Some technical issues in managing PCBs

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were important industrial chemicals featuring high thermal and chemical stability and low flammability. They were widely used as dielectric and thermal fluid in closed electro-technical applications (transformers, capacitors…) and also in numerous dispersive uses, ranking from auto-copying paper to sealant or coatings. During the 1960s, severe environmental consequences started becoming apparent. The stability of PCBs contributed to their persistence in the environment, their lipophilic character to bio-magnification. Fish-eating species seemed threatened in their existence. In Japan and in Taiwan, thousands of people consumed PCB-contaminated oil. The production of PCBs stopped completely during the 1980s. Usage could continue in closed applications only. In this paper, particular attention is given to two issues: the cleaning of PCB electric transformers and the potential impact of PCB-containing building materials. Other contributions will cover the management and treatment of PCB-contaminated soil, sludge or fly ash. The complete survey is being prepared by request of the Knowledge Center for Engineers and Professionals.     

A2O-MBR工艺处理城市污Z作农业灌溉用水中试研究

为开发一种污水再生利用于农田灌溉领域的新型技术，本实验以城市污水为研究对象，采用A2O—MBR工艺进行中试研究，并将系统出水水质与《农田灌溉水质标准（GB5084—2005）》的主要水质指标进行对比分析。结果表明，系统COD和BOD，出水浓度范围分别为3．2～59．6mg／L、1．0～7．6mg／L，系统出水pH为7．16～7．54，悬浮物浓度几乎为0，上述指标均符合标准；TP、TN和氨氮的出水范围分别为0．03～0．79mg／L、1．6～17．7mg／L和0．8～10．3mg／L。《农田灌溉水质标准》没有对上述3个指标提出具体要求，且少量的氮磷是植物生长的营养元素。该系统出水的主要水质指标符合标准兽求．     

生物阴极式碳纸隔膜微生物燃料电池的反硝化和产电性能

为了探讨生物阴极式廉价隔膜微生物燃料电池(microbial fuel cell,MFC)的基本性能,首先以生物反硝化作用为基础构建了生物阴极MFC,并进一步以涂布聚四氟乙烯(PTFE)的廉价碳纸代替昂贵的质子交换膜(PEM)构建碳纸隔膜生物阴极式MFC。研究结果显示,对于生物阴极式MFC,阴极室中最适宜反硝化细菌生长的NO-3-N浓度为99.2 mg/L,此时输出电压最高可达0.11 V,1 h内NO-3-N的去除率达到80.0%,COD去除率为62.8%;以涂PTFE的碳纸代替PEM的生物阴极式MFC与有PEM的MFC最高输出电压基本一致(均达到0.22 V,外阻500Ω),但碳纸隔膜MFC的产电更稳定。结果验证了廉价隔膜生物阴极式MFC的可行性,并为其应用于污水脱氮奠定基础。     

Characterization of hard- and softwood biochars pyrolyzed at high temperature

A wide range of waste biomass/waste wood feedstocks abundantly available at mine sites provide the opportunity to produce biochars for cost-effective improvement of mine tailings and contaminated land at metal mines. In the present study, soft- and hardwood biochars derived from pine and jarrah woods at high temperature (700 °C) were characterized for their physiochemical properties including chemical components, electrical conductivity, pH, zeta potential, cation-exchange capacity (CEC), alkalinity, BET surface area and surface morphology. Evaluating and comparing these characteristics with available data from the literature have affirmed the strong dictation of precursor type on the physiochemical properties of the biochars. The pine and jarrah wood feedstocks are mainly different in their proportions of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, resulting in biochars with heterogeneous physiochemical properties. The hardwood jarrah biochar exhibits much higher microporosity, alkalinity and electrostatic capacity than the softwood pine. Correlation analysis and principal component analysis also show a good correlation between CEC–BET–alkalinity, and alkalinity–ash content. These comprehensive characterization and analysis results on biochars’ properties from feedstocks of hardwood (from forest land clearance at mine construction) and waste pine wood (from mining operations) will provide a good guide for tailoring biochar functionalities for remediating metal mine tailings. The relatively inert high-temperature biochars can be stored for a long term at mine closure after decades of operations.     

有限元动态模型的修正方法综述

结构在进行有限元仿真分析时,对比计算结果与实际测试数据,往往存在一定的偏离。针对有限元动态模型,基于实际测试获取的少量数据,采用一定的修正算法,从而减小模型修正后的仿真结果与实测响应数据的误差。通过文献调研,对有限元模型修正的一般方法及其发展进行了归纳和总结。     

Shaping effects of rice,wheat, maize,and soybean seedlings on their rhizosphere microbial community

The rhizosphere microbiome plays critical roles in plant growth and is an important interface for resource exchange between plants and the soil environment. Crops at various growing stages, especially the seedling stage, have strong shaping effects on the rhizosphere microbial community, and such community reconstruction will positively feed back to the plant growth. In the present study, we analyzed the variations of bacterial and fungal communities in the rhizosphere of four crop species: rice, soybean, maize, and wheat during successive cultivations (three repeats for the seedling stages) using 16S rRNA gene and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) high-throughput sequencing. We found that the relative abundances of specific microorganisms decreased after different cultivation times, e.g., Sphingomonas, Pseudomonas, Rhodanobacter, and Caulobacter, which have been reported as plant-growth beneficial bacteria. The relative abundances of potential plant pathogenic fungi Myrothecium and Ascochyta increased with the successive cultivation times. The co-occurrence network analysis showed that the bacterial and fungal communities under maize were much more stable than those under rice, soybean, and wheat. The present study explored the characteristics of bacteria and fungi in crop seedling rhizosphere and indicated that the characteristics of indigenous soil flora might determine the plant growth status. Further study will focus on the use of the critical microorganisms to control the growth and yield of specific crops.

