production data of potential sources in China and assessed them in five-year intervals from 2000 to 2015. Most of these activities experienced changes from rapid growth to slow growth. Measured data for PCB, HCB and PeCBz in samples collected from potential sources in China were reviewed. Most information was associated to thermal processes with high potential of emission, including waste incineration and ferrous and non-ferrous metal production. In addition, high levels of PCB, HCB and PeCBz were found as impurities in a few chlorinated products or as by-products in solvent production, which suggested organochlorine industry might be important sources. Finally, based on the studies reviewed, recommendations for future actions in research and policy as well as a few regulatory issues in China are discussed.
Viable But Nonculturable (VBNC) Bacteria, which represent a unique population of microorganisms in drinking water systems, have become a potential threat to human health. Current studies on VBNC cells usually fail to obtain pure VBNC state bacteria, which may lead to inaccurate results. We therefore introduce a novel method of VBNC cell separation and purification in this paper. PAH-coated magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) were synthesized and found to be capable of capturing and releasing bacterial cells with high efficiency. With the aid of an additional incubation step, VBNC cells were easily isolated and purified from normal bacteria using functional MNPs. Our method represents a new technique that can be utilized in studies of VBNCs.
Ibuprofen (IBU) is widely used in the world as anti-inflammatory drug, which posed health risk to the environment. A bacterium capable of degrading IBU was isolated from activated sludge in a sewage treatment plant. According to its morphological, physiologic, and biochemical characteristics, as well as 16S rRNA sequence analysis, the strain was identified as Serratia marcescens BL1 (BL1). Degradation of IBU required the presence of primary substrate. After a five-day cultivation with yeast powder at 30°C and pH 7, the highest degradation (93.47%±2.37%) was achieved. The process of BL1 degrading IBU followed first-order reaction kinetics. The BL1 strain was applied to a small biological aerated filter (BAF) device to form a biofilm with activated sludge. IBU removal by the BAF was consistent with the results of static tests. The removal of IBU was 32.01% to 44.04% higher than for a BAF without BL1. The indigenous bacterial community was able to effectively remove CODMn (permanganate index) and ammonia nitrogen in the presence of BL1.
Effect of different carbon sources on purification performance and change of microbial community structure in a novel A2N-MBR process were investigated. The results showed that when fed with acetate, propionate or acetate and propionate mixed (1:1) as carbon sources, the effluent COD, NH4+-N, TN and TP were lower than 30, 5, 15 and 0.5 mg?L–1, respectively. However, taken glucose as carbon source, the TP concentration of effluent reached 2.6 mg?L–1. Process analysis found that the amount of anaerobic phosphorus release would be the key factor to determine the above effectiveness. The acetate was beneficial to the growth of Candidatus Accumulibacter associated with biological phosphorus removal, which was the main cause of high efficiency phosphorus removal in this system. In addition, it could eliminate the Candidatus Competibacter associated with glycogen-accumulating organisms and guarantee high efficiency phosphorus uptake of phosphorus accumulating organisms in the system with acetate as carbon source.
Heterogeneous photocatalysis has long been considered to be one of the most promising approaches to tackling the myriad environmental issues. However, there are still many challenges for designing efficient and cost-effective photocatalysts and photocatalytic degradation systems for application in practical environmental remediation. In this review, we first systematically introduced the fundamental principles on the photocatalytic pollutant degradation. Then, the important considerations in the design of photocatalytic degradation systems are carefully addressed, including charge carrier dynamics, catalytic selectivity, photocatalyst stability, pollutant adsorption and photodegradation kinetics. Especially, the underlying mechanisms are thoroughly reviewed, including investigation of oxygen reduction properties and identification of reactive oxygen species and key intermediates. This review in environmental photocatalysis may inspire exciting new directions and methods for designing, fabricating and evaluating photocatalytic degradation systems for better environmental remediation and possibly other relevant fields, such as photocatalytic disinfection, water oxidation, and selective organic transformations.
We implemented the online coupled WRF-Chem model to reproduce the 2013 January haze event in North China, and evaluated simulated meteorological and chemical fields using multiple observations. The comparisons suggest that temperature and relative humidity (RH) were simulated well (mean biases are–0.2K and 2.7%, respectively), but wind speeds were overestimated (mean bias is 0.5 m?s–1). At the Beijing station, sulfur dioxide (SO2) concentrations were overpredicted and sulfate concentrations were largely underpredicted, which may result from uncertainties in SO2 emissions and missing heterogeneous oxidation in current model. We conducted three parallel experiments to examine the impacts of doubling SO2 emissions and incorporating heterogeneous oxidation of dissolved SO2 by nitrogen dioxide (NO2) on sulfate formation during winter haze. The results suggest that doubling SO2 emissions do not significantly affect sulfate concentrations, but adding heterogeneous oxidation of dissolved SO2 by NO2 substantially improve simulations of sulfate and other inorganic aerosols. Although the enhanced SO2 to sulfate conversion in the HetS (heterogeneous oxidation by NO2) case reduces SO2 concentrations, it is still largely overestimated by the model, indicating the overestimations of SO2 concentrations in the North China Plain (NCP) are mostly due to errors in SO2 emission inventory.