     

Distribution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in chicken manure and manure-fertilized vegetables

Veterinary manure is an important pollution reservoir of antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB). However, little is known of the distribution of ARB in plant endophytic bacteria and the number/types of ARB in chicken manure. In this study, 454-pyrosequencing was used to investigate the distribution and composition of ARBs in chicken manure and fertilized vegetables. The prevalence of ARB in the samples of the chicken manure compost recovered from farms on which amoxicillin, kanamycin, gentamicin, and cephalexin were used was 20.91–65.9 % for ARBs and 8.24–20.63 % simultaneously resistant to two or more antibiotics (multiple antibiotic resistant bacteria (MARB)). Antibiotic-resistant endophytic bacteria were widely detected in celery, pakchoi, and cucumber with the highest rate of resistance to cephalexin. The pyrosequencing indicated that the chicken manure dominantly harbored Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Synergistetes, and Proteobacteria and that Bacteroidetes was significantly enhanced in farms utilizing antibiotics. In the total cultivable colonies, 62.58–89.43 % ARBs and 95.29 % MARB were clustered in Bacteroidetes with the dominant species (Myroides ordoratimimus and Spningobacterium spp., respectively) related to human clinical opportunistic pathogens.     

Stabilization of heavy metals in MSWI fly ash using silica fume

The objective of this work was to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of silica fume on stabilizing heavy metals in municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) fly ash. In addition to compressive strength measurements, hydrated pastes were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermal-analyses (DTA/TG), and MAS NMR (²⁷Al and ²⁹Si) techniques. It was found that silica fume additions could effectively reduce the leaching of toxic heavy metals. At the addition of 20% silica fume, leaching concentrations for Cu, Pb and Zn of the hydrated paste cured for 7 days decreased from 0.32 mg/L to 0.05 mg/L, 40.99 mg/L to 4.40 mg/L, and 6.96 mg/L to 0.21 mg/L compared with the MSWI fly ash. After curing for 135 days, Cd and Pb in the leachates were not detected, while Cu and Zn concentrations decreased to 0.02 mg/L and 0.03 mg/L. The speciation of Pb and Cd by the modified version of the European Community Bureau of Reference (BCR) extractions showed that these metals converted into more stable state in hydrated pastes of MSWI fly ash in the presence of silica fume. Although exchangeable and weak-acid soluble fractions of Cu and Zn increased with hydration time, silica fume addition of 10% can satisfy the requirement of detoxification for heavy metals investigated in terms of the identification standard of hazardous waste of China.     

The influences of pH and ionic strength on the sorption of tylosin on goethite

As one of the widely used antibiotics in the world, the environmental risks of tylosin (TYL) received more and more attention. In order to assess its environmental fate and ecological effects accurately, it is necessary to understand the sorption properties of TYL on the soils/sediments. The sorption of TYL on goethite at different pH and ionic strength conditions were measured through a series of batch experiments and the sorption data of TYL were fitted by Freundlich and dual-mode sorption models. It was obvious that sorption was strongly dependent on pH and ionic strength. Sorption capacity of TYL increased as the pH increased and ionic strength decreased. The pH and ionic strength-dependent trends might be related with complexation between cationic/neutral TYL species and goethite. The sorption affinity of TYL on goethite decreased as ionic strength increased, which only occurred at higher TYL concentrations, suggested that inner complex might have dominated process at low concentrations and outer complex might occur at higher concentrations of TYL. Spectroscopic evidence indicated that tricarbonylamide and hydroxyl functional groups of TYL might be accounted for the sorption on mineral surfaces. The experimental data of TYL sorption could be fitted by surface complexation model (FITEQL), indicating that ≡FeOH with TYL interaction could be reasonably represented as a complex formation of a monoacid with discrete sites on goethite. The sorption mechanism of TYL might be related with surface complexation, electrostatic repulsion, and H-bounding on goethite. It should be noticed that the heterogeneous of sorption affinity of TYL on goethite at various environment to assess its environment risk.     

Formation of persistent chlorinated aromatic compounds in simulated and real fly ash from iron ore sintering

Effects of carbon concentration and Cu additive in simulated fly ash (SFA) and real fly ash (RFA) on the formation of polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), chlorobenzenes, and polychlorinated biphenyls which were all regarded as persistent chlorinated aromatics in iron ore sintering were investigated. In the annealing process of SFA with various carbon contents, the yield of chlorinated aromatics and the I-TEQ obtained their maximum at 10 wt% carbon content. Active carbon in SFA acted as the carbon source as well as an adsorbent which led to higher production of PCDD/F in solid phase at 10 wt% carbon content. The increase of carbon content will be beneficial on the formation of 2,3,7,8-Chloro-substituted PCDF compared with 2,3,7,8-Chloro-substituted PCDD. In addition, the CuCl₂·2H₂O was a much more powerful catalyst in the formation of chlorinated aromatic compounds compared with elementary Cu, since it served as both a catalyst and a chlorine donor. However, the RFA behaved similarly with SFA with elementary Cu in the formation of chlorinated aromatic compounds. The effect of carbon content and copper additives on formation of 2,3,7,8-chloro-substituted congeners displayed similar characteristics with the tetra- to octa-PCDD/F isomers and even the total PCDD/Fs.